The decline in Karl-Anthony Towns' field goal attempts is a trend that needs reversing

So here's the trend:

Karl-Anthony Towns average field goal attempts by month

KAT has seen a precipitous decline in the number of shots he's getting for six months running now. This has come to a head in the last seven games, in which Towns' field goal attempts were in the single digits in five of the contests, and his average number of attempts has been just 11.

Last season, Towns only had one game with single-digit FGA - an 8-8 shooting performance against the Atlanta Hawks. 

Part of this is because of the presence of Jimmy Butler, who has taken over the lead scoring role. But only part. The steady decline over such an extended period suggests this is systematic, and largely being driving by Tom Thibodeau's obsession with his double slashing wing offense. He wants one wing to attack, and when the defense collapses on him, the ball is kicked to the other wing.

But here's the thing - the leader in FGA for the Wolves this season is not Jimmy Butler, but Andrew Wiggins. This has created a couple acute problems within the Wolves' offense.

First, it knocks Towns down to third both in field goal attempts, and generally in the pecking order of the offense. Here's the Wolves' average field goal attempts this season:

Second, Wiggins is having a career worst scoring season, and is well below par in all scoring categories for the league as a whole. For him to lead the Wolves in FGA is essentially throwing away possessions, as he converts his shots at a much lower rate than Towns and Butler.

A prime example of this was last night's loss to the Raptors, in which Towns got only 7 shots (making 4 of them) while Wiggins took 22 shots, despite making only 7 of them. On nights were Andrew is shooting under 33%, the Wolves need to stop him from shooting and give the ball to someone else.

There is no reason for KAT to be taking as few shots as he is. For the season, he is shooting 54% from the floor, 40% from three, and 84% from the free throw line. Until his scoring dropped to 19.8 because of the last two games, he was one of only two players this season to average 20 points on a 50/40/80 shooting split, with the other being Kevin Durant. And all time, he is one of only 12 players to do so:

Towns has the second best FG% on the team, and is the best shooter as a whole. In March and April of last year, when he was taking 18 shots per game, he averaged 28 points on a 58/44/85 shooting split. To go away from that, particularly for a player who is averaging career lows in shooting and is bottom 10 in both 3pt% and FT% is, quite frankly, bad coaching.

There is no kind way to say this: the Timberwolves are wasting a generational scoring talent in favor of Andrew Wiggins. For the team to be truly great, this needs to change.