Ahead of the new NBA season, five-time All-Star New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns addressed the media about his new role in head coach Mike Brown’s offense.
Brown was hired over the summer to replace Tom Thibodeau, the former coach who brought the team back to the NBA Eastern Conference Finals.
Thibodeau was fired after losing to the Indiana Pacers in the ECF. The Knicks organization reportedly considered a new coach to be the difference-maker in winning a title. New York also brought in a few key free agents this summer, signing veterans Guerschon Yabusele and Jordan Clarkson to flesh out the team’s bench.
The front office is hoping Brown’s system on offense and defense, which delivered success to the Sacramento Kings, can translate over to the team this season.
With the coaching change, the Knicks will want to see Brown get more out of center Karl-Anthony Towns, whose first season in New York did not go smoothly.
He built a good amount of chemistry with All-NBA point guard Jalen Brunson, a combination that featured a deadly pick-and-roll, though he ended up getting a heavy workload and playing a lot of minutes.
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Also, he did not get used much in motion or through off-ball movement, two staples of Brown’s offense.
"Honestly, I don't know," Towns said to reporters. "We're figuring it out, but honestly, I just don't know. It's just different. We're still figuring it out.”
While on its face it is alarming that Towns does not know his exact role, Brown has previously painted a vivid picture of what he wants from the All-NBA big man.
“The biggest thing is we want to move KAT around," Brown said. "We don't want to keep him in the trail spot or at the top of the floor all the time. We want to move him around to the weak corner, strong corner, weak wing, and sometimes as the push man offensively.
"When he is at the 5, we feel he's a really good passer. Sometimes he'll be at the rim. Sometimes he'll be at the elbow. When he's at the elbow, that's when he's going to be in a big decision-making role, and we feel he's more than capable of making good decisions with the basketball, whether it's a (dribble hand off), pass to the cutter.
“We also feel when we do pass to him on the elbow and have movement and floor spacing around him that he's a huge threat. He's one dribble away from laying it up or doing what he does best, which is realize where the contact is and draw a foul."
Time will tell if Brown is the right man for the Knicks, but these changes in how Towns is used could be a true difference-maker for a team looking to end its playoff drought.
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