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Chris Herring, ESPN Senior WriterDec 19, 2024, 08:00 AM ET
IN OCTOBER, after the New York Knicks blew a 13-point second-half lead to drop a winnable game to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the home locker room was eerily quiet.
Some of that was the nature of the defeat; the Cavs had shown more toughness and hustle to grind out the win, traits that have long-defined Tom Thibodeau-coached teams. But some of the hushed tones also stemmed from a glaring number on the stat sheet.
Karl-Anthony Towns, the sharpshooting big man acquired from the Minnesota Timberwolves at the start of camp and on a $220 million contract, had gotten off just eight shot attempts. Asked about Towns’ limited looks that night, Knicks guard and team captain Jalen Brunson acknowledged he needed to do more to get the ball to his center.
“As good as Karl is, there’s no way [for a defense] to take him out of a game. It’s on us and it’s on me to make sure we’re on the same page and to make sure that everyone’s eating,” Brunson said from his corner locker. “I’ve gotta be better about adjusting, and I’ve got to see him.”
Even more baffling: The low shot total against Cleveland had become something of a trend. Through his first three games as a Knick, the four-time All-Star had averaged nine shots per game — fewer than any member of the starting five, even though he’d logged the best true-shooting percentage of that five-man group.
It didn’t take long — two days, to be exact — for the issue to be rectified.
With Brunson looking to facilitate, Towns lit up the Miami Heat‘s top-10 defense, scoring 44 points on 17-for-25 shooting and marking a sea change for the Knicks’ offense, which ranks third in the NBA and has seen Towns go from last in the team’s starting five in shots per game to first since that Oct. 28 loss to Cleveland.
“Stuff is coming so much easier for them than it did last year,” an Eastern Conference scout told ESPN of the Knicks’ 16-10 start. “We knew the spacing would be better with Towns, but I didn’t think they’d be humming like this so quickly.”
The transformation — for New York and for Towns, who’s in the midst of a career season as he returns to Minnesota on Thursday (9:30 p.m. ET, TNT) — raises a tantalizing question: With Towns playing this well, what is New York’s new ceiling after back-to-back second-round exits?
The partnership between Jalen Brunson and Towns has the Knicks sitting atop the NBA offensive ranks. (Photo by David L. Nemec/NBAE via Getty Images)
THE EXPLOSIVE POTENTIAL was evident — almost immediately. Late in the first half of the Knicks’ second game of the season, Brunson dribbled around a Towns screen and probed the right side of the floor, forcing Indiana Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard and center Myles Turner into a decision. They both followed Brunson.
But then Brunson abruptly stopped, squared his body and fired a pass to the trailing Towns, who had been left wide open. Turner sought to close out but was painfully late. His shoulders slumped as the ball slipped through the net to give the Knicks a 16-point lead as time expired in the first half. The Garden boomed with glee. And Towns, who had held his follow-through at the 3-point arc, stood in place, shimmying in celebration.
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This was exactly what the Knicks envisioned for this duo — a dynamic pick-and-pop ability that simply overwhelms a defense that has no earthly clue who to stay with in the split-second choice. Should they prioritize the stout guard, who last season became the first player since Michael Jordan to notch four consecutive 40-point playoff performances, or should they focus on Towns, who has drilled 40% of his career 3-point tries and has perhaps correctly called himself the best-shooting big in basketball history?
It’s an impossible decision, and on that late October night, it was one the Pacers simply couldn’t answer as the Knicks waltzed to a 25-point home victory.
The Knicks, who featured one of the most stagnant, iso-based offenses in the league last season, now have scary optionality.
Brunson and Towns are scorching defenses for 121 points per 100 possessions in pick-and-pop scenarios, and the Knicks as a team rank second in the league on such plays. They’ve made a massive 19-point improvement over last season, when Brunson and the Knicks ranked 29th in the NBA in pick-and-pop scoring efficiency.
