Karl-Anthony Towns Is VITAL To a Knicks Championship

Let's talk about the New York Knicks.

Uh, not playing great basketball right now.

They did beat the woebegone Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday, snapping a three-game losing streak.

But ET, whenever we talk about the Knicks and their problems, they tend to be the same kind of problems.

They tend to be lapses defensively, uh, issues with Karl-Anthony Towns and his role in the team.

It sure seems to me from watching a lot of these Knicks games that Mike Brown does not trust Karl-Anthony Towns, at least not down the stretch in critical situations.

There've been a few games over the last month or so where Katt has not played, you know, down the stretch minutes.

He's not played substantial minutes in the second half or the 4th quarter.

Uh, to Kat's credit, He has taken the high road in a lot of these situations.

It's very easy in New York to say one little subtle thing and have that be splashed across the back pages and cause controversy within your team.

He's been pretty good about not kind of pushing those buttons.

You know, it's like today's gonna be a long walk back to the bench.

You know what you're about to hear.

So, um, you know, I, I, I think for him, you know, he believes it's gonna get us back in tune and back into the game and, and.

You know, he's trusting his coaching instinct, so I'm watching this team and it's like we're gonna go with Mitchell Robinson here.

You know , Jalen Brunson, he's been good, but obviously that ankle is still a problem for him.

Uh, what's your level of concern right now with the Knicks who will enter the playoffs with probably the highest expectations of any team that's out there?

Uh, Chris, I got a lot of level of concern with the Knicks because there's a few reasons.

One, the part of the season, you should be trending upward going into the playoffs.

We talked about a couple of teams that are on a run, and you should be able to find your groove in your run.

Obviously, they've been trying to figure out rotations and lineups, but it's not like they've been dealing with crazy injury, like to their core guys.

I mean, obviously, Mitchell Robinson came back, you had to get.

Minute restrictions together.

Deuce McBride, but their main core has been around and they have yet to figure it out all year.

When you watch it on TV, whether it comes down to, uh, Karl-Anthony Towns or Josh Hart, you can just tell the camaraderie is off a little bit.

And no matter what in the NBA you want your whole team to be clicking, but you need your guys, your dogs to be on point and to be on one accord.

And I feel as though it's, it's just obvious, it's been a a a bigger disconnect than last year, even when they went into Charlotte.

They got pumped on the boards in 3 quarters, he gave up 20 offensive rebounds, and that was a Karl-Anthony Towns situation where You know, you should be the most dominant player on the court, and we're figuring out where he's taking the high road, but as a former prima donna, you can tell when people are pouting and trying to throw the gun in somebody else's lap.

And I think, uh, in order to win a championship, in order to kill a drought, you all got to be on the right accord and it has to be some type of mentality to you, like a type of toughness.

Like Charlotte got a toughness.

Even like Miami's been getting their ass kicked, but they, they have a, a toughness where you'll be like, yo, uh, they might put it together.

The Knicks, we've been waiting on and everything, I, I don't, I don't think they get it, bro.

I just don't think they get it.

And, and, and, and good coaches and good people are going down, and I just don't think they, I don't think that like, cause what are we talking about?

They, they got a hell of experience, they got defense, they got depth, they got all this, they just don't have no heart.

Like I just said, last year they, they let the, they turned the Pacers into a Disney, into a Disney movie.

That should have been cakewalk.

I'm from Chicago and I'm still mad at their ass.

Like, do you know what I mean?

Like, like do you like, do you understand what I'm saying?

It's like, whoa, you're like talking to some of the homies in the league, I'm like, man, hopefully y'all get matched up versus the Knicks.

Do, do you know what I mean?

I do.

I get it.

Um, and you know that the variable that's missing here that changed, the biggest one is the head coach.

You know, Tom Thibodeau, uh, say what you want about him.

You talk about having an edge.

He gave that team an edge.

They played with an edge.

You can say he burned out his guys too many minutes during games, didn't trust his bench enough, but that team did play with an edge under Thibs.

It's funny, like when I talked to scouts about the Knicks over the last couple of months, one thing that gets said to me is that like, they've, they've kind of, they, they changed some things offensively early in the season, but they've Kind of gone back to a lot of the Tibbs principles over the last couple of months.

They're, they're kind of playing more of that isolation basketball.

Jalen Brunson with the ball in his hands.

They've kind of shifted slowly back towards this Tom Thibodeaux style of basketball, but they're doing without Tom Thibodeau as the head coach.

And look, Mike Brown is obviously incredibly intelligent.

He's obviously an incredibly good coach, but This team played with a sharpened edge last year.

Like they, would they have gone 2 and 9 like they did in January with Tom Thibodeaux on the bench?

Would they have had some of these kind of lapses with Thibs there?

Not to say it was flawless with Thibs.

They didn't win a championship.

They weren't great every year, but you were comparing last year's team to this year's one, which is kind of the same.

The core of this team is, is exactly the same.

A couple of tweaks around the fringes and they look like a very different team.

Going into the playoffs, I think the, the outstanding question is, can these Knicks stars level up when they get there because they did that last year, right?

Like last year, if you remember, regular season, Boston kicked their ass.

Playoffs, Knicks went out, kicked the Celtics' ass.

We're up 3-1 before the whole Tatum thing went, went, uh, became a factor there.

So 10 guys like Bridges, who's playing better over the last couple of weeks, Brunson, who's good when he's healthy, great when he's healthy, OG.

Obi, who's been really good, can they level up ?

Can Katt figure it out?

I guess that, I mean, I'm kind of talking a roundabout way.

Like that's the, the huge one here.

Like Karl-Anthony Towns is necessary for them to win a championship.

He's got to be playing 35 minutes per game or roughly thereof for them to win a championship.

He was huge in some of these playoff games last year.

He is still one of the best offensive bigs in the NBA.

Can he Get the trust of Mike Brown in these close competitive games against playoff teams.

That's the question I don't have the answer to.

Yeah, I don't either.

I, I, this just shouldn't even be a conversation.

That's why I'm so concerned .

You know what I mean?

And like even, even a conversation you have of comparing it to Thibs last year, it almost seems like Just, just judging from Carl Anthony's Towns, like the, the group is just resistant to what occurred.

Do you know what I mean?

And all it seems like they're kind of scratching and kicking to like Mike Brown being there.

And Mike Brown's like 3 games away from uh Breaking Pat Riley's record for like the most wins in like a season , you know what I mean?

In a, in a debut season.

So, it's getting tough to see, but I'm, I'm rooting for him, but I just don't, I don't see it.

I don't see it.

These conversations shouldn't be had, even just getting punk offensive rebounder, we're we're we're we're arguing about rebounding right now.

It's effort.

Like, I just, I just don't see it right now.

Cat in the conference finals against Indiana, just a reminder, averaged 25 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists, uh, about half a block, uh, shot 50% from the floor and 37% from 3.

You need this guy playing at his best.

You need him on the floor in the 4th quarter of games.

To have a chance against any of these big teams.

Like you may be better defensively with Mitchell Robinson and a bunch of other guys, but you need his offense.

You need it to beat teams beginning in the first round.

Could be a tough first-round matchup out there for the Knicks depending on how it all shakes out.

I, I think there's, that we're still talking about this.

In early April is a problem for the Knicks, but there's a big problem.

There's no doubt about that, uh, but I guess we'll see kind of how that all shakes out next time.

It's, it's, there's a lot of pressure on Mike Brown in this particular situation.

Like he has got to, to deliver this team.

James Dolan, he set the bar for where this team needed to be, and that was to win a championship.