Timberwolves' Karl-Anthony Towns says he's the 'greatest big man shooter of all time'

Scott Rafferty

Timberwolves' Karl-Anthony Towns says he's the 'greatest big man shooter of all time' image

Karl-Anthony Towns is one of the greatest shooters we've ever seen at his position.

But is the Timberwolves big man already the best?

“Honestly man, I ain’t gotta play like nobody. I’m me,” Towns said in an interview with The Athletic's Jon Krawczynski. “I’m the greatest big man shooter of all time. That’s a fact. You can see the stats. I ain’t got to play like no one else.

"Everyone trying to find themselves to be the second version of me when I’m the first version. I don’t got to be the second version of someone else. I’m already an original. I don’t have to be a duplicate of someone else.”

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Towns has a point. He's not even a decade removed from being drafted, but he's already made 697 3-pointers in his career. According to Stathead, that's the third-most ever by a center, trailing only Channing Frye (1,049) and Kelly Olynyk (708). Not only that, but Towns has been incredibly efficient, knocking down 39.7 percent of his 3-point opportunities to date.

Here's the full list of centers with an average of one made 3-pointer per game in their careers. Towns is both the most prolific and most efficient of the group by a pretty large margin.

Career 3PM among centers (Stathead)
Rank Player 3PM 3PT%
1 Karl-Anthony Towns 1.6 39.7
2 Channing Frye 1.2 38.8
3 Kelly Olynyk 1.2 36.6
4 Joel Embiid 1.1 33.1
5 Pero Antić 1.0 31.4
6 Nikola Jokić 1.0 35.0

If you isolate it to the most prolific single seasons among centers, Towns' name is once again all over the list.

Highest single-season 3PM among centers (Stathead)
Rank Player Season 3PM 3PT%
1 Karl-Anthony Towns 2019-20 3.3 41.2
2 Nikola Vučević 2020-21 2.5 40.0
3 Karl-Anthony Towns 2020-21 2.4 38.7
4 Karl-Anthony Towns 2021-22 2.4 42.0
5 Brook Lopez 2018-19 2.3 36.5
6 DeMarcus Cousins 2017-18 2.2 35.4
7 Channing Frye 2010-11 2.2 39.0
8 Channing Frye 2009-10 2.1 43.9
9 Channing Frye 2013-14 2.0 37.0
10 Al Horford 2020-21 2.0 36.8

There is, of course, one notable name missing from that table: Dirk Nowitzki.

The reason Nowitzki doesn't show up is because he spent most of his NBA career playing power forward, not center. He made an average of 1.3 3-pointers per game in his Hall of Fame career, and he connected on them at a 38.0 percent clip. In total, he made a grand total of 1,982 3-pointers, ranking him 13th on the league's all-time leaderboard.

Additionally, Nowitzki will go down as one of the greatest midrange shooters of all time. As ESPN's Kirk Goldsberry detailed, Nowitzki led the league in scoring in three of the four midrange zones — both elbows, plus the right baseline where he picked teams apart with his signature one-legged fadeaway — in the 2000s. He was then the most efficient volume scorer from the left and right baseline in the 2010s, per Goldsberry.

To no surprise, Nowitzki's 3-point and midrange prowess landed him in the No. 1 spot on Bleacher Report's ranking of the NBA's greatest shooting bigs of all time.

So is Towns already one of the best big man shooters in NBA history? Absolutely. But is he the greatest? Nowitzki would probably have something to say about that. 

Scott Rafferty

Scott Rafferty Photo

 

Scott Rafferty is an experienced NBA journalist who first started writing for The Sporting News in 2017. There are few things he appreciates more than a Nikola Jokic no-look pass, Klay Thompson heat check or Giannis Antetokounmpo eurostep. He's a member of the NBA Global team.