Knicks team president Leon Rose made consequential moves heading into this season by trading for forward Mikal Bridges and forward/center Karl-Anthony Towns in dramatically reshaping a roster that made it to the Eastern Conference semifinals last season.
The 28-year-old Bridges, a Philadelphia native, named to the 2022 All-Defensive First Team, was acquired from the Brooklyn Nets in July. Towns, also 28, grew up in Piscataway, New Jersey, less than 40 miles from Madison Square Garden. He was long rumored to be a player the Knicks coveted and they finally brought the league’s 2015 No. 1 overall draft pick back home on October 2 in a deal with Minnesota Timberwolves, with which Towns had spent his entire career.
The four-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA selection came to New York for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo, players that were part of a group that had realistic designs to unseat the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference and reach the franchise’s first finals since 1999. It was risky for Rose to part with Randle and DiVincenzo, who were essential to the Knicks building a symbiotic culture and identity characterized by toughness, resolve and exhaustive defense under demanding head coach Tom Thibodeau.
One of the persistent criticisms of the uber-talented Towns throughout his professional career is that despite possessing an ideal frame at 7-0, 250 pounds to play with punishing physicality, he did not impose his size and strength consistently in the paint and preferred to play more on the perimeter, where he is one of the best shooting big men the game has ever seen, making nearly 40 percent of his 3-point attempts.
Thibodeau coached Towns with the Wolves from 2016-2019 and faced Bridges frequently when the latter was a member of the Nets so had a clear vision of how they would adapt to the Knicks’ offensive and defensive schemes, and more importantly, carry with them a selfless and win-first mindset. Thus far, early this season the Knicks are expectedly a work-in-progress. They were 1-2 going into last night’s road game versus the Miami Heat coming off of a 110-104 home loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers at MSG on Monday.
“…The thing you got to strive to be (is) a forty-eight minute team and we’re nowhere near that,” said Thibodeau after the defeat. “Yet we got to keep working on it and keep our focus on improvement. Get better each day.”
Towns finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds on just eight shot attempts. Team captain Jalen Brunson, who led the Knicks with 21 points but had an off shooting night at 8-for-24, saw consistent double-teams from the Cavaliers, said it’s his responsibility to increase his big man’s role on the offensive end.
“I would say as good as [Karl-Anthony Towns] is, no one can really take him out of the game,” Brunson said. “It’s on us. It’s on me as a teammate to make sure we’re all on the same page. Making sure that everyone’s eating. I got to be better when it comes to that, I got to adjust, and I got to see.”
The Knicks will continue on a four-game road trip playing the Detroit Pistons tomorrow, the Houston Rockets on Monday and the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday. They finally return home on November 8 to host the Milwaukee Bucks.