Karl-Anthony Towns, the best ‘big guy’ shooter in history? Kevin Durant disagrees…

Last December, Karl-Anthony Towns released a much-talked-about statement that Wolves have used a lot since then on social media, all with a major performance from the hub.

“I am the best male shooter of all time. This is a business. You can see the stats »It is to explain. “I don’t play like everyone else. Everyone will try to be a copy of who I am, when I am the original. I don’t have to be anyone’s copy. I am already the original.”

He also sang in praise of Dirk Nowitzki in his program“Boardroom,” Kevin Durant responded yesterday to this assertion from the Wolves hub, explaining that the 2011 champion was the best “big guy” shooter ever, and thus Karl-Anthony Towns couldn’t subdue that title…

Not the same preferential areas

Since the KAT statement, there have been, however, many interesting analyzes on this topic. In particular, we can Note that from sweep sports analyticswho recorded shots of basketball players at a distance of more than 2m11 in different areas of the court, as the data is available, in 1996. The result, over this period, is that Dirk Nowitzki is the most prolific “big guy” in a large part of the areas (Try at least 100 rounds) from the field.

They are clearly not the same in terms of efficiency, which logically tends to decrease as the size increases, especially since defenses focus on the stars.

We can see that Karl-Anthony Towns is very effective in midfield, three-pointers, and also on the left side of the basket. But when we compare the shooting map of Dirk Nowitzki and Karl-Anthony Towns, we see above all how much the NBA has evolved over the past two decades.

‘Big Man’, Strong Wing or Pivotal?

Both maverick (top) and wolf (bottom) have skill ratios on average (medium blue) or well above average (dark blue) across all areas of the field. However, Karl-Anthony Towns is much more effective in the field axis, in the 3 points, and in the board, but above all we see that he uses the game much less in the middle of the distance than his brilliant predecessor, moreover it is very convenient on the right side of the field.

Furthermore, it is the definition of “big man” that is perhaps problematic, while Kevin Durant dismisses the term for himself. When Karl-Anthony Towns uses it, we can imagine he’s thinking about pivot, in which case we can actually give him that we’ve rarely seen a position 5 capable of shooting with such efficiency. 3 points. Because Dirk Nowitzki has always been a strong winger, except for the past few years.

If we talk only in terms of size, on the other hand, it is difficult to say that Karl-Anthony Towns (2m 11) is better than Dirk Nowitzki (2m 13). Now anyway.