When the Knicks made their stunning trade of Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo for Karl-Anthony Towns, the concern surrounding making such a dramatic change to the lineup was rational. With a few weeks until Opening Night, the Knicks would subtract two massive cogs in their offense from the past few seasons for a center who spent his entire career with one organization. While the team got off to a slow start, their four-game win streak has been largely propelled by the efforts of their new big man, who has hit his stride in New York.
Averaging 26.8 points per game with elite efficiency, KAT has become the perfect co-star to pair with Jalen Brunson, providing the Knicks with two leading-caliber scorers.
Karl-Anthony Towns Dominating With Knicks Early On
Last night’s performance was just another strong showing from the star big, as Karl-Anthony Towns gashed the Suns’ defense for 34 points and 10 rebounds while shooting 63.2% from the field. His ability to not only create efficient looks for himself but also for his teammates has been incredible, guiding an offense that has caught fire over this four-game winning streak.
While the Knicks took a hit to their defense when they lost Isaiah Hartenstein, the offensive improvement with KAT at the helm has offset that loss entirely. The Knicks have a 126.7 Offensive Rating with him on the court, and one of the big reasons for that is that teams are unable to leave a defender at the rim to dismay any attacks to the basket since their bigs are now asked to hang around the perimeter and prevent KAT from shooting over smaller defenders.
Karl-Anthony Towns doesn’t fall into the category of a good shooter for a center; he’s just simply a good shooter. He won’t sustain his 50% 3P% on 5.3 attempts a night, but a ~40% clip on 4-5 attempts a night will certainly befuddle opposing centers. Pair that with the multi-level scoring that Jalen Brunson brings to the table thanks to his mid-range shot and floater, and you have a scoring duo that can tantalize any defensive alignment.
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The Knicks are doing a great job exploiting weaknesses in opposing defenses, aggressively attacking the basket to counter the heavy sets teams have sent to limit perimeter scoring. It sometimes has led to the team getting too reliant on two-point attempts, but in recent games, we’ve seen them better mix-in aggressive three-point shooting and finding lanes to the rim.
No one has benefitted more from this than Josh Hart arguably, who is loving the matchups he gets on the perimeter with teams being less willing to just drop back and cut off his lane to the rim. He’s shooting better from downtown this season but also has an incredible ability to score at the basket, something that isn’t typical for a roleplayer. Hart’s versatility has allowed him to mold into the role needed based on his teammates, and his synergy with Brunson and KAT is unreal.
This trio has a +10.8 Net Rating together, and if Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby can put up the defensive production expected of them entering the season, this team could be truly deadly. Their ability to rack up points and create quality shots has vastly improved from last year, and this team is less reliant on heroic performances from Jalen Brunson to win games. It can instead turn to Karl-Anthony Towns or even its contingent of excellent role players to put up points if Brunson is limited or doubled.
Sitting at 9-6 with the third-best record in a weird Eastern Conference, they stare down two titans in the Cavaliers and Celtics who they’ll have to prove they can reliably beat.