Knicks fans are still coming down from the shock of Friday night’s blockbuster trade, in which New York dealt Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo for Karl-Anthony Towns. The acquisition brings home one of the best shooting bigs of all time, who has the potential to transform their offense into a juggernaut.
There’s little concern as to how the Knicks will operate on that end with Towns at the five. Jalen Brunson is their engine and Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby are skilled connectors and finishers, while Towns spreads the floor and picks defenses apart.
The real question comes on the defensive end.
Historically, Minnesota has been been lackluster at stopping opposing offenses with Towns as their primary rim defender, but the trend has been moving in the right direction — and he’ll have the best defensive supporting cast of his career.
This question is pivotal to New York’s success, as teams that aren’t atop the league on both sides of the ball rarely win a title. So will the Knicks’ new lineup be able to stymie opponents, or will its promise be dead on arrival?
Regardless of the defensive personnel around him, Towns-centered teams were glorified turnstiles for a large part of his early career. Minnesota ranked in the bottom 10 in defense for six straight seasons from 2015-16 to 2020-21, with their best performance coming in the year Towns missed almost half of their games.
This didn’t all fall on Towns, and being ineffective defensively as a young NBA big isn’t a unique story. He improved modestly as the years went by, and the team’s performance turned around with it.
The Timberwolves ranked 13th in points allowed per 100 possessions in 2021-22, with Towns at the center position and some dynamic help surrounding him in Jarred Vanderbilt and Jaden McDaniels. Minnesota then brought in perennial Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert to man the five, and after an injury-plagued and disastrous debut season, he, Towns and Anthony Edwards led Minnesota to the best defense in the league last season.
Even with Gobert off the floor and Towns at center, Minnesota allowed only 111 points per 100 possessions, which would rank top five in the NBA. Unfortunately, that didn’t translate to the playoffs, where the Timberwolves got smoked in Towns lineups that didn’t include Gobert.
The eye test fared better. Towns had some nice moments, including locking down Nikola Jokic down the stretch of Game 7, and generally looked sharper — but will it be enough for the Knicks be contenders?
To start with the positives, Towns is cognizant of schemes and isn’t short of effort on the defensive end. He’s also working with some great tools: a ginormous seven-foot, 250-pound frame with a 7-foot-4 wingspan that somehow reads bigger on the film than on paper.
That applies itself to the defensive glass, where Towns has been reliable throughout his career. His numbers were down next to Gobert, but stood up to scrutiny without him and impacted the team numbers consistently.
Towns also uses his physicality to shut down post-up bigs and goad smaller wings and guards on switches into pull-up jumpers he’s able to contest well. He looked much better guarding non-bigs and switching around than advertised or compared to his play in a rim protection role.
This will likely drive New York’s defensive schemes around Towns-at-the-five lineups as he just isn’t a deterrent or impact defender around the rim. Towns hasn’t put up 1.5 blocks per-36 minutes in five seasons, and routinely had poor defensive field goal percentage marks within six feet of the rim in that span.
If he’s in position the results aren’t bad, but he’s often in no man’s land and doesn’t display the instinct you want out of a low man.
Some of this could be attributed to playing with Gobert for a couple of seasons, and could be improved with more reps at the center spot and a Thibodeau bump, but there are striking concerns. Towns is completely passive in drop coverage, giving opponents whatever they wanted in Thibodeau’s favorite pick-and-roll coverage.
He’s much better at the level when he’s fully engaged and moving his feet. Whether there or blitzing, he can look downright scary as a mobile big, but can stray into flat-footedness and get bent out of position in other stretches.
Towns will give you a handful of head-scratchers a game via allowing inexplicable blow-bys, leaving his feet at the wrong time, or another oddity. His transition defense is completely lacking, and he doesn’t make a significant amount of plays via steals and blocks.
There’s an extra gear he can get to, especially in the playoffs, but Thibodeau demands that energy from opening night tip-off. Can Towns consistently carry that intensity?
Ultimately, Towns will need to fully buy in and be schemed creatively, depending on the matchup and with multiple options ready to go. This is no easy task, and will rely on Anunoby and Bridges to be exceptional in helping inside and making multiple efforts.
Expect Thibodeau to have Anunoby guard the primary screener or even opposing centers in these configurations, leaving Towns to a perimeter assignment. He can also implement more switching between the two and five spots with Brunson, and all five slots without him.
Maybe Towns has a career year and locks in on his drop coverage. Thibodeau had a rocky first go-around with Towns, but they’ve since moved past it, and he’s gotten the best out of bigs on the Knicks.
Whichever way it goes, how Towns performs defensively in these lineups might be the biggest non-health factor defining the Knicks’ championship chances.
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