**The Official Karl-Anthony Towns Thread: Part Two**

urinesane · Post #281 » by **urinesane** » Tue May 2, 2023 6:31 pm

Love Pat Bev. Wish we could bring him back, he's the straw that mixes the drink (and gets the fanbase to believe in this team).

shrink · Post #282 » by **shrink** » Tue May 2, 2023 7:51 pm

Klomp wrote:

Read on Twitter

After the Teague Jimmy Butler thing, I expected something negative. Good to hear!

Krapinsky · Post #283 » by **Krapinsky** » Tue May 2, 2023 9:04 pm

shrink wrote:People can correct me if I’m remembering this wrong, but I think Dane said that ..

When Gobert and KAT were on the floor together (so KAT would be at PF), the team had a defensive rating better than the best team in the NBA, but had an offensive rating worse than the worst team.

When KAT was on the floor without Gobert (so KAT would be at C), the team had an offensive rating better than the best team in. The NBA, but a defensive rating that would be 27th.

I was surprised by this. My greatest concern about the fit with Rudy and Towns was that Towns wouldn’t be able to guard PF’s, and the eye test confirms this is true. However, the TEAM still thrives defensively with Rudy out there at center. The NetRtg problem happens offensively. KAT’s not built to be a PF, so I think we can only make minimal improvements defensively, but apparently that isn’t so important.

I DO think we can improve a lot offensively. Towns played 22 games in the beginning of the season, and this heavily influences the numbers. Back then, every player, including DLo and Ant, struggled to score with Rudy in the paint. They weren’t able to use the pick and roll, they didn’t use Rudy’s screens, and they insisted on passing to Rudy low instead of high. I think with Conley replacing DLo, and teaching Ant, I think those offensive numbers will rise, especially if KAT shoots more three’s. And I think we need a much longer sample size to trust these numbers.

I think there is a large enough sample size with Gobert's career that we can say Gobert plus four other players makes us a top defensive team. That's why we traded for Gobert.

On offensive, my hunch is that the team loses out on transition fast break opportunities when we play Kat and Gobert together and that leads to a poor overall efficiency on the offensive end.

m2002brian · Post #284 » by **m2002brian** » Tue May 2, 2023 11:02 pm

Your hunch is half right, but it gets worse. With KAT and Rudy in the floor we are slow in offensive AND defensive transition. That’s why teams like the lowly spurs were running us out of the gym. That was PRE KAT injury. Rudy(or KAT) and 4 faster guys works better than Rudy(or KAT) and another slow guy and 3 fast guys. Problem is, offense is “easy” according to actual players. So if defense is the hard part and between KAT and Rudy, rudy is better at that part, you’re left with KAT being the odd man out.

Maybe though you can coach some of that. On offense, when a shot goes up, everybody back asap.
On defense, everybody find your man and BOX THE F OUT.

Colbinii · Post #285 » by **Colbinii** » Wed May 3, 2023 1:30 am

m2002brian wrote:Your hunch is half right, but it gets worse. With KAT and Rudy in the floor we are slow in offensive AND defensive transition. That’s why teams like the lowly spurs were running us out of the gym. That was PRE KAT injury. Rudy(or KAT) and 4 faster guys works better than Rudy(or KAT) and another slow guy and 3 fast guys. Problem is, offense is “easy” according to actual players. So if defense is the hard part and between KAT and Rudy, rudy is better at that part, you’re left with KAT being the odd man out.

Maybe though you can coach some of that. On offense, when a shot goes up, everybody back asap.
On defense, everybody find your man and BOX THE F OUT.

The issue with thinking the coach is going to change things is they don't. Every coach any players had ever had is going to preach and yell to get back defensively and box-out shooters and anyone crashing the rim.

