what could be New York\u2019s first NBA Finals appearance since 1999<\/a>.<\/p>\nAnd it\u2019s a lever Brown pulled to unlock the wealth of offensive weaponry at disposal for the hottest team in the playoffs. Towns isn\u2019t the first point-center the Knicks\u2019 coach has on his resume. He is, however, the most talented. And now, the Big KAT is out of his tiny cage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always loved this role,\u201d Towns said. \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted this role, so happy we got to this point.\u201d<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
The name has escaped him, but the moment snapped into Brown\u2019s mind as if it occurred yesterday. One of his former players during his time as head coach with the Sacramento Kings showed Brown clips of how he\u2019s been using the Knicks\u2019 All-Star big man this season.<\/p>\n
The verdict? Brown is running the same sets and actions with Towns as he did with Sabonis during his breakout seasons in Sacramento.<\/p>\n
Sabonis averaged 6.7 assists per game in his final full season with the Indiana Pacers before the Tyrese Haliburton trade sent him out West. He averaged 7.8 assists per game alongside star point guard De\u2019Aaron Fox in his first full year under Brown then a career-high 8.2 assists a game in Year 2.<\/p>\n
Towns actually regressed in regular-season assists year-over-year as the Knicks switched coaches from Tom Thibodeau to Brown.<\/p>\n
And then the Knicks switched offensive ideologies.<\/p>\n
Towns now leads the NBA playoffs in assists per possession and is averaging 9.3 assists since Game 4 of the Knicks\u2019 first-round playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe kind of figured it out along the way. [KAT and Sabonis] do a lot of stuff that are similar,\u201d Brown said. \u201cYou have an idea [coming into a new job with a new team] of what you want to do offensively [and] defensively, but then it\u2019s your job as a coach to try to figure out, \u2018Does this really fit the group that you have in front of you?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
That answer changed in an, at times, tumultuous Knicks season. Brown changed the offense once in the middle of the year after the Knicks lost nine out of 11 games walking into the 2026 calendar year. He changed it again after consecutive one-point losses in the first round against the Hawks, losses that sent the Knicks searching for answers that ultimately came from within.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s always tough to do things in Year 1, because it takes some time to get used to the group, not just what their strengths are as skill players, but their personalities and other things that make them tick,\u201d he said. \u201cTrying to put a guy like Sabonis at his strength, trying to put a guy like KAT at his strength is something that, as a head coach, it\u2019s my job to think constantly about, as long as it enhances everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
As head coach, collaborating is one of Brown\u2019s responsibilities, and his willingness to do so is a large part of what earned him the job as Thibodeau\u2019s replacement. As a collaborator, it\u2019s on Brown to field ideas from top to bottom.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take suggestions from everybody. And at the end of the day it\u2019s up for me to make the decision of yay or nay,\u201d he said on Friday. \u201cI\u2019ve always been a guy who if you come to me with suggestions especially as a coach. You have to have something to back it up. Some video or analytics.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, I have to say this makes sense let\u2019s do it, but this is how we\u2019re going to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Towns was one of the many voices echoing a need for offensive change when the Knicks lost Games 2 and 3 of their first-round playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks.<\/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,\u201d he said. \u201cTo go in [to talk to your coach], and say how you feel, what you feel is your idea, and see if it\u2019s received \u2014 And it was received. I\u2019m glad we\u2019re not talking about 2-2.\u201d<\/p>\n
The change was clear: The Knicks began aggressively using their mismatch at center in ways they seemed incapable of during the regular season. Towns recorded two triple doubles \u2014 the first playoff triple doubles of his career \u2014 over the final three games of the Hawks series. He then averaged 7.5 assists over the four-game sweep of the Philadelphia 76ers in Round 2.<\/p>\n
For Towns, who averaged 24.4 points per game under Thibodeau last season, it never about more points. He wanted to feel more regularly included within the Knicks\u2019 offensive flow.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always said since the beginning, I\u2019ll do whatever it takes to impact winning,\u201d he said on Friday. \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<\/p>\n
It took Brown 85 games to make the change, but the role is one Miles McBride knew Towns was capable of all along \u2014 provided he demanded the ball and forcefully established an advantageous position for himself on the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like it was always something he was capable of,\u201d McBride said on Friday. \u201cYou don\u2019t get a lot of practice time. I always feel like it\u2019s tough to figure it out \u2014 but again \u2014 that\u2019s what the regular season is for.\u201d<\/p>\n
The regular season is long gone. As are the first two rounds of the playoffs for a Knicks team eagerly awaiting the conference finals. The offense could change again. Brown will field suggestions and make the changes he deems necessary to lift the Knicks to their first Finals appearance in a quarter-century \u2014 or their first title since 1973.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s already made the most consequential adjustment. That\u2019s more effectively utilizing the most talented player on the Knicks\u2019 roster. Brown, using a familiar formula from his days in Sacramento, has finally freed the Big KAT from a cage far too small for his skill set.<\/p>\n
And the Knicks are better for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s done a great job of adjusting our team to give us the best chance to win,\u201d Towns said of Brown. \u201cThe spot we\u2019re in now is because of his courage and trust to change what we were doing and putting us in a better position.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Karl-Anthony Towns didn\u2019t know what to expect. He never thought he\u2019d become Mike Brown\u2019s new Domantas Sabonis. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":735457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,4672,563,304,3357,6,1136,191,3810,3806],"class_list":["post-735456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-knicks","tag-basketball","tag-domantas-sabonis","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-knicks","tag-mike-brown","tag-nba","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkknicks"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116581423127203871","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735456","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=735456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/735457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}