This was the Knicks’ most successful season in a quarter of a century. The 51 wins and their first trip to the Eastern Conference Finals since 2000 undoubtedly secure that, regardless of how low the bar had been set by previous regimes that did their best to run the storied franchise into the ground.
It is also completely reasonable to assess that New York’s 2024-25 experiment ultimately failed, doing so spectacularly on the biggest stage yet by being eliminated in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Saturday night by the Indiana Pacers.
Team president Leon Rose’s big swing to trade Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Karl-Anthony Towns was supposed to make the Knicks an offensive machine, creating a lethal scoring duo alongside Jalen Brunson.
Their identity was changing. Amongst the grit from DiVincenzo that was shown the door, defensive stalwart and center Isaiah Hartenstein left for the greener pastures of Oklahoma City.
Towns was never going to provide that, as that side of his game had been inconsistent, at best, even with his contributions to the Minnesota Timberwolves’ No. 1-ranked defense last season.
So when the scoring machine sputtered — even with the Knicks ranking fifth in the regular season with 109 points per game — the defensive deficiencies became even more glaring, especially with Brunson and Towns on the floor together.
Defense is not a part of Brunson’s game, and it was never going to be given his size. It is what the opposition keyed on all postseason long, as seen with Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton’s abuse of him during the Eastern Conference Finals.
That is a shortcoming the franchise simply has to live with. Brunson is the face of the franchise, the team captain, and the most prominent sparkplug that helped wrench the Knicks out of the dark ages and into their most successful, sustainable period of success since the 1990s.
Towns’ case is decidedly different. At 7 feet, he has the makeup to be at least a competent rim protector. Instead, he was taken advantage of in one-on-one situations by Pascal Siakam and Myles Turner.
Turner shot nearly 60% from the field when he was defended by Towns during the conference final, while Siakam recorded 33 points in just 16:26.
While his defense near the basket was simply not good enough, his drop coverage was equally timid. The Pacers had a field day hitting mid-range jumpers over the Knicks’ big man throughout the series.
His struggles gradually grated on his teammates. A report from The Athletic’s Fred Katz and James Edwards disclosed that the Knicks “expressed frustration with Towns’ defensive habits.”
“Publicly, Knicks players made veiled comments all season about poor communication causing inconsistencies,” the report read. “Behind the scenes, they and coaches expressed frustration with Towns’ defensive habits — less concerned with his talent level and more with his process on that end. Too often, Towns executed incorrect coverages without communicating why he did it. After it became a theme, players worried Towns didn’t grasp the importance of the matter.”
As a whole, the Knicks did not seem to grasp much defensive competence during the Eastern Conference Finals. They allowed an average of 116.8 points per game, and were torched by Indiana for 125-plus three times.
A disjointed defense will never bust the Knicks’ championship slump, which will now enter its 53rd year. If the frustration with Towns is as high as it reportedly seems, the trade rumors this summer will surely fly — and the 29-year-old is versatile and talented enough to land New York a sizable return.
But there could be an avenue to run things back, or at least give it one more shot. A healthy Mitchell Robinson provides the defensive acumen needed to bolster the frontcourt. Starting him at the 5 would allow head coach Tom Thibodeau to flex Towns to a power forward role, which he inhabited with last year’s defensive-best Timberwolves.
It would require Rose to secure another key depth piece to pair with Robinson at the center position, considering his injury history. He didn’t make his season debut until late February after recovering from ankle surgery.
But beefing up the defense is a must for Rose, regardless of what he decides to do with his roster.
