decision to play their offense through him as a facilitator from the elbows<\/a>. <\/p>\nIt has been a central storyline of their unprecedented dominance through the first two rounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But how was that decision reached?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Towns claimed that when the Knicks trailed 2-1 in the first round against the Hawks, he went to the coaching staff and vouched for the change.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re down 2-1, obviously it\u2019s not the end of the world but you guys understand the importance of the next game. \u2026 You go in there and say how you feel, your feelings, your idea and see if it\u2019s received,\u201d Towns said after practice Friday. \u201cAnd it was received.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It certainly has been. <\/p>\n
And across the two years of this core and the one year under coach Mike Brown, it\u2019s unlocked the best version of these Knicks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Karl-Anthony Towns looks to pass during the Knicks\u2019 May 10 playoff game against the 76ers. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Towns has more than doubled his regular-season average of 3.0 assists per game to 6.6 in the postseason. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s allowed those around him \u2014 notably Jalen Brunson \u2014 to be cutters and screeners off the ball, resulting in better shot quality for them. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s made the Knicks offense much more dynamic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Knicks have won seven straight postseason games since then. <\/p>\n
They have a point differential of plus-185 points in that span. <\/p>\n
Their 125.3 points per game on offense is the most among playoff teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Karl-Anthony Towns looks to move with the ball during the Knicks\u2019 May 10 playoff game. Jason Szenes for the NY Post<\/p>\n
Towns, from the preseason through the entirety of the regular season, was not shy about his thoughts on his role in the offense. <\/p>\n
There were constant statements about getting used to Brown\u2019s system and trying to adjust to what Brown wants him to do. <\/p>\n
There were a few times he struggled to find answers as to why he was so uninvolved. <\/p>\n
Mike Brown addresses reporters during a May 13 press conference. Charles Wenzelberg<\/p>\n
It was clear that Towns wanted more, but he kept pointing to the need to sacrifice for the greater good.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, the greater good has been found with Towns as a focal point.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always loved this role,\u201d Towns said of being a facilitator. \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted this role, so [I\u2019m] happy we got to this point.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Does he feel vindicated at all?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always said since the beginning, I\u2019ll do whatever it takes to impact winning,\u201d Towns said. \u201cI\u2019m glad I\u2019ve been able to do that with this changing role and be able to help our team win. That\u2019s the most important thing. And utilize my talent.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Post previously reported that assistant coach and offensive coordinator Chris Jent also played a role in bringing the idea to Brown.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cYou can\u2019t act upon everything,\u201d Brown said Friday. \u201cBecause if you act upon everything,\u00a0 you\u2019re going to be driving yourself crazy and everybody else crazy. It was just something where we were struggling to score [at the time] and I had been thinking about it for awhile and it finally came to me at that point. \u2026 I take suggestions from everybody. At the end of the day, it\u2019s up to me to make the decision of yea or nay. The tough part about it is, sometimes when you have suggestions, and there are a lot of good ones out there, a suggestion is one thing, but trying to actually put the suggestion into something that can be real for the group and fit the group, not just that one person, that\u2019s the tricky part.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been a guy that if you come to me with a suggestion, a lot of times, especially as a coach, you gotta have something to back it up. Some video, some analytics. Tell me how.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That last part is important.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They were small sample sizes, but the Knicks had seen evidence that having the ball in Towns\u2019 hands as a facilitator worked.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsing KAT sometimes at the end of the [shot] clock, we started using him more [in that role],\u201d Miles McBride said Friday. \u201cAnd then we kind of naturally started getting into it. Obviously, our coaches are taking notice. It\u2019s kind of what we\u2019ve been doing all year, but I think the more it started happening when, at the end of the clock, guys were [playing] off of him and then we started using it, guys playing off the ball, and then we kind of just started making it a point of emphasis.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like it was something [Towns] was always capable of.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A few factors came together at the perfect time to produce the change that has the Knicks surging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Karl-Anthony Towns called his own shot \u2014 in order to get better shots for those around him.\u00a0 There…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":735383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,563,304,3357,6,11,56381,1136,191,3810,3806,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-735382","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","10":"tag-knicks","11":"tag-mike-brown","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-nba-playoffs","14":"tag-nba-playoffs-2026","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-knicks","17":"tag-newyork","18":"tag-newyorkknicks","19":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116580951240133285","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/735383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}