KAT must master the power going forward
While the challenges of Karl-Anthony Towns could not have been more difficult for him in 2022, there are plenty of reasons to believe in, and perhaps expect, a huge comeback in the 2023-24 NBA season. Why?
Well, when comparing Karl-Anthony Towns to his historic performance, he had one of the worst NBA seasons of his career. That is not just a result of playing a new position, but having almost no time to get comfortable and competent in that new role.
So what can Towns do about it? Well, it’s safe to say that Towns is already well on his way to improving. After all, which NBA All-Star player, when confronted with a new challenge that they are not good at, walks away muttering some expletive deleted disparaging remark? Rather he will work all the harder to accomplish that skill set as well.
Please pass the basketball
Such as? If we pivot to KAT’s ability to pass the basketball, we find that this guy is amazingly adept at playmaking. But he struggles in just one category: passer efficiency.
Karl-Anthony Towns is an underrated passer. He's not a high volume guy, but he sets up teammates with very high quality looks pic.twitter.com/vgM8xXhYkG
— BBall Index (@The_BBall_Index) July 27, 2023
So what is that, and should we be worried? Not at all. Per BBall Index’s own definition:
"‘Passing Efficiency analyzes how well a player takes care of the ball as a passer, and does so by comparing rates of bad pass turnovers with expected rates, given the player’s ball dominance, how often they’re generating shots for teammates (via Passing Creation Volume), the quality of those shots (via Passing Creation Quality), and the versatility in pass types executed (via Passing Versatility).’ – As per BBall Index Glossary of Terms page"
So much of Towns’ poor marks from the 2022-23 NBA season are directly attributable to the fact that he was competing in a limited number of games as a power forward, a position that requires an entirely new set of skills.