It is no secret that Mike Brown loves to use his bigs as playmaking hubs. He did it with Draymond Green in Golden State and with Domantas Sabonis in Sacramento. Now, he could potentially try to do the same with Karl-Anthony Towns. The biggest problem standing in his way is Towns' ability to read and pass out of doubles.
Towns isn't on the same passing level as Green and Sabonis, that much is clear. Those two are among the best passing bigs to ever play the game. In Golden State, Green ran the offense as a point-center at times, while Sabonis was at the center of every action for the Kings.
As good as Towns is, that isn't his strong suit. Now, is it possible that Brown is able to run more actions with Town as a hub between the elbow and the 3-point line? Sure, that's possible. I do not think it is reasonable to ask Towns to do too much in that position, but can he run more dribble handoffs with Brunson? I don't see why not.
What Towns will have to get better at for it to be successful, however, is getting better at reading and passing out of double teams.
Towns struggles passing out of double teams
Over the course of his career, some of the things that have always hindered Towns on offense are passing out of drives and dealing with double teams.
Last season, Towns faced the third-most total double teams in the front court, trailing only Nikola Jokic and Alperen Sengun, according to league tracking data. Of players that had at least 400 front-court touches where they were doubled last season, no one passed out of fewer of those touches than Towns, who passed out of only 21.3 percent of them.
Furthermore, Towns had the third-highest turnover percentage out of that pool of players, turning over the ball on just over nine percent of the front-court touches that he faced a double team on.
To play faster, Towns must improve his decision making
In order to be a successful playmaking hub for Brown and the Knicks, Towns is going to need to improve his decision-making and passing ability in those situations. Brown loves to play fast, that much we know. One component of playing fast is getting up the court quickly and getting into their actions. The other component, which is equally important, is making quick decisions.
The ball will need to move quickly for the Knicks to run an up-tempo offense successfully, and if Town is to play a larger role in that offense, his decision-making will need to improve.