Karl-Anthony Towns has been solid for the New York Knicks in his second season with the team, but there is one adjustment he needs to make concerning his three-point attempts. Instead of just bombing away from three every night, he needs to stop falling in love with his jumper when it isn't falling.
We all know what kind of otherworldly shooter Karl-Anthony Towns is. There's a reason he garnered the reputation of one of the best shooting bigs of all-time during his tenure in Minnesota. But shot selection is one of his main issues right now, and properly leveraging his high-octane three-point shot is only going to lead to more individual and team success.
KAT fixates on knocking down the shots he knows he can. But there are times, like Monday night's game against the Miami Heat, where things aren't working and he needs to go inside the arc more. This is the issue shooting big guys sometimes run into, where your skill level can make it easy to neglect your physical advantage of size in moments.
Karl-Anthony Towns needs to go inside when his shot isn't falling
This season, Towns is shooting 40.8% from three in games the Knicks win. In losses, he's shooting just 18.5% from outside. Against the Heat a few nights ago, he was just 1-for-7 from distance. This is the issue. KAT is still attempting 5.4 threes per game in games New York is losing.
On a night like Monday where he was shooting 6-for-12 on two-point shots and got to the free throw line seven times, Towns should have known better than to keep throwing up attempts from beyond the arc. The far better option in that scenario would have been to exploit a favorable interior matchup against a less-experienced second year player.
This is one of those issues with a player's approach that's subtle and could even seem insignificant. But it's exactly this kind of adjustment that could help to salvage poor outside shooting performances from Towns and turn them into dominant outings in a different way.
Don't doubt your ability when you're one of the best shooting big guys of a generation. But at the same time, it's on KAT to have more situational awareness in these kinds of moments and look to confuse defenses more with a varied approach. Doing so will help to make he and the Knicks that much harder to stop.