Lakers: Stat-Chaser Karl-Anthony Towns Calls Russell Westbrook A Stat-Chaser
During a wide-ranging stream chat with Twitch personality Adin Ross, Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns leveled quite an (on-court) accusation against Los Angeles Lakers point guard Russell Westbrook.
The Westbrook angle arrived organically, after Towns began a general diatribe against NBA players who prioritized accumulating spiffy numbers over buying in to team basketball. "I ain't trying to play for no stats, I'm trying to win this game, boy... I'm from a place where, if you get stats, and you lose, that [expletive]'s pointless. I don't go home and get love for the stats."
Following this, Ross went fishing for the big man's thoughts on Westbrook, who has a reputation for stat-chasing league-wide (as does KAT, much like his Minnesota predecessor Kevin Love). "He definitely gets stats, he chases stats," Towns acknowledged. "But I think he's a [expletive] of a player though. I don't care what anyone says, do you know how hard it is to get a triple-double?" The former two-time All-Star continued. "And he plays [expletive] hard. I just think that sometimes he plays too quick. He tries to do too much."
KAT has a point went it comes to Westbrook. This season, the $44.2 million Lakers guard owns averages of 19.6 points (with a .451/.304/.656 slash line), 8.1 assists, 7.9 rebounds, 1.2 steals, and a sub-optimal 4.6 turnovers per game. His numbers look sharp from a distance, but his frustrating late-game decision-making and lackadaisical defense have not exactly endeared him to the Los Angeles faithful. The 6'3" Long Beach native averaged triple-doubles for three seasons, twice with the Oklahoma City Thunder and once with the Washington Wizards. He hasn't made the second round of the NBA playoffs since Kevin Durant flew the coop to join the Golden State Warriors.
When House of Highlights picked up the clip of KAT's (accurate) criticisms on Instagram, the comments section lit up with feedback from current and former NBA players alike.
"Ohh this is gonna get interesting lol," wrote 17-year NBA swingman-turned-ESPN-analyst Richard Jefferson, anticipating some pushback against Towns's claims.
The harshest rebuke was levied by Warriors All-Defensive First Teamer Draymond Green, who's been having himself a heck of a comeback season this year in the Bay. "I once watched from the bench due to us beating the [Timberwolves] and he was in the game down 20 with 2 mins to go," Green wrote. "Come on man. Stop talking to people about the 'bros' and yelling this is a 'brotherhood'. SMH."
Green, 31, knows a thing or two about modest stats. The forward holds relatively moderate career averages of 8.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.0 blocks per game, while shooting 44.1% from the field and 71% from the charity stripe. The numbers don't tell the whole story in Green's case. Already voted the 2017 Defensive Player of the Year, the 6'6" vet is currently the leader in the club house to win the award a second time this season, as he has helped pilot the Dubs to a league-leading 27-6 record. Green is a six-time All-Defensive Teamer, a three-time All-Star, and of course a crucial contributor to three NBA titles.
The 26-year-old Towns, who holds career averages of 23.0 points (on a .526/.397/.835 shooting line), 11.4 rebounds, 3.0 assists, has made the playoffs exactly once. Towns may be an unreal offensive player, and one of the most talented big man shooters in the game, but he's always been a bad defender, and his issues on that end (at perhaps the most important defensive position on the floor) have proven to be an impediment to Minnesota's success when it comes to, you know, winning basketball games. This season, the Timberwolves and Lakers find themselves occupying similar performative terrain. The 16-18 Lakers find themselves mere percentage points ahead of the 15-17 Timberwolves in the current Western Conference standings.
LA is presently the seventh seed in the West, while Minnesota is the ninth seed. If either KAT or Russ start focusing less on counting their numbers and more on counting their wins, maybe they can drag their teams out of the dreaded play-in bracket.
