Minnesota Timberwolves: Karl-Anthony Towns needs more post-ups
Tom Thibodeau’s Minnesota Timberwolves are 10-5, and sit at third in the Western Conference. They are on a three-game winning streak, and have went 8-2 over their last 10 games. Even with all of the good tidings surrounding Minnesota, there are tweaks with franchise cornerstone Karl-Anthony Towns that can greatly improve their chances in the brutal Western Conference long-term.
Karl-Anthony Towns is one of the bright young big men, bringing the center position back to the forefront of the NBA. He is in the same category as Kristaps Porzingis and Joel Embiid as a singular talent capable of turning around the fortunes of his long-downtrodden franchise.
The difference is KAT plays for a team with multiple scorers who have proven success as “shoot-first” players, and that has resulted in a somewhat egalitarian system.
For the regular season, this strategy will continue to rack up plenty of Ws. But this Minnesota Timberwolves squad was put together to make serious postseason runs. So THAT is what they should be preparing for.
Right now Minnesota’s usage rate leaders are-in order-Andrew Wiggins/Towns, Jamal Crawford, and Jeff Teague. This makes sense since Minnesota loves the pick-and-roll, and Teague and Crawford both excel in that category. What does not make sense is that amount of post-ups given to Towns.
How KAT stacks against the NBA’s premier post players
Karl-Anthony Towns scores 1.02 points per possession on post-up plays. That is more than Embiid and even established veterans like LaMarcus Aldridge, Blake Griffin and Marc Gasol.
Among the players named just named, Towns is last in post-up frequency at 20 percent. There is no reason for Towns to be getting fewer post-up opportunities than players further down the list like Dwight Howard and Jusuf Nurkic.
The problem with Towns’ current post-up opportunities
When Minnesota starts off games, their setup is usually four-out, one-in. The one man in the paint is Taj Gibson, either posting up or running along the baseline for screening opportunities. If Towns gets a smaller defender switched on to him, Minnesota usually gets a quick post-up out of it. This forces a quick double-team that frees up an open 3-pointer.
It is a great way to generate and open look. Outside of that, Thibs will get the obligatory 2-3 early post ups for Towns, and then he will revisit the option once in the third and once in the fourth, depending on game-flow.
But Thibodeau should look to post him more often to develop a burgeoning part of his game. There will be marginal improvement for Towns if his only post-ups come against players 6-9 inches shorter than him.
Where Towns will improve with more post-up opportunities
Towns has a soft touch on his jump shot. It makes him a tough cover for most frontcourt players. His main issue as of right now was visible in last night’s game against Dallas. He often catches the ball with both feet outside paint. He starts his post-ups from that far away because he hasn’t yet mastered the nuances of establishing post position early.
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Getting down court and sealing your man off in the paint is one of the keys to being a dominant low-post scorer. It is the main reason Aldridge dominates with the Spurs despite being a mostly earthbound player at this point. Towns will get better at establishing position with more looks, and with his explosiveness he will be very effective.