Cam did make another worthy point about who was #1 in the preseason. I think it says something that Towns progressed throughout the season to the point that most draft boards have him going #1.
Watching some of his earlier highlights compared to recent highlights, I believe I see an improvement in his play. I did not attempt to crunch numbers, though...
Okafor & Towns -- By The Numbers
Re: Okafor & Towns -- By The Numbers
Some forward this link to Flip, please...
https://medium.com/the-cauldron/the-only-game-in-towns-684860926de2
https://medium.com/the-cauldron/the-only-game-in-towns-684860926de2
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khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]
- Posts: 6414
- Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 12:00 am
Re: Okafor & Towns -- By The Numbers
There are no numbers that can account for the situations the players were in. Towns played next to the best defensive player in the country so he never guarded the opposing teams best player for very long. I go back to the Wisconsin game where Kaminsky hits a 3 Towns didn't close out on and the next possession Frank drives by him for the basket and Towns gets yanked off Frank. Moments like those that show the situation he was in defensively. He got protected whenever he wasn't good by WCS so we don't know what he looks like through any defensive adversity. We don't have that protection available here.
On offense Okafor was the man in the middle dealing with double teams for significant portions of the season and he still shot 66% from the field. Towns again got to pick his spots and he took advantage of some physically much weaker post defenders in the tournament that he won't see at the next level.
How many games this year did you come out thinking Towns was the best player on his own team? How many for Okafor? Their situations were just different so Towns played well for the situation he was in, but he was very protected throughout the year culminating in a few good games at the tournament sealing his fate as the likely top prospect. When he played well they ran with him and when he played poorly he didn't play much. There was never that luxury for Okafor because his replacement wasn't an NBA player so he had to play whether it was good or bad which you can see in his tournament numbers. I think the information on Towns is skewed towards when he played well because they didn't have to play him when he was bad. He could very well be the best player in the draft. I just don't think it's this clear cut thing. I think Flip will take Towns and Okafor will go to LA and we'll see how they do head to head. I'm willing to give Towns 3 years to prove me wrong that he won't be the best player in this draft.
On offense Okafor was the man in the middle dealing with double teams for significant portions of the season and he still shot 66% from the field. Towns again got to pick his spots and he took advantage of some physically much weaker post defenders in the tournament that he won't see at the next level.
How many games this year did you come out thinking Towns was the best player on his own team? How many for Okafor? Their situations were just different so Towns played well for the situation he was in, but he was very protected throughout the year culminating in a few good games at the tournament sealing his fate as the likely top prospect. When he played well they ran with him and when he played poorly he didn't play much. There was never that luxury for Okafor because his replacement wasn't an NBA player so he had to play whether it was good or bad which you can see in his tournament numbers. I think the information on Towns is skewed towards when he played well because they didn't have to play him when he was bad. He could very well be the best player in the draft. I just don't think it's this clear cut thing. I think Flip will take Towns and Okafor will go to LA and we'll see how they do head to head. I'm willing to give Towns 3 years to prove me wrong that he won't be the best player in this draft.