The Minnesota Timberwolves are off to a disappointing start. But Karl-Anthony Towns‘ improved passing has been lost in a mediocre October.
While Towns has gotten off to a rough start in other parts of his game this season, including his shooting efficiency and rebounding, Towns has seemed to have added a further focus on his ability as a passing big man. While many typically credit Towns as one of the best scoring big men in the league, Towns is now also earning some recognition for his improved ability in responding to defenses and punishing them, not just with his scoring but his ability to find the open man and assist the ball at an effective rate.
With the defensive attention that Towns tends to receive, his revamped ability to pass the ball has proven to be a significant way that the Timberwolves have been able to get easier scoring looks, especially when the Wolves have struggled with creating good scoring opportunities. At nearly 7’0″, coupled with his reputation as a serious threat to score from outside the perimeter, Towns’ evolution as a passer could be a legitimate talking point for the Wolves coaches to take note of and continue working on to punish opposing defenses and establish a newly added element to their offense, which has struggled so far this season, ranking 23rd in the league with a rating of 109.9.
So far this season, Towns is averaging 5.5 assists per game, a big jump for him. For context, his highest season average for assists in his career was 4.5 per game two seasons ago. KAT has had three 7-assist games already this year. He has seemed to unlock a new level in his ability to distribute the ball to the open man more times than not.
To highlight KAT’s revamped ability to deliver the ball, we’ll look at a few of his passing highlights from this past week’s game against the Phoenix Suns. While the Wolves suffered another defeat in this game, losing 116-107, Towns had some really good moments that showcased his passing ability.
In this first highlight, following a Gobert block on a Devin Booker layup attempt, Towns does a great job running on the fast break. As D’Angelo Russell finds him on the left side of the court, Towns throws up a very smooth alley-oop pass to Anthony Edwards as he’s running on the other side of the fast break.
Towns has also had multiple plays this season in which he has thrown accurate lob passes to Gobert on short screen-and-roll actions. It seems like Towns has refined this skill of being a good lob passer. That could be very effective for the Wolves’ offense in both fastbreaks and pick-and-roll plays, especially since KAT can often look over the top of defenders due to his size.
In the play below, Ant drives the ball to the right side of the rim but decides to then kick it out to KAT on the wing. As the shot clock winds down to four seconds, Towns does a quick pump fake. Due to his threat to score, Chris Paul takes his eyes off Jaden McDaniels for just a second to give Bismack Biyombo some quick help on Towns. However, KAT can notice this just in time to deliver a tremendous one-handed pass to a cutting McDaniels for a wide-open dunk.
Lastly, in the final highlight, the Wolves effectively swing the ball in their half-court offense. As Towns gets the ball on the left wing, Biyombo leaves his man in the paint, recognizing that KAT can knock down a three if he does not contest out on him. However, this then forces Chris Paul to leave his man to switch for Biyombo in the paint, leaving a wide-open Jordan McLaughlin for three from the corner. Towns does an excellent job at continuing to swing the ball and find McLaughlin for the wide-open three in the corner.
In looking at each of these plays, the recurring theme seems to be that defenders have a lot of respect for KAT’s ability to score the ball, which often forces defenses to either bring a help defender or double-team Towns in a lot of plays. With this being the case, Towns will usually have a lot of opportunities to find an open man that the defense leaves behind. As a result, that could create many easy-scoring opportunities for the Wolves moving forward.
While it will be critical for Towns to limit his turnovers and to be quick to react to defenses, KAT’s enhanced ability to distribute the rock could be a new key element for Chris Finch to work on within the Wolves’ offense, especially when the team is having trouble getting quality shots or gets too stagnant with their ball movement.
Towns will obviously have to continue to build on what he has shown so far through the early part of the season. But he has been an effective passer so far for the Wolves, which could be a vital part of the Wolves’ further developing their offense and creating scoring opportunities in games. Now it’s up to Chis Finch and the coaching staff to draw up some things that could allow Towns to really blossom into one of the best passing big men in the league this season.
