The Knicks Have Finally Hit the Gas

"Fifty-three million dollars is a lot of money, but fifty-three years without a title is a lot, too. There were costs, though-not only the loss of Randle, who'd been pivotal in returning the Knicks to the playoffs, but also the loss of DiVincenzo, a popular player who'd been so close to Brunson that he was a groomsman at Brunson's wedding."

"The Knicks coach, Tom Thibodeau, was fired after the team lost the series, and Mike Brown was brought in-in large part, it was thought, to help "unlock" the potential of Towns. While leading the Sacramento Kings, Brown had coached Domantas Sabonis, another big man who could also shoot and had superior court vision. But, instead, the opposite seemed to happen."

"Towns spoke openly about feeling lost in Brown's system, and Brown called out Towns for poor effort. After the Knicks followed a promising start to this season by going 2-9 during a stretch in January, stories about the Knicks' "Karl-Anthony Towns problem" began to proliferate."

"But after three games in the first round of the playoffs, with the Knicks down to the Atlanta Hawks, 2-1, Brown put Towns with the ball at the three-point line, and the diminutive Brunson darted toward the center. The need for defenders to respect Towns's willingness to shoot threes opened lanes to the basket that he happily drove down. More startling, though, was his passing. Again and again, he flung the ball to a teammate cutting behind a defender or along the baseline for an easy score."

Fifty-three million dollars and fifty-three years without a title both carry weight for the Knicks. The team paid for Karl-Anthony Towns after losing key players, including Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo. Towns had a strong 2025 season and led the Knicks to the conference finals, but he struggled defensively against the Indiana Pacers and sat during a crucial fourth-quarter stretch in Game Two. Tom Thibodeau was fired and Mike Brown was hired to unlock Towns’s potential. Towns said he felt lost in Brown’s system, while Brown criticized his effort, and the “Karl-Anthony Towns problem” became a recurring narrative. In the first round playoffs against the Atlanta Hawks, Brown used Towns at the three-point line, and Brunson attacked the lane as defenders respected Towns’s shooting. Towns also made repeated passes to teammates cutting behind defenders or along the baseline for easy scores.

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