Truly dishing and swishing.
Incredible shooting, impeccable touch, and an amazing post game—those were the things we were promised with Karl-Anthony Towns. So far, he has delivered on all fronts and exceeded expectations early. But more than anything, it has been his passing that has been the most impressive.
Towns has always been skilled enough to make the necessary passes physically, but he has only averaged more than 3.6 APG three times in his nine years coming into this season. Because of that, many wondered what replacing Julius Randle with Towns would look like as far as playmaking went. And statistically speaking, Randle looked like the clear winner. From 2020 through last season, Towns averaged just 3.8 APG, and 3 turnovers per game, while Randle averaged 5 APG on 3.2 turnovers per game.
As of today, Towns is still averaging just 3 APG so far, so statistically there hasn’t been too much of a shift. But he’s shown that he’s a more than capable playmaker, and as the season has progressed, he’s looked more and more comfortable as a playmaker, evident by the 4 APG he has averaged over his last five games. And the fun part is, he’s been doing it in ways Randle couldn’t quite replicate.
Randle was (and still is) better at creating advantages with his physicality and brute force and passing out of them. Jalen Brunson has been hurt by this more than anyone else as he’s shooting just 27.7% on catch-and-shoot threes this season, which is much lower than the 44.5% he shot on catch-and-shoot threes last season. But that’s not to say that Towns can’t or hasn’t been able to replicate some of Randle’s kickout playmaking either.
As seen in the clips below, Towns still requires a lot of attention when driving to the basket, and he’s able to kick out to Bridges with relative ease. And most notably, Towns doesn’t try to look for his shot and then pass at the last moment when he has no choice. That was always something Randle had trouble with at times, and we’ve seen Towns be a lot more willing to make the quick and easy pass.
In the play below, he is able to once again draw multiple defenders while keeping his composure, and that allows the double team to come. When it does, he makes a difficult on-target cross-court pass to Bridges for a wide open three, who is open thanks to Hart occupying Darius Garland by cutting hard to the rim.
Then you have simple plays like the one below, which won’t be included in any of Towns’ future highlight videos. And it shows once again just how good he’s been with making the quick, and simple passes in a timely manner.
And he’s been able to couple the simple passes with some very flashy passes that has Knicks fans wondering if he’s the best passing center in the league after Nikola Jokic, and Domantas Sabonis. There’s the play below early on in the Pistons game that frees up Brunson with an impressive level of touch and anticipation.
And later on in the game, we see Towns connecting with Brunson once again to give the latter a very easy look at the rim.
And for good measure, here is another great selfless play by Towns to give Brunson an easy basket.
Going forward, it will be imperative for Towns, and Brunson to continue building chemistry to get the most out of each other and this team will likely only go as far as those two can take them. So far though, it hasn’t been Brunson, or Bridges that has benefitted the most from Towns and his passing. That honor goes to OG Anunoby.
In the 12 games in which both have played, Anunoby has gotten an impressive amount of dunks and post-ups thanks to Towns’ willingness to give up the ball, and head’s up passing. That’s led to Anunoby having a career year, averaging a career-high 17.5 PPG while shooting 60% from two. A lot of it started early in the season when teams were willingly putting smaller defenders on Anunoby.
And as they have developed more chemistry, Anunoby and Towns have become more and more involved in actions. We have plays like the one below where the Knicks add an interesting wrinkle to their offense by having Anunoby unconventionally screen for Towns.
And now with Towns, Anunoby, who has always been a good cutter, has seemingly been unlocked. We’ve seen over the last few games, Anunoby finding the open seems in the defense time and time again, and Towns finding him on time.
(Quick shout out to Tyler Kolek for relocating back out to the corner to make Taurean Prince think twice about helping down low earlier.)
These kinds of plays were even more prevalent last night when Towns found Anunoby for three dunks in the span of just three quarters.
(Side note, may seem minor, but peep Pacome Dadiet, whose relocation makes this all possible)
The Knicks have and will likely continue to miss Randle’s gravity at times. That being said, the Knicks have been great on offense, ranking third in offensive rating. And they have done so even with an inconsistent Brunson by trading some of Randle’s downhill playmaking for a smoother offense predicated on selflessness, quick decisions, and teamwork. Just how good the offense can be is still a bit of an unknown due to Brunson’s aforementioned play, and Bridges’ subpar three-point shooting. But if Towns can continue to be both a dominant scorer and the passer who unlocks everyone else, this offense argues for the most deadly one in the league.