For the first month of the season, Knicks‘ Karl-Anthony Towns looked less like a franchise cornerstone and more like a passenger on the Jalen Brunson express, but the fog is finally lifting.
After a sluggish start that had the Garden faithful murmuring in their beers, the 30-year-old big man has flipped the switch, reminding everyone why the front office mortgaged the future to bring him home. Towns is currently averaging 22.1 points and 12 rebounds while dishing out 3.3 assists, numbers that are solid on paper but lacked the dominance we saw last year when he shot a blistering 52.6% from the field and 42% from deep.
However, box score scouting misses the forest for the trees; the “New KAT” is impacting winning without needing to drop 40 points a night. He has posted a +21 plus-minus rating in three consecutive games, a statistic that speaks volumes about his influence on both ends of the floor.
The shots aren’t falling at his usual elite clip—sitting at .464 from the field and .355 from downtown—but his engagement level has skyrocketed, transforming him from a luxury scorer into a legitimate anchor.
Winning Ugly > Losing Pretty
The most encouraging sign of this turnaround came against the Toronto Raptors, a game where the old version of Towns might have drifted into irrelevance. Despite scoring only 14 points and struggling to find his rhythm, he didn’t pout; instead, he grabbed a hard hat and went to work on the glass, ripping down 16 rebounds to go along with two blocks and a steal. That is the kind of gritty, unglamorous performance that earns respect in New York, proving he can be the reason the Knicks win even when his jumper betrays him.
This shift in mentality is crucial because the Knicks don’t need Towns to be the primary scorer every night; they need him to be the versatile monster who punishes mismatches and cleans up mistakes.
By staying aggressive on the boards and active defensively, he provides a safety valve for the offense that goes beyond mere point totals. It’s a maturation of his game that suggests he is finally settling into his role as the ultimate overqualified second option.
The $220 Million Elephant in the Room
Of course, the context of this resurgence is impossible to ignore without glancing at the salary cap table. Towns is currently in the second year of a massive four-year, $220.4 million designated veteran extension, a deal that pays him like a superstar and demands superstar consistency. The contract runs through the 2026–27 season, but looming on the horizon is a player option for 2027–28 worth a staggering $61 million.
Barring a catastrophic injury, he will almost certainly pick up that option, meaning the Knicks are effectively married to this version of Towns for the foreseeable future. The pressure to justify that price tag is immense, but if he continues to produce these all-around performances, the sticker shock becomes a lot easier to swallow. The question isn’t whether he will take the money; it’s whether the Knicks will view him as a foundational piece worth keeping down the line or a trade asset to flip before the bill comes due.
Looking Ahead: A Necessary Evolution
As the season grinds into the winter months, the Knicks need this version of Karl-Anthony Towns to stick around. If he can keep the rebounding intensity high while his shooting percentages inevitably regress to the mean, the Knicks unlock a ceiling that few teams can match.
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