The New York Knicks as a whole have struggled mightily over these past few weeks, but the player who has arguably received the most flak for their struggles throughout this ongoing rut is Karl-Anthony Towns.
Despite being one of the club's lone two All-NBA talents, the 30-year-old has been absolutely abysmal as of late, especially since the calendar page flipped to January, where he's been a net negative (-5.3 plus-minus) on the floor while posting mediocre averages of 17.7 points on 43.2 percent shooting from the floor and 32.4 percent shooting from distance.
Considering how he just recorded his best year in the association a season ago and was off to a hot two-month start in year two with the Knicks before his current stretch, these on-court hardships come as a rather grueling surprise.
However, to sports pundit Max Kellerman, the reasoning behind this dip in production is rather obvious -- he's exhausted from upping his efforts on the defensive end.
Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns believed to be worn from defensive play
During a recent episode of Game Over with Max Kellerman and Rich Paul, the long-time sports personality acknowledged that Towns' offense has been atrocious since the start of 2026, and that his theory on why he's seen such a stark decline on this end of the floor is that the wear and tear of trying to play standout defense during the time leading up to it have taken its toll.
"There was a stretch about a month or so ago, where for a month, a good month, I thought he was excellent defensively. My theory, because I can't come up with a better one, is it wore him out a little bit, and he's paying the price right now," Kellerman said.
Yes, on the surface, this may sound a bit odd when considering Towns is historically a poor defensive player. However, Kellerman's point seems to have some validity to it from an advanced metrics standpoint.
The "good month" that he's referring to is likely the stretch from November 2 through December 5, where, during this span, the Knicks were absolutely surging as they went 13-4 through 17 games while KAT was boasting a solid defensive rating of 112.3, a defensive field goal percentage of 46.3, and held opponents to a -12.8 plus-minus.
Though he didn't necessarily flat out agree with Kellerman's theory, co-host Rich Paul did note that coach Mike Brown's scheme is more "old school" and one that expects its players to "guard on the defensive end," which, when it comes to the idea of a big running all over the place on defense, "normally that guy isn't asked to also produce offensively," which Towns clearly is.
Whether this is actually the case, or if it's something more behind-the-scenes, something is clearly not clicking with the franchise big man, and, if they don't find a way for him to snap out of this lull soon, disastrous consequences could very well be in store.