Knicks have a star in Karl-Anthony Towns, and they need to help him shine
The Knicks' Karl-Anthony Towns tries to pass around the Milwaukee Bucks' Myles Turner during the first half of an NBA game Tuesday in Milwaukee. Credit: AP/Morry Gash
CHICAGO — All you need to do is look at the annual NBA race to the bottom, the teams tanking, calling it a plan or a process, to know that the league is a star-driven venture. And it’s not for ticket sales, but for the reality that unstoppable star power is how championships are won.
So when Mike Brown and Doc Rivers both spoke before the game Tuesday night about stars being unstoppable, it was a simple reality. But when Brown began his postgame state of the Knicks address by wildly praising Karl-Anthony Towns' magnificent first-half performance in Milwaukee, skeptical eyebrows were raised among the media and the fan base. No one would be surprised if you included Towns himself.
The Knicks moved Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo and inherited a four-year, $224 million contract extension Towns had signed with the Minnesota Timberwolves — $53.1 million this season. And they didn’t do that for a decoy, a ball mover. Towns is one of the greatest shooting centers in NBA history and Tuesday he didn’t attempt a field goal, a free throw or hand out an assist in the first quarter. In the second quarter, he got one field-goal attempt and one trip to the free-throw line and still no assists. By halftime, Jalen Brunson, the team’s other star, had already put up 14 field-goal attempts, six free throws and piled up 21 of his 36 points.
And Brown’s description of this?
“I thought the first half, KAT was the one that got us started,” Brown said. “KAT’s first couple plays, he caught that thing, made a quick decision. He touched the paint [and] what did he do? He started the dominoes. He sprayed the ball and got guys wide-open looks.
"Or those guys, whoever caught it, snap drove. They touched the paint, they scored it or sprayed it. It all started with KAT. KAT played a remarkable first half offensively. Sometimes it doesn’t show up in your field-goal attempts when you play a remarkable game. He had one field-goal attempt because that’s the way they were playing him. When he touched it, he drew two and then kicked it.”
That is coachspeak, an understandable strategic explanation. And Towns said all the right things, too. But do you believe it? And more important, does Towns really believe it?
Remember, before the season even began, Towns was asked about his fit in Brown’s system, and he raised alarms when he answered, “Honestly, I don’t know. We’re figuring it out. But honestly, I just don’t know. It’s just different. We’re still figuring it out.”
Has this seemed to be ticking since that moment? That’s understandable, too. Stars don’t serve as decoys and Towns showed some frustration — more frustration — in the third quarter when he tried to take an aggressive tact. He finished 2-for-12 with eight points and the Knicks lost their second straight game.
“I got to do whatever’s needed to win, and first half I played how we needed me to play,” Towns said. “And the game, I felt, switched up and I tried to get going just in case we needed me, and I just didn’t make a shot so I pressed a little bit too much today. I have more experience than to do that, but I didn’t do what we needed me to do tonight, and that’s on me and I take full responsibility.”
Some of this can be attributed to an early season game with a new system and players missing. And some of it is the reality that the Knicks took a chance, trying to change something that was working and trying to make it better. The real risk is that in trying to make the team better, the offense smoother, the Knicks could lose something from their stars. Brunson has seemed, well, like Brunson. But Towns has struggled to find his place.
“I got a new role,” Towns said. “I just have to embrace it and I didn’t do that for 48 minutes tonight. It hurts. It’s going to be a tough car ride. It’s going to be a tough two days to live with that, but I’ve had tough days before. Just mark this up into the same category. But it’s Game Four. I know everyone’s going to be stressing in New York, the way we talk, New York everything . . . We’ve got to learn, I got to learn. I’ve got to be better.”
He does, and it’s up to Brown to help him. The Knicks invested heavily to obtain a star like Towns. And they need him to be one.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
