Back in November, when Karl-Anthony Towns was off to the worst offensive start of his career, I began writing this call-to-action for him to get his act together. Then, right before Thanksgiving, he poured 37-12 on the Nets and his overall play improved, putting this on the back burner.
Two months later, here we are again.
The Knicks are struggling. Since starting 23-9, the Knicks have lost six of their last eight games, ranging from back-and-forth slugfests in Phoenix to getting punched in the mouth
in Detroit to whatever the hell last night was.
For much of the game, all I told myself was “if they can start making open threes, they can get back in this”. It was true, the Knicks were down 14 at half and started 1-for-20 from three. If they even shot 30% (well below their season average), they would’ve been winning! Even without Jalen Brunson, whose status is unknown after leaving early with an ankle injury.
But the effort all around was jarringly bad on both ends. The Kings are bad enough that they couldn’t totally bury the Knicks amidst their worst offensive game of the season, but they also kept enough distance to prevent them from ever being back in the game. The only time it ever got closer than 12 after Brunson went down was in the final minutes in garbage time.
A lot of players aren’t pulling their own weight, so it would be foolish to pin all of it on one person. That said, when the captain, your All-NBA point guard who will get downballot MVP votes, goes down, the other man with an all-star pedigree needs to step up. That’s where we get to Towns.
In that second half in Sacramento, he scored zero points, attempted just three shots, and committed four fouls. He was out-hustled and outplayed by his former backup, Precious Achiuwa. He offered little resistance inside, allowing a Kings team that’s one of the worst offenses in basketball to dominate inside the arc. It just can’t happen.
The most damning sequence came late in the first half as the Knicks were trying to claw back from a 20-point deficit. The defensive effort was improving, but the team still struggled on offense. I’m not sure what KAT was doing here.
For a closer look at him specifically:
I don’t really know what else to say here. Shooting numbers and offensive performances will always fluctuate; effort should not.
KAT doesn’t seem comfortable in Mike Brown’s system, for whatever reason, but that doesn’t explain the lapses in effort. The team themselves are not putting him in the best positions to succeed on that end, but there’s been an alarming amount of stupid plays, drives, and offensive fouls.
When the Knicks are at their best this season on offense, they’re driving and spraying to open shooters. Defenses naturally collapse when someone is going hard to the basket, which allows for a kick to the corner. They just aren’t doing that lately. Looking at KAT specifically, when he gets the ball at the three-point line and drives, it’s rare that it actually results in a basket.
Whether it’s not going up strong, phishing for fouls that don’t get called, committing dumb offensive fouls, or just getting the ball stripped, it’s just not working. It’s getting to a point where it feels mental with him, where the struggles and the team’s horrifically bad whistle of late is getting to him and bleeding out to the team.
You can make the case that this January has been the worst month of his entire career. He’s shooting 42.1% from the field and is 5-for-20 from three. He’s down to 35.3% from three on the season, a massive regression from last season despite being in a system that should optimize his ability.
We don’t know (yet) if Brunson will miss a significant amount of time due to the ankle injury, but if he does, the weight of the offense will fall on the Edison native. If he can’t shoulder the weight and embrace it, it’s going to get ugly.
