There were stretches of game six where Karl-Anthony Towns looked disastrous, particularly on the defensive end. The unwillingness to step up and defend the perimeter, or the seemingly lackadaisical effort to get back on defense while the Pacers poured on the fast break points infuriated Knicks fans as the season slipped away.
But somewhere along the line, the criticism, bordering on flat-out hatred by some, went too far, and the overall scope of Towns’ first playoff run as a Knick was lost.
First, let’s acknowledge the highs and lows of Towns as a player. He is incredibly polarizing for a reason, and it dates back to his Minnesota days. When Towns is at his best, like in game five, you see what made him a No. 1 overall pick and a perennial All-Star. When he shows defensive lapses like in game six or game two, it is apparent why the Timberwolves brought in Rudy Gobert to try and mask Towns’ defensive deficiencies. But in this series, the level of animosity towards Towns didn’t stack up with how he actually performed against the Pacers.
Towns seemed to hear the heaviest amount of criticism (by far) once New York’s season was finished, but was he really that egregiously bad on the defensive end? Looking at the numbers, no. Not only did he have the best defensive rating out of any of the Knicks starting five (the starting five that logged the majority of the starting minutes together, so not counting Mitchell Robinson, who started the final four games of the series), but he finished the Eastern Conference Finals, and the playoffs as a whole, with a better plus/minus than any starter on the Knicks. His +/- of +19 was second on the team only to Miles McBride. For the second straight year, with two different teams, Towns reached a conference final by being one of the best players on the floor for his group. That shouldn’t get washed away with endless criticism because of his rough game six.
The performance in game six wasn’t good. There’s no hiding from that. But the Knicks don’t get to game six without Towns being a star in game five, and could very likely have gotten swept had he not taken over down the stretch in game three, sparking a 20-point comeback. The good has to be taken into account instead of highlighting only the bad, especially when there were other culprits that contributed to the bad.
How about how Towns was used this season? The greatest shooting big man in league history paired with one of the great shot creators in the league in Jalen Brunson, and Towns wasn’t used on the perimeter as a legit shooting threat at all in the playoffs. There was a point during the season where his efficiency on catch-and-shoot 3-pointers was off the charts, and the Knicks went away from it. Why? Imagine if the Knicks used Towns more on the 3-point line, where he is arguably at his best, and in turn got more scoring from beyond the arc, which is needed in today’s game, and gave Towns less ground to cover getting back on defense, rather than consistently running a full 94-feet from below the rim. Had he been deployed in a way that magnified his strengths, perhaps you would have seen more games like in the first round against Detroit, when he went 5-of-7 from downtown in a pivotal game four.
Now let’s get to the most offensive and, frankly, off-the-mark criticism when it comes to Towns: this idea that he is “soft.” That’s when I personally begin to question if I’m watching the same Towns as others are. Personally, I see a player consistently battling for boards, absorbing heavy contact in the paint on the offensive end, all while playing through a finger injury that has plagued him for much of the season, and a knee injury suffered in game four against the Pacers. Do you want to criticize his foolish fouls and his sometimes out-of-control drives to the basket? Fine. But his physical fortitude? That’s simply a misplaced jab.
This is a player who came to the bright lights of New York in a season where the Knicks faced more expectations than any season in decades, and was an All-Star who had some of the biggest games of the team’s postseason run, all while playing for a demanding head coach who many thought he would feud with in their reunion, only KAT never uttered a peep about any frustration with Tom Thibodeau. In the end, he was the Knicks’ top scoring threat against a Pacers team that struggled to guard him all series, but many want to label his season as the sight of him struggling on the defensive end in a season-ending game six.
Should that defensive effort level in game six be criticized? Absolutely. Should it define his season and wash away all the good he brought as well? No way.
Every player has their flaws. Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic struggle defensively. So does Jalen Brunson. Mitchell Robinson was utterly spectacular in these playoffs, but his ability as a scorer is nearly non-existent. Towns’ downside seems to get magnified more than others, which may sometimes come with the territory of a star, but it shouldn’t to the extent that we have seen geared towards Towns now that his first Knicks season is complete.