The New York Knicks unlocked a new side of Karl-Anthony Towns' game in the first round of their NBA Championship run. The Atlanta Hawks' defense was capable of making life tough enough on any scorer to force a counter, leaving Mike Brown using Towns as a playmaker.
The Knicks leaned on the new wrinkle to their offense sporadically throughout the rest of the postseason, but long defenders like Evan Mobley and Victor Wembanyama complicated that as the level of competition elevated. Regardless, the pivot helped New York flip a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 series victory.
Now, Brown's Knicks have an entire offseason to optimize the Towns-centric packages in their offense. And Alan Hahn revealed on "Knicks Fan TV" that, based on a conversation he had with an assistant coach, KAT's success against the Hawks might just have been a sneak peek of what's to come.
Towns set to benefit from "completely bigger" options
"One of the assistant coaches I talked to about the offense with KAT as the hub, cause I said, 'Wow, this is a new look for you guys!' and he's like, 'You ain't seen nothing yet. Wait til' we get a full training camp with this. Like there's so many layers, but we don't have enough time to put it in. So next year,' he's like, 'our offense is going to be completely bigger, with many more options,' Hahn explained.
The broadcaster for ESPN and MSG Networks continued on, paraphrasing the assistant's comments about the Knicks already having seen some of the counters that opposing defenses will have for Towns' playmaking.
When defenders like Mobley or Wembanyama blew up actions built around Towns' playmaking from the top of the key, New York certainly already had other options. The development of their offense over the course of the season, from their NBA Cup Championship to their NBA Finals victory, justified the time they took to work through the kinks in their offense – and find the best possible path forward.
Mitchell Robinson will no longer be in the mix to support Towns through early foul trouble. But it'll be interesting to see if Mo Diawara, with a full offseason of workouts as an NBA player under his belt, emerges as more of a scorer off of cuts. OG Anunoby has all the reason in the world to go into next season with ultimate confidence as a scorer, which could involve continuing to feast on scoring opportunities fed to him by Towns.
Even Jalen Brunson still has giants to slay. For the third straight year, though, he'll have one of the most skilled giants in the league on his side. And he certainly has playmaking ability to continue capitalizing on.
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