Prior to Oklahoma City Thunder’s 101-96 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, Kevin Durant gave heavy praise to rookie big man Karl Anthony-Towns.
“He’s going to be a Hall of Famer in this league,” Durant said via AP writer Jon Krawczynski.
via Twin Cities:
At morning shootaround, the Oklahoma City Thunder star shared how he needed to grind through his early seasons, much like the Timberwolves continue to do.
Durant reflected on their 20-62 record in his rookie season and 23-59 mark as a sophomore.
“When we came in, it wasn’t like we were expected to win 50 games and we had championship aspirations,” Durant said.
“When I came in, it was about let’s get better every single day and it was a struggle just trying win games every night.
“That was our thing — our championships was every game,” said Durant, whose team won 50 games his third season. “If we won this game, it was like the top of the world.”
The Wolves are built through the draft, as the Thunder were. They have two stars in Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns, as the Thunder do with Durant and Russell. But they currently feel as if they are on the bottom side of every coin. They started 1 for 8 from the field Tuesday night and couldn’t fully recover.
Durant finished with a game-high of 30 points while Towns finished with a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds. Kristaps Porzingis is getting a lot of praise as people are shocked at the major contributions he’s been making right away; it was assumed he would be a longer term project. Though Porzingis is great, Towns is still leading for Rookie of the Year.
