It’s been a whirlwind of a season for Karl-Anthony Towns.
In training camp, he turned heads by stating that he was trying to figure out his role in Mike Brown’s offense. Then, after an uneven start, he played genuinely bad basketball for several weeks. His touches decreased, he got frustrated with his offensive whistle, and just seemed to be pressing. There were games where his body language would’ve made any kinesiologist faint. I try not to write articles that just attack how a player is performing,
but I got as close to being the irrational fan I hate after that loss to the Kings in January.
Towns was a relatively surprising all-star selection in early February, given how rough his play has been, but that seemed to wake him up. He’s played great basketball since, even if he isn’t the consistent 25-and-12 guy he was last season.
Mike Brown has never really had the services of a big man like KAT. He’s coached some great bigs: Shaq and Big Z when coaching the Cavs, Dwight Howard (very briefly) in LA, Domantas Sabonis with the Kings, etc. But overall, the center position has usually been reserved for non-all-stars who play a role. The closest thing he’s ever had to KAT is Tim Duncan when he was an assistant under Gregg Popovich, but Duncan played power forward and had a completely different playstyle.
Trying to turn Towns into Sabonis, the most skilled *center* that Brown had ever coached, has been a roller coaster. There are fewer plays run for him, less emphasis on his skills, and his coaching style is much more predicated on spraying to open shooters, rather than leaning on your two all-stars to create offense as Tom Thibodeau did. With Jalen Brunson being the team’s initiator and Towns as the center, you do the math.
And while he reiterated very recently that he’s still very unsure in his role, his play as of late seems to suggest he’s found a groove at the best possible time. Since February 3, he’s averaging a modest 20.5 points and 11.9 rebounds, which don’t seem like improvements, but his shooting splits are up to 56.6/39.6/85.6. His true shooting percentage was 59.2% through the beginning of February; it’s 66.3% since.
He’s embraced being a playmaking hub of his own when he has the ball at the top of the key. Of his seven games this season with at least six assists, five of them have come since March 1. He’s been playing clean, efficient, team basketball, even if he’s still committing some baffling offensive fouls.
There are several encouraging signs with Towns’ game as the playoffs approach, but the one that’s stood out the most to me is how he’s responded to mismatches. As we know, teams are electing to put their bigs on Josh Hart to frustrate Towns with lanky, defensively disciplined wings. Most games, KAT has mismatches that sometimes get exploited, but others lead to offensive stagnation.
A few times recently, though, Towns is attacking the mismatch. He’s especially aggressive when the team is in an offensive funk. Against the Thunder in OKC, the Knicks were fading fast against the defending champs when Towns began to bully Alex Caruso in the post to re-invigorate the offense. A few fouls later, OKC had to change strategies. The Knicks came up short, but the aggressiveness was notable.
Last night against Atlanta, Towns was being guarded by Onyeka Okongwu, who serves as Atlanta’s undersized center. When the Hawks went up 10 in the third quarter and threatened to break the game open, Towns went to work in the post and dragged the Knicks back into a game they eventually won. By the end of the game, the Hawks were having to account for the mismatch and elected to let Brunson go up against Nickeil Alexander-Walker and CJ McCollum one-on-one, which ended poorly for them.
We saw it with the Rockets, which was one of Towns’ less efficient games of late. If nobody can step up and be enough of a threat outside of Brunson, teams will blitz him to get the ball out of his hands. If KAT is cooking, teams will have to adjust. If OG Anunoby looks as aggressive as he was last night as well, it changes the dynamic.
There are multiple potential playoff matchups where teams will rely on smaller players to guard Towns. The Raptors have Jakob Poeltl, but could elect to throw Scottie Barnes on him. It seems doubtful the Sixers will over-extend Embiid to KAT’s range, so the pesky Dominick Barlow could. Moussa Diabate is a very good defensive big man, but he’s two inches shorter and 35 pounds lighter. Wendell Carter Jr. is also a smaller big man. Even potential later-round matchups like Detroit, Boston, and Cleveland can. We’ve seen guys like Tobias Harris and Derrick White defend him in the past.
The Knicks need an efficient and confident Karl-Anthony Towns if they want to make the run that the city has been dreaming about. Anything less might not give the team enough to get over the hump.
