Karl-Anthony Towns introduced himself to New York Knicks fans last year by turning in one of the best offensive performances of his career. And you know what? He actually has the room to be even better—to have the flat-out, unchallenged best season of his career.
And it all starts with improving his…passing out of drives.
Oh, sorry, were you expecting to subject yourself to the umpteenth call for Towns to ratchet up his three-point volume? My sincerest apologies to those fiending for old news.
Sure, he could certainly stand to nudge up the volume. His 4.8 attempts per 36 minutes last year ranked 158th among everyone to qualify for the three-point leaderboard.
Still, Towns is at his best when he has the freedom to do a little of everything, including posting up and attacking off the dribble. Varying his usage will be critical to unlocking the full potential of the Knicks offense.
Karl-Anthony Towns doesn’t pass enough out of drives
There is no debating KAT’s efficiency as a scorer on drives. He just generated points on 94.4 percent of his downhill assaults—the second-best mark in the league among 234 players who finished at least 150 drives, trailing Anthony Davis, and him alone.
Still, the big man only passed out on 11.8 percent of these plays. Incidentally, AD was also the sole player from this massive grouping with a lower percentage. This isn’t especially problematic when you consider the clip at which Towns scored. He shot 52.7 percent out of drives, while drawing fouls 15.3 percent of the time. Both are solid numbers.
But this mode of attack makes Towns predictable. Defenses know he’s going to put his head down, and try getting into the paint. They throw extra bodies at him accordingly—and liberally. Though he will often score anyway, he can also get stymied in traffic, and cough up the ball or be coaxed into heavily contested looks outside the restricted area, even sometimes outside the paint.
None of this is anything new. Towns has never ranked higher than the 34th percentile in pass-out rate on drives, or higher than the 23rd percentile in assist rate on drives, according to BBall Index. Last year, his pass-out rate on drives plunged all the way to the 9th percentile—a career low.
The Knicks offense needs this to change
KAT’s current decision-making on drives can’t fly under head coach Mike Brown. The 55-year-old head honcho will almost assuredly implement more cutting, and two-man actions between Towns and Jalen Brunson. Any changes he installs will be much more successful if Towns can deliver more live-dribble playmaking.
New York shouldn’t fret about asking a soon-to-be 30-year-old to make this change. Towns is already a good passer (mostly from standstills or with his back to the basket), and we’ve seen glimpses of circular vision off live dribbles. Getting him to keep his head up, and spray out to shooters or dump off baseline cutters is far from implausible.
If anything, the bigger challenge entails preserving the spacing around him. Facilitating out of drives gets a lot harder for him when he’s starting alongside Mitchell Robinson, and even when he’s playing beside Josh Hart.
Regardless, Towns can still do it. And if he does, he’ll average a personal high in assists, take the Knicks’ already (fairly) elite offense to unstoppable levels, and have the best overall season of his career—if not of any big man in NBA history.