See
more of the story
It might seem odd, a second-year player telling a seventh-year player — a two-time All-Star at that — what he's doing wrong.
What helps Anthony Edwards, though, as he emerges as a leadership voice on the Timberwolves is simple: Everything he said Wednesday night about Karl-Anthony Towns is true.
And the truth cannot — or at least should not — be controversial. From Chris Hine's game story and Edwards' postgame comments after a 136-104 loss to Utah:
"I told KAT, you catching the ball and you holding it," Edwards said. "You waiting for the double, telling them to come double me instead of catching it and going. They can't guard you. … I tell him every game, every practice. You can shoot the ball, you can handle the ball, you got touch, everything. They can't guard you, bruh. If he just stop waiting on the double team, we would be a way better team."
I talked about that on Thursday's Daily Delivery podcast and will get into it in more depth with Hine on Friday's show.
For now, some sobering numbers that drive home Edwards' point — and why KAT should listen to him regardless of age and experience.
Towns has been dismal in post-up situations this season, where he is often seeing those double-teams as he did against the Jazz.
In 82 post-up possessions this season for Towns this year, per NBA.com, the Wolves are averaging just 0.72 points — second-worst among the 19 players with at least 50 post-ups this year.
A big reason? Towns is turning the ball over on a whopping 31.7% of his post-ups this year. That rate is more than twice as high as any of the other six players who have at least 80 post-ups this season. Joel Embiid, referenced by Edwards as a model for KAT to emulate, has turned the ball over on just 10.7% of his 121 post-ups this year.
Not all of KAT's turnovers are on double-teams, of course. Sometimes Towns does go quickly, as Edwards would like to see more often, and the result is an offensive foul (Towns has committed the second-most fouls per game of any player this season, just slightly below teammate and league leader Jaden McDaniels).
The post-up turnovers aren't a brand new problem but they have emerged during KAT's career. He had the highest turnover rate of anyone with 100 post-ups last year and second-highest rate two years ago.
But in 2017-18, the Wolves' playoff season when Jimmy Butler was here? Towns turned the ball over on just 10.9% of his 338 post-ups and averaged 1.02 points per post-up — the latter being the best mark among players with at least 200 post-ups.
Towns needs to rediscover that sweet spot, which as Edwards suggests is a function of playing faster to avoid double-teams.
Otherwise, the losses are going to keep coming in twos just as defenders are to Towns.
