[ropeParticipant]

 Karl Anthony Towns ranks dead last among qualifying centers in Real Plus Minus, right behind Enes Kanter and Jahlil Okafor.  This is a guy that some discuss as one of the young players you would want to start a team around.  Asking those of you that get to see him play more often, what’s going on here?  Is it as bad as it looks when you look beyond the box score?  http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/page/2/sort/DRPM/position/9

[BiggysmallsParticipant]

 His defense has taken a massive step back in year 2. He’s a very good offensive player – elite for a big man, especially lately since he’s stopped jacking so many stupid 3s – but his defense hasn’t progressed at all. 

Not sure if that’s all on him or if some of that is that he plays with lousy defenders but he certainly deserves some of the criticism for not elevating that group. He’s young – we get that – so it’s not time to panic or anything but yeah that advanced number is unsettling. 

 

[HitsterParticipant]

 Interesting that his defence has retracted under Thibs, I’d have assumed that would have been the first thing he’d have drilled into the Minny players.

[WinterSoldierParticipant]

 What is not surprising is Gobert is easily the best defensive player in the NBA. I hope he wins DPOY which he deserves.

[BeastMode716Participant]

b/c players are at the mercy of their team’s record & their teammates performance. 

Has anyone looked at the players at the top of this list? part time Centers from the Spurs, Warriors & Mavericks are right below Rudy Gobert who is #1.

I’ll stick w/ KAT & take my chances going forward. I Luv analytics but we’ve got to put them in context. This is not baseball where players operate in a vacuum. In football & basketball Match Ups take on critical importance

 

 

[dudo670Participant]

 is terrible defensively. He routinely gets cooked by average athletes. Problem is he offers little rim protection so he can’t play the 5 on defense but he’s not quick enough to guard a lot of 4s. To me, Towns looks like he is squeezing every ounce of talent out of himself that he can get. Great to see him play so hard but especially from an athletic standpoint he’s not among the most talented players in the game. Defensively, I can’t imagine him ever being a plus for his team. Yes, he’s very talented offensively. However, I think Anthony Davis’s team problems are a lot easier to solve because he just needs a defensive minded center since he is a 4 in a 4’s body.

[sweaterflexParticipant]

To be predictive, RPM usually needs a three year sample. The statistic is made up of a box-score prior (similar to basketball reference’s bpm) that includes TS%, blocks, steals, height, etc, and a pure +/- statistic. KAT’s defense is probably noise, Gorgui Dieng’s defensive RPM is oddly high, and the Wolves have had really awful perimeter defense from Lavine, Muhammad, and  Wiggins (all three 75th or worse at their position in DRPM). KAT will be fine.

[BothTeamsPlayedHardParticipant]

They are an awful defensive team. Part of the reason Thibodeau was able to impose his will in Chicago was that he benched guys and didn’t gift wrap minutes. His role is different in Minnesota. He is not just the head coach, but President of Basketball Operations, and there is a clear difference in his willingness to bench his players. I think this is going to make his building the team and maximizing someone like Towns more challenging. 

[EspressoParticipant]

Big fan of KAT and there is no doubt he will be great going forward. Im not tying any sort of statistic to make the following statement; I have been seeing a lack of effort on defense from him. I’ve seen him give up mid plays on defense and just put his head down as if there was nothing he could’ve done. The spark he had on defense rookie year has been decaying. They need to bring back KG to put him in his place and scream at him.

 

  

[binetParticipant]

 The team is performing poorly overall, it’s not only his fault. These advanced stats are very lineup dependant so there is always a bias, but he clearly is not a great defensive player. 

His own impact on the team is barely a + this season though, so you can have skepticism, but he is so young and so obviously talented that he has time to improve.

He was clearly overhyped last season though. 

 

 

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