The Knicks don’t need Karl-Anthony Towns piling up points in September-style preseason box scores. What they do need is a clearer read on what happens when he’s more than a background piece in the starting offense.
Through two exhibitions, Towns has put up 13 points on 4-for-11 shooting in 34 minutes. Six of those 11 shots came from beyond the arc, which leaves a pretty thin sample if the goal is to understand what he can do for New York inside the three-point line.
There’s a case to be made for getting him involved early against Minnesota on Monday. Not to manufacture touches for the sake of volume, but to see what changes when he gets a post touch, works into a handoff, or screens with Jalen Brunson in the first few possessions.
The question isn’t whether Towns needs to shoot more. It’s whether the offense looks better when he’s part of the action from the jump.
That distinction matters. Towns scored five points on 2-for-4 shooting against Philadelphia, then eight points on 2-for-7 shooting against Washington.
Across those two games, he also had 12 rebounds and five assists. That’s the kind of line that reminds you a big can influence an offense without finishing every trip himself.
So the real test shouldn’t be a shot target. If Towns draws help and kicks to an open teammate, that possession has done its job. If he turns a Brunson screen into a better matchup, that counts too, even if the ball never comes back to him.
At the same time, the turnovers can’t be ignored. Towns had five of them in those two games, and any bump in involvement has to come with cleaner decisions. Feeding him into traffic over and over doesn’t help just because the touch count goes up.
The box scores don’t tell the whole story anyway. They don’t show how often he touched the ball, what Mike Brown asked him to do, or whether the missed shots were actually good looks. What they do provide is a reason to try something a little different before the games start to count.
That opportunity comes Monday against Minnesota at 7:30 p.m. Brown already has his starting group in place - Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, OG Anunoby and Towns - which makes this a clean chance to compare how the offense functions when Towns is used earlier and more deliberately.
There’s also a legitimate argument for leaving him on the perimeter more often. His spacing can open the floor for Brunson, and a more outside-oriented setup might simply be the better version of this group. If that’s the answer, the