It didn’t take long after the New York Knicks were eliminated from the Eastern Conference Finals for fingers to be pointed in one direction. The players didn’t all provide anonymous quotes bashing a coach in Tom Thibodeau, who has never been to an NBA Finals himself; rather, there has been some airing of grievances aimed squarely at Karl-Anthony Towns.
And none of it has been particularly flattering.
The Athletic dropped a report Sunday revealing some uncomfortable truths.
“Publicly, Knicks players made veiled comments all season about poor communication causing their inconsistencies. 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.”
Essentially, the team got tired of watching Towns blow assignments, and even more tired of trying to figure out if he cared.
And if that wasn’t enough, WFAN’s Gregg Giannotti absolutely torched him on Boomer & Gio Monday morning.
“The biggest issue the Knicks have going forward to get to the next level is the fact that they waited and waited and waited to go all-in on a couple of guys, and the biggest one being Karl-Anthony Towns,” Giannotti said on the Monday show. “And they went and they traded for him, and he’s making $50 million a year. And at the core, he’s a loser. That is their biggest problem. The guy is a loser. He’s a losing player. He complains. He’s soft.
“He shows you flashes where he’s the best player on the court. Not enough. He doesn’t play defense. He b*tches and moans. He is, up until this point in his career, a loser, who is making $50 million, who is going to be a logjam as far as them trying to get to the next level… He is getting the point, now, as one of the most frustrating players I have ever watched in the uniform of a team that I root for because I know how good he can be. And it’s just so damn annoying watching him not realize his full potential.”
And Giannotti’s not convinced he ever will.
“That is their biggest issue,” he said. “The fact that they thought this Towns thing was going to work better than it did. And it hasn’t.”
Physically, Towns is everything you’d want in a modern big. He’s seven feet tall, shoots like a wing, passes like a guard, and can absolutely take over a game when he’s locked in. But those nights where rare in the postseason. And that’s the issue. For every 35-point outburst, there are stretches where he fades. Where he blows a coverage. Where he checks out on defense. Where the body language turns into a show of its own.
And that’s the bigger concern. Not effort. Not ability. Just whether the pieces come together when the games get tighter, more physical, and more demanding.
The Knicks took a big swing acquiring Towns. They bet on his talent translating in the postseason. Year 1 of that experiment didn’t end in disaster, but it didn’t quiet the doubts, either.
Calling him a “loser” feels like a reach. Towns didn’t rise to the moment, but he wasn’t the only one who came up short.