Effort is typically changed by players, and SlowMo and Conley are perfect for that role. If those guys can't get you to change your habits, maybe the player will never change.

shrink · Post #286 » by **shrink** » Wed May 3, 2023 2:24 am

m2002brian wrote:Your hunch is half right, but it gets worse. With KAT and Rudy in the floor we are slow in offensive AND defensive transition. That’s why teams like the lowly spurs were running us out of the gym. That was PRE KAT injury. Rudy(or KAT) and 4 faster guys works better than Rudy(or KAT) and another slow guy and 3 fast guys. Problem is, offense is “easy” according to actual players. So if defense is the hard part and between KAT and Rudy, rudy is better at that part, you’re left with KAT being the odd man out.

Maybe though you can coach some of that. On offense, when a shot goes up, everybody back asap.
On defense, everybody find your man and BOX THE F OUT.

Yes, I heard the team finished ninth in the NBA in defense, despite being 26th in transition defense.

Part of this is having two bigs, especially when Jaden is spotting up in the corner, and/or Ant is driving for a lay up. The players need to be willing to sprint back the whole court, every time. It seems weird that I think moving DLo and inserting 35 year old Mike Conley will improve that problem.

younggunsmn · Post #287 » by **younggunsmn** » Wed May 3, 2023 3:02 am

shrink wrote:
m2002brian wrote:Your hunch is half right, but it gets worse. With KAT and Rudy in the floor we are slow in offensive AND defensive transition. That’s why teams like the lowly spurs were running us out of the gym. That was PRE KAT injury. Rudy(or KAT) and 4 faster guys works better than Rudy(or KAT) and another slow guy and 3 fast guys. Problem is, offense is “easy” according to actual players. So if defense is the hard part and between KAT and Rudy, rudy is better at that part, you’re left with KAT being the odd man out.

Maybe though you can coach some of that. On offense, when a shot goes up, everybody back asap.
On defense, everybody find your man and BOX THE F OUT.

Yes, I heard the team finished ninth in the NBA in defense, despite being 26th in transition defense.

Part of this is having two bigs, especially when Jaden is spotting up in the corner, and/or Ant is driving for a lay up. The players need to be willing to sprint back the whole court, every time. It seems weird that I think moving DLo and inserting 35 year old Mike Conley will improve that problem.

Conley plays amazing transition defense, just phenomenal.
It's wonderful what great fundamentals and veteran savvy can accomplish.

The biggest problem with our transition defense is the live ball turnovers we make and the bad shots/missed layups that might as well be live ball turnovers. Forcing the ball into Gobert was a big part of this.
Replacing D-Lo with Conley helped in this aspect tremendously.

The silver lining is that we really do have some very talented defensive players.
Everyone points to Jaden, but Ant took huge strides this year and overall is at least above average.
Those are our 2 core pieces.
Then there is Conley, and the emergence of NAW on that end.
Gobert has tremendous physical skills but really struggled to adapt to our schemes.
His rim protecting dropped off pretty dramatically and he gets exploited by perimeter shooters.

The last couple of games of the Denver series were encouraging for KAT as he really battled hard against Jokic on the defensive end.
He also really struggled when asked to guard Gordon, and has fared very poorly against Embiid.

Finch deserves a lot of credit for the tremendous effort we put out the last 4 games of the Denver series.
I honestly feel that even though we lost, we outperformed our talent level a little bit.

All of Denver's starters are basically in the prime of their careers.
We had a 21 year old star and 2 guys over 30.
KAT should be in his prime, but he was maybe our least reliable player.

TimberKat · Post #288 » by **TimberKat** » Wed May 3, 2023 3:31 am

The frustration part about it is all those seems to be easy things: run back on D, stand at the right spot on D (not even talking about guarding), keep hands up and don't foul - just let the guy shoot.

I am also very encouraged to see Towns on Jokic. To me, it means Gobert could guard a forward to the corner or help from the weak side. Give us more options. I think the key for the two to work on defense comes down to Towns has to remember if he is playing Center or Forward and be at the correct location.

Baseline81 · Post #289 » by **Baseline81** » Thu May 4, 2023 1:16 pm

Read on Twitter

frankenwolf · Post #290 » by **frankenwolf** » Fri May 5, 2023 9:17 pm

Baseline81 wrote:

Read on Twitter

Is that over their respective careers or just last season?

