In his nine seasons with Minnesota, Karl-Anthony Towns solidified himself as one of the best offensive talents in the league. With his unique ability to shoot the 3-pointer amongst the best, Towns earned three All-Star appearances in his tenure with Minnesota.
The Achilles heel of Towns' game has always been his defense. Towns is not known to have the rim-protection ability of other bigs, as well as struggling to guard smaller matchups in space, getting blown by often.
This exact deficiency motivated Minnesota to trade for Rudy Gobert, who offers the complete opposite skillset of Towns.
The pairing proved to be great, as Minnesota would make a Western Conference finals appearance in the 2023-24 season, only their second in franchise history up to that point.