The Knicks are back in action on Tuesday night, starting their most hyped season in years on the road against the defending champion Celtics.
New York begins the 2024-25 campaign with title aspirations after acquiring star center Karl-Anthony Towns as the big deal of the offseason, and BT says Towns’ arrival means he will be facing pressure unlike any in his professional career, and he will have to prove he has the toughness to be a Knick and play for Tom Thibodeau.
“I hate to be the bearer of potentially bad news, but last season is dead, and everyone needs to understand that this is a very different team,” BT said.
“One thing that’s never played well in New York is finesse with basketball. Ask Patrick Ewing when he was getting crushed flicking jump shots. Ask Allan Houston…the player they brought in to take the Knicks from where they were to where we all want to go is a finesse player who wants to fling five, six, seven threes a night.”
Towns and Thibodeau didn’t always see eye to eye together in Minnesota, but by all accounts, including from Thibodeau and Towns themselves, that is water under the bridge. But this Knicks team is built on chemistry, grit, and a unified approach to playing hard every, regardless of what point of the season it is. BT says Towns will face pressure to show that he is not only ready to buy into that culture, but put perform and take the Knicks to where they feel they belong.
“Karl-Anthony Towns has never felt an ounce of pressure in his NBA career,” BT said. “He probably felt more pressure at Kentucky than he did with the Minnesota Timberwolves.”
Towns’ arrival also meant the departure of Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo, crucial pieces of the gritty Knicks culture from a season ago. BT isn’t writing off the Knicks by any means, but he does believe the hype might be blinding fans from what was lost after last year’s team captured the hearts of the entire city.
“Tap the brakes,” BT said. “The Knicks bench right now is not good…and the heart of this team has changed drastically with DiVincenzo gone.”