With the season’s end rapidly approaching, it’s almost that time for the chosen panel of sportswriters to decide the winners of the annually given NBA Awards. It will be quite the challenge to decipher who deserves the individual awards for honors such as Sixth Man of the Year, Coach of the Year, and Most Improved Player. However, when it comes to the Rookie of the Year Award; that trophy should already have the former Kentucky Wildcats name engraved on it and ready for sendoff. Kristaps Porzingis, Nikola Jokic, and D’Angelo Russell all made impressive cases during the season, nonetheless; Karl Anthony-Towns will win Rookie of the Year for the 2015-2016 season.
Towns is leading the rookies in scoring, rebounds, and minutes per game. He’s second amongst rookies in blocks and field goal percentage, and third in free throw percentage. At age 20, he is already emerged as one of the premier big men in the association. Coming out of Kentucky, Towns was seen as the drafts best prospect. SB Nation’s Ricky O’Donnell said that “Towns is as close to a sure thing as a draft prospect can be.” Additionally, he said “Karl Anthony-Towns is the no-brainer choice.” Months after his NBA debut, these sentiments still hold true; Towns has separated himself from the pack as an elite force. Amidst the season, Porzingis, Russell, and Jokic were all worthy competition for the Wildcat product. The ‘Porzingod’ hype has calmed down from its original hysteria, Russell hasn’t started a majority of the games due to Monty Williams being stubborn, and Jokic suffers from a severe lack of minutes in Denver. They were all worthy competitors, but in the end Towns will reign supreme.
If Towns triumphs in winning the trophy, the Timberwolves will then have two consecutive Number One picks to have won the ROY award. No franchise has had sequential ROY victors since the Buffalo Braves following the 1972-73 and 1973-74 seasons. Towns and Andrew Wiggins will surely establish themselves as a tandem to be reckoned with in the years to come. Towns is already a double-double machine and playing with the poise of a 10-year veteran, while Wiggins is a scoring machine and dangerous above the rim. With further development, Towns and Wiggins could potentially be the best shooting guard and big man duo since Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. These are some high expectations, seeing as Bryant and O’Neal won three rings together during their time in Los Angeles. It would take tons of work and chemistry for this twosome to reach that level of greatness. However, Towns is already producing past what his age level suggests, and Wiggins is no slouch himself either.
