I had been told by learned NBA minds that Karl-Anthony Towns was an improved defender this year. And you know what? I believed them. I was taken for a fool.
After watching this video, the notion that KAT is anything other than absolute fetid sewer dumpster garbage trash on the defensive end cannot be supported. Clint Capela dominated him, or should I say, James Harden dominated him through the medium of Clint Capela. Either way, Capela feasted at the rim, the Rockets won again, Jimmy Butler died, and I don’t see how the Rockets don’t at least make the WCF. Hear that, Chris Paul? Western Conference Finals! Wow!
It feels like Capela could do this every game, but he doesn’t. Even Harden’s wizardry has its limits, and Capela is too limited to really get his own shots more than once or MAYBE twice per game. This is one of those cases where stats don’t tell the whole story, because they don’t indicate how reliant Capela is on his teammates to get buckets. But they also tell a big part of the story, which is that he’s a beast and probably the third most valuable player on one of the very best teams in the league.