Camden0916 wrote:Karl-Anthony Towns is also quietly the best shooter in basketball and likely going to do things this year that only Steph Curry has ever done. His volume and efficiency is unprecedented for someone his size.
As the highest supporter of KAT's shooting early on, did you think he'd be this efficient? It's baffling to me. Bill Simmons compared him to Sheed earlier in in KATs career, but this type of shooting from a big really is unprecedented. Its pretty amazing to watch.
I envisioned that he had the stroke to be a 38-40 percent shooter from three on decent volume -- essentially what he's been prior to this season -- but I couldn't have seen this coming. And by this, I mean 43.5% on 9.0 attempts from three. That's incredible and I don't have any reason to think he'll slow down too much, if at all. I wouldn't say he's been hot to start the season either, which makes it even more impressive from my view. Let it fly, KAT.
leado01 wrote:Top 5 might be a bit optimistic. Top 15 certainly.
I see too many flaws in his game that the Davis, James, Greek, Lillard, Leonord types don't have.
He still disappears in games, often as a result of stupid or emotional fouls that render him useless as a defensive center.
He needs to find the line between generating aggressive play from emotion and habit. He will do that with time.
Guess what - Davis disappears in games quite often and the others do as well. Q was apparently basing his assessment on metrics. I don't know which ones, but he said, "by almost every" metric. So the objective case for putting Towns among the top 5 must be pretty strong. However, I'll never put him in the top 5 until he stops constantly back peddling on defense and stops picking up dumb emotional fouls.
I think you restated my exact premise. He doesn't disappear by "letting down." He's a liability when he decides that he can "out physical" Joel Embid, Gobert . . . etc . . . or when he sets a moving screen (albeit usually because the screenie is taking a bad angle).
I hope Wiggins is back tonight.
I certainly didn't mean to restate your exact premise. :) I just disagree that he has more flaws than most of the players you mentioned. I don't see him having more flaws than Lillard (bad defenders who often takes bad shots), Greek Freak (bad 3-point shooter and bad foul shooter), Davis (has trouble staying healthy). If we watched those guys, I'll bet we'd see even more flaws in their games. I identified what I consider KAT's two biggest flaws that bug me the most. They bug me enough to consider him in the 6-10 range among the League's best players. But statistically, KAT qualifies as top 5 so far this season. He has such a broad-ranging skill set, providing all-star caliber offensive play both inside as a post-up player and outside as a 3-point shooter in a 6'11 frame. He's outplayed Jokic and Gobert in their head-to-head matchups this season and he matched Embiid before they got themselves ejected. KAT has weaknesses, but I think it misses the mark to call him a liability under any circumstances. He's clearly a huge net positive for the team in spite of his flaws. That's no different than the Greek Freak, AD or Damion Lillard.
Oddly enough, focus your attention on Andrew Wiggins and his 1.06 PTS/POS. That has him tied with Giannis Antetokounmpo and ahead of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. I find that more impressive than Karl-Anthony Towns' mark mainly because we've seen him be uber efficient pretty much every year. Wiggins has almost reinvented himself.
Key difference in this metric vs. TS% is that it includes turnovers, thus Wiggins does well in PPP whereas in TS% he has been more middle of the road this year (which is still better than past seasons).
We'll see if he keeps up both the improved scoring efficiency AND keeping the turnovers in check.
