To everyone hoping the New York Knicks will put both Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson in the starting lineup: Be careful what you wish for.
Running a dual-center frontcourt is clearly on the table. A starting five with Towns and Robinson may even be the most likely choice. But for all the intrigue surrounding New York’s double-big possibilities, it’s going to come at a significant cost on offense: an inability to play fast.
As James L. Edwards III of The Athletic notes in his most recent mailbag, this needs to be a sticking point the Knicks consider and debate to no end. Head coach Mike Brown has made it clear he wants the team to play faster. New York has the personnel to make it happen–just not as often, or effectively, if the Robinson-Towns frontcourt becomes a crutch.
The Knicks’ speed implodes with Towns and Robinson on the floor
Every concern pertaining to the dual-big frontcourt comes with the caveat that it didn’t get a ton of reps last season. Robinson missed most of the year recovering from ankle surgery, and former head coach Tom Thibodeau seemed reluctant to experiment with two-center lineups prior to the postseason.
All told, the Towns-Robinson duo saw just 212 minutes, across the regular season and playoffs. In that time, the Knicks saw the speed at which they play plummet.
New York’s average offensive possession time clocked in at 16.84 seconds when both bigs were on the floor, with 8.9 percent of its plays coming in transition. Both marks are substantially lower than how the team performed overall—and would by far and away rank dead last among all 30 teams.
New York can’t expect to play fast with two bigs
Chalking this up to small-sample theater doesn’t fly. The returns are at least to some extent in line with how Towns and Robinson play. Neither is among the fastest bigs in existence. They will not be winning any foot races down the floor.
Towns papers over some of the speed limitations by hitting trail threes, and having the bandwidth to grab rebounds and dribble up the court. Robinson does not do either of those things. With exception of his rookie season, the Knicks’ fast-break frequency has dipped, often significantly, during his time on the court in every year of his career.
At 27, with a host of injuries in his rear view, Robinson isn’t suddenly going to change, or tap into full-court explosion we haven’t seen before. If New York wants to increase the time he spends alongside Towns, it must do so knowing the offense won’t be what Brown wants or expects to be.