Passing
Looking at the basic stats, KAT looks to edge Jokic by a bit in every category except one: assists per game, where Jokic absolutely destroys Towns. When you watch the tapes on these centers, that discrepancy is explained with two elucidations.
Denver Nuggets
1. Nikola Jokic is a better passer than Towns. When you see the type of passes that he pulls off and the vision he displays, you have to wonder if the NBA has seen anything like it before from a 6’10 center. You just can’t compete with that if you’re Towns.
2. They possess the ball on different areas of the court. While Jokic doesn’t bring the ball down the court, he often gets the ball at the top of the key, or outside the arc. This is evidenced by his average shot distance of 11.9, compared to Towns’ average of 10.3, despite them attempting and making basically the same number of threes.
Towns often gets the ball in the low post and goes to work. Or when he gets the ball on the perimeter, shoots immediately without thoughts of passing. This is shown through the 97.5% of his threes that are assisted, compared to Jokic’s 89.2%, as well as his 10.8% assist ratio. Jokic has a 29.6% assist ratio. The point is that Jokic has a much higher passing IQ than Towns, which doesn’t necessarily make him a better player, but it gives him more options on the offensive side of the ball.