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Is Karl-Anthony Towns Already Wearing Out His Welcome?
Is Karl-Anthony Towns Already Wearing Out His Welcome?
Karl-Anthony Towns came to New York with big promises and bigger expectations, but after this postseason flameout, it’s clear the honeymoon’s over.
What’s going on behind the scenes suggests this could be a very long offseason. The Pacers deserve all the credit in the world for playing their game and winning the Eastern Conference Finals, but the Knicks won’t soon forget this. There are a lot of reasons why this went wrong, but the flaws of KAT were exposed severely in these six games.
These flaws are not new. The Athletic (don’t read it) reported that Knicks players and coaches have been concerned about Towns’ approach on defense and his unwillingness to communicate. The real juicy part is below:
“Publicly, Knicks players made veiled comments all season about poor communication causing their inconsistencies,” The Athletic’s James Edwards III and Fred Katz wrote Saturday. “Behind the scenes, they and coaches expressed frustration with Towns’ defensive habits — less concerned with his talent level and more with his process on that end. Too often, Towns executed incorrect coverages without communicating why he did it. After it became a theme, players worried Towns didn’t grasp the importance of the matter.”
In this series, Towns was a net negative. He gave up more defensively than with his scoring and talent. Furthermore, it was unbelievable watching some of the fouls he picked up.
Rick Carlisle is an excellent adjuster and ultimately saw Tom Thibodeau play right into his hands. The Kobe and Shaq comparisons with KAT and Brunson were cute, but those guys won at the end of the day.
The heroics of Tyrese Haliburton might be the headline to some. The ultimate result exposes the Knicks’ lack of communication and adjustment when it matters most. Karl-Anthony Towns is a supremely talented player and arguably the greatest shooting big man to ever live.
However, if he can’t adapt his game to match the intensity and precision of the playoffs, then his time in New York won’t get any better. Looks like the welcome mat has already been thrown out of a penthouse window.
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