Karl-Anthony Towns can finally showing off his passing prowess

There’s a 20-10-5 season in the future of Karl-Anthony Towns.

In his single season of college basketball, Towns ranked 4th in assists per 40 minutes among all forwards and centers in the NCAA. More impressively, beyond the raw numbers, were finite analytics that showed KAT was, in fact, the best facilitator of them all, period.

Prior to the 2015 draft, Vantage Sports used compiled data combined with their unique camera system to break down the difference between the passing of KAT and Jahlil Okafor, looking at a more detailed and comprehensive breakdown than simple assist rates.

“Although Okafor and Towns appear to have inconsequential passing numbers in the box score with 1.3 and 1.1 assists per game, respectively, there are important distinctions to be made here that Vantage data can help tease out. Towns has an Assist+ Post% of 54.6 percent compared to Okafor’s 41.3 percent rate. Also consider that Towns has a far lower Indirect Pass Rate (11.4 percent to 23.9 percent) and a higher True Facilitation (1.16 to 0.44). Both have shown the ability to pass out of double-teams, but Towns has shown better dexterity and ball control than Jahlil, whose Deflected-Pass Rate of 2.04 is far higher than Towns’s 0.76.”

Towns’ passes are direct and with purpose. Rather than passing simply to escape double teams, as most young bigs do, KAT passes to directly set up his teammates with scoring opportunities. In short, he tends to pass only when it will lead to a bucket - hence the lower turnover rate and vastly higher True Facilitation rate.

For the past two years, this element of KAT’s game has been largely lost, as Tom Thibodeau made the perplexing decision to remove the Joakim Noah facilitation role from his offense and run a straight isolation system on the wings. Rather than the ball going to KAT with the expectation he’d help his get his teammates into scoring position, the ball only went to him when it was expected he’d score himself. It was, quite frankly, a waste of a huge part of Towns’ game that makes him unique.

But no more.

This season, KAT has been unleashed. With Jimmy Butler gone, and Thibs soon following, Towns has been given the lead role in the Wolves’ offense - as he always should have - and his passing game has come on overnight like a tidal wave, reaching a near-4 assist per game average over the last month. And the technique hasn’t changed for him. He reads the floor like a guard and passes his teammates directly into scoring position.

There is a difference between running and offense for a player and running an offense through a player, and that difference is passing. Through implies a flow; a system where the player who has the ball will make decisions and plays that encompass and enable all five guys on the floor, not just himself. For the Wolves, Towns’ passing - or, more precisely, his facilitating - is a gift. It means the team can run the offense through him with confidence, knowing he’s going to use that position to lift the entire roster.

KAT is, at long last, the centerpiece of the Timberwolves’ attack, and he’s making the most of it. “Big brother” Kevin Garnett’s 20-10-5 standard is within reach.