Knicks Seek Higher Volume From Karl-Anthony Towns

One of KAT’s early numbers with the New York Knicks has not been up to scratch.

Considering he’s a major piece learning a new system, it’s hard to quarrel with Karl-Anthony Towns‘ early metropolitan outputs: he’s shooting 50 percent from the floor and pulling in more than 10 rebounds a game as the Knicks’ paint corps have been rendered severely decimated.

But the Knicks literally want more: through three games, Towns has tried only 28 shots, the lowest three-game tally he’s had to open a season. He earned a double-double for the second straight game on Monday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers but shot only 4-of-8 in the 110-104 loss.

“He’s getting double teamed in the post,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said, per Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News. “There’s different ways he’s got to get in there as well. We’ve got to search that out.”

To put a game like Monday’s in perspective, Towns had only six occasions where he tried eight or fewer shots in his final campaign with the Minnesota Timberwolves last season. It probably wouldn’t be wise to believe that Towns would be at full caliber as he adjusts to his new metropolitan settings, but a team like the Knicks (1-2), packed with great aspirations, can’t afford to yield any ground on the Eastern Conference leaderboard no matter how early it’s presented.

Towns has vowed to view film when it comes to generating new opportunities for the Knicks, who are set to embark on an early four-game road trip, but point guard and captain Jalen Brunson shouldered the blame as well, remarking that his own lack of awareness stifled Towns’ momentum worse than anything the Cavaliers (4-0) threw at him

“As good as Karl is, no one can really take him out of a game,” Brunson said in video from SNY. “It’s just on us, it’s on me as a teammate, to make sure we’re all on the same page and we’re all making sure that everyone’s eating. I’ve got to be better when it comes to that, I’ve got to adjust and I’ve got to see.”

The Knicks will likely use the upcoming road trip, which begins in Miami on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG) to pump up the volume both inside and out: in addition to the lack of Towns, the Knicks have hoisted only 85 three-point tries in their first three games. That’s the fewest they’ve tallied in any three-game span since March 2021 and they were 9-of-28 in Monday’s defeat.

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