Post #291 » by **Calinks** » Sat May 6, 2023 6:59 am

Towns got destroyed when he tried to make his passes this series. A lot of that could be cleaned up with just making the very simple play. Too many cute passes or lob attempts to Rudy. It was real bad.

urinesane · Post #292 » by **urinesane** » Sat May 6, 2023 6:33 pm

Calinks wrote:Towns got destroyed when he tried to make his passes this series. A lot of that could be cleaned up with just making the very simple play. Too many cute passes or lob attempts to Rudy. It was real bad.

Definitely. With a better system in place (that they can drill to the point of not needing to consciously think about) hopefully he starts to understand that the homerun pass is cool when it works, but much too often will lead to strike outs. Where as the simple pass over the long term isn't as likely to get on a highlight reel, but will result in much more positive returns.

Guest84 · Post #293 » by **Guest84** » Mon May 8, 2023 6:34 pm

KAT on PG podcast; Doesn't seem like much of anything outside of friends sitting around

Watch on YouTube

Post #294 » by **Klomp** » Mon May 8, 2023 11:17 pm

Guest84 wrote:KAT on PG podcast; Doesn't seem like much of anything outside of friends sitting around

Not sure what you mean by "doesn't seem like much of anything." It got pretty good in the last half of the podcast. Some good insights.

Guest84 · Post #295 » by **Guest84** » Tue May 9, 2023 3:57 am

Klomp wrote:
Guest84 wrote:KAT on PG podcast; Doesn't seem like much of anything outside of friends sitting around

Not sure what you mean by "doesn't seem like much of anything." It got pretty good in the last half of the podcast. Some good insights.

That’s why I posted it…took awhile for them to get there. A bit of a hard listen at first for me honestly…

TimberKat · Post #296 » by **TimberKat** » Wed May 10, 2023 3:50 am

Guest84 wrote:
Klomp wrote:
Guest84 wrote:KAT on PG podcast; Doesn't seem like much of anything outside of friends sitting around

Not sure what you mean by "doesn't seem like much of anything." It got pretty good in the last half of the podcast. Some good insights.

That’s why I posted it…took awhile for them to get there. A bit of a hard listen at first for me honestly…

I almost feel like the first half is better. Anything worthwhile in the second 1/2? The one thing that surprised me was he didn't know the Gobert trade happened and found out on social media. I would think as soon as everything is a go, Connelly would call KAT ASAP. Maybe Jazz side leak it early?

minimus · Post #297 » by **minimus** » Mon May 15, 2023 3:16 pm

Can anyone tell me where I can find this statistic: how well did Jokic shoot against Towns in playoff?

Read on Twitter

?s=20

urinesane · Post #298 » by **urinesane** » Mon May 15, 2023 6:31 pm

minimus wrote:Can anyone tell me where I can find this statistic: how well did Jokic shoot against Towns in playoff?

Read on Twitter
?s=20

Replace KAT with DLO in that first quote and it's accurate.

Not a single thing KAT has done or said backs up that claim (in fact it shows the opposite). KAT doesn't care about it being "his" team, he just wants to win.

Baseline81 · Post #299 » by **Baseline81** » Mon May 15, 2023 6:47 pm

urinesane wrote:Replace KAT with DLO in that first quote and it's accurate.

Not a single thing KAT has done or said backs up that claim (in fact it shows the opposite). KAT doesn't care about it being "his" team, he just wants to win.

The franchise player is introduced last prior to the opening tip. Yet, Towns continues to hold that spot. Do you think starting next season Edwards will be there?

urinesane · Post #300 » by **urinesane** » Mon May 15, 2023 6:54 pm

Baseline81 wrote:
urinesane wrote:Replace KAT with DLO in that first quote and it's accurate.

Not a single thing KAT has done or said backs up that claim (in fact it shows the opposite). KAT doesn't care about it being "his" team, he just wants to win.

The franchise player is introduced last prior to the opening tip. Yet, Towns continues to hold that spot. Do you think starting next season Edwards will be there?

It doesn't matter.

I also don't think either player cares.