Towns’ offensive impact extends far beyond the pick-and-pop game. The space his shooting provides opens up the lane for one of the NBA’s most creative finishers. It’s no coincidence that Brunson, who shot 61% at the rim two seasons ago and 63% last year, is up to 67%. On average, Brunson has had 1.25 players contesting his layups and floaters this season when Towns is on the floor, according to Second Spectrum tracking. For context, that number jumps to 1.47 players contesting Brunson drives with Towns on the bench.
Wednesday, Dec. 25: Christmas slate on ABC
Spurs vs. Knicks, 12 p.m.
Timberwolves vs. Mavericks, 2:30 p.m.
76ers vs. Celtics, 5 p.m.
Lakers vs. Warriors, 8 p.m.
Nuggets vs. Suns, 10:30 p.m.
All times Eastern
Teams just can’t bring over help defenders fast enough when Towns is on the floor. It’s why New York is shooting almost 71% at the basket, a 15-spot improvement year-over-year. “The court is gonna be wide open. The rim is gonna be there,” wing Josh Hart said prophetically of the Knicks’ potential spacing after the Towns trade.
He was right.
Towns, himself, has taken advantage of the space in the paint, scoring a career-best 1.21 points per direct drive — a rate that ranks seventh in the NBA among players with 150 drives or more.
The metric illustrates the catch-22 he presents to defenders: If you close out on him too much, you give up blow-by dunks. If you give him too much space, like Turner did, it figures to end poorly as well. Towns is shooting 52% (25-for-48) on wide-open 3s a third of the way through the season.
Of course he’s brought more to the Knicks than scoring. Fans and analysts alike worried Towns wouldn’t be able to replace the elite passing and rebounding of center Isaiah Hartenstein, who left for the Oklahoma City Thunder in free agency.
But two months in, Towns has all but quieted those concerns. Teammates are shooting 55.4% off Towns’ passes — not only the highest mark on the Knicks, but one of the 10 best rates in the league among players with at least 100 assist chances. (With Towns, New York is moving the ball far better than it has in recent years, when it finished last and second-to-last in assist percentage in 2022-23 and 2023-24, respectively. The Knicks rank 13th this season.)
“The passing has really evolved,” Thibodeau said of Towns last month. “He’s always been unselfish, and a team-first guy, but now, I think he really sees things. He understands what the defense is trying to do.”
But Towns’ rebounding might be the biggest revelation of all. Aside from becoming the first player since Shaquille O’Neal in 1996-97 to log 500 points and 250 boards in his first 20 games with a new team, Towns is grabbing an NBA-high 13.9 rebounds per game.
The 29-year-old, who grabbed 8.3 rebounds per game last season, is experiencing the NBA’s greatest single-season rebounding increase in more than 30 years.
THEN THERE’S THE defense. For the first few weeks of the season, New York — trying to plug in a new point-of-attack defender in Mikal Bridges and a new rim protector in Towns — couldn’t stop much of anything. Through Nov. 10, opponents were shooting 78% on layups and dunks against Towns when he was the contesting defender, a mark that rated last in the NBA among players with at least 50 defended shots through that point in the season.
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“They were a turnstile,” the East scout said. “Bridges was slow in getting around the screens, and Towns was dropping too far down to impact the ball handler. Almost every single time, that’s what was happening. Teams were attacking their sore spot.”
To Towns’ credit, though, he’s limited opposing shooters to just 52% on layups and dunks from Nov. 11 on. That’s a tremendously encouraging sign for the Knicks as they await Mitchell Robinson‘s return from ankle surgery.
It doesn’t mean there aren’t still occasional growing pains. Just last week, in the NBA Cup quarterfinals against the Hawks, Towns got into foul trouble (something he’s long struggled with) and his time on the bench allowed Atlanta to dominate the glass and come back to win. They finished with 22 offensive boards, leading Hawks center Clint Capela to say the Hawks “[took the Knicks’] soul” after knocking New York out of the tournament.
Still, with how fundamentally Towns has changed its offense, even with the initial defensive shortcomings, it’s clear why the organization felt comfortable gambling on the high-profile swap for him. And if Towns maintains this level of play, the move could push the team even further — to its first conference finals in 25 years.
ESPN Research’s Matt Williams contributed to this story.
