'I know his game very well': Timberwolves' Karl-Anthony Towns on defending Devin Booker

Karl-Anthony Towns and Minnesota Timberwolves face the Devin Booker-led Suns in Phoenix on Tuesday night.

Both players were All-NBA selections last season, seven years after they where the top and 13th overall draft picks by both franchises.

Towns spoke during Minnesota pregame shootaround media availability about his former Kentucky Wildcats teammate Booker and the Suns emerging from obscurity to a title contender, Towns' new role with his new Minnesota teammate in three-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert, and playing through family tragedies.

Defending against Devin Booker in Suns-Timberwolves game: "It's fun seeing a guy like him go from Kentucky days to kind of an afterthought here in Phoenix and someone who was just begging to be given a chance and is one of the best players in the NBA. As a brother, like I told him, I'm super proud of him and he really got this out the mud and he found himself with one opportunity and he made the most of it. We're now talking about him doing some magical things putting this place back on the map. I know his game very well. From a point of watching it from forward, center spots it's kind of different when you have to guard him. But it's always really fun when you get that chance to go out there and makes me feel like we're back at Rupp (Arena) just playing one-on-ones for the fun of it.

Playing through loss of Towns' mother, six other family members from COVID-19: "Just falling back on my family and my faith. I've been through a lot in my life, so just another chapter in the book. Just keep fighting. I never quit on anything I put my mind to. I gave this game my life. And not only from an aspect of years of my childhood and my best years to this game but I talk about my life more as in my soul and time with my family and time with people I wish I had more conversations with. But it's the curse that comes with the gift."

Switching from playing center to power forward after trade for Gobert in July: "Adjusting my game for the betterment of this team and this organization. Just doing whatever is asked of me to win games and whatever it is, from high scoring totals to just moving the ball and being the person to facilitate ball movement for our team and flow. It's not really anything new but go out there and do what I do best. ...

"I told Rudy since Day One that if I think I'm this generational offensive player I think I am, then I gotta be able to make everyone around me better offensively. And if I can't make him almost average close to 20 points a game, then I failed in my job."

How the Towns-Gobert duo could measure against other all-time greatest Twin Towers duos (i.e. Robinson-Duncan, Olajuwon-Sampson, McHale-Parish): "I think that me and Rudy are something different. I think when you have that kind of generational defensive player, you talk about Hakeem Olajuwon, those kinds of guys, those DPOYs who has the hardware to prove it that he's one of the best defensive players this NBA has ever seen. ...

"You usually have two big guys in the post dominating the paint, and I think we have kind of a different play because I can also shoot. It adds a new dynamic and wrinkle I don't think the NBA has seen from a Twin Towers set. "

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Timberwolves' Towns says he knows ex-Kentucky teammate Booker's game well