Karl-Anthony Towns the ball-handler
How does one of the league’s centers get even better this season? Becoming more of a playmaker.
That is exactly what Karl-Anthony Towns has been working on this offseason, and we got a glimpse of his development thanks to a couple of videos from The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski.
Towns spent a lot of time on his handle. Ryan Saunders has said he could see time in the pick-and-roll next season pic.twitter.com/XmQlKgtqcH
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) September 17, 2019
Footage from Karl-Anthony Towns’ summer workouts with @mattmazarei pic.twitter.com/7KwZEQmy8q
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) September 17, 2019
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Towns has already shown that he can be dominant in the post shooting 59.9% from less than 10 feet last year and he’s shot over 40% from downtown in each of the past two seasons, but his ball-handling and playmaking ability is still a skill that he could improve upon entering his fifth season.
Towns’ assists per game did shoot up to 3.4 last season after his career-high was 2.7, but that was mainly due to a career-high usage rate of 28.9%.
The Wolves don’t have many reliable ball-handlers on their team outside of Jeff Teague, so they may be looking for KAT to fill that role this season.
If Towns can add some more ball-handling skills to he repertoire, he’ll be unguardable against most of the league’s centers. And if the opposition chooses to put a smaller and more agile defender on him, KAT should be able to abuse him in the post.
Seeing Towns work as the ball-handler in the pick-and-roll during training camp would be extremely exciting as he continues to raise the ceiling on how good he can be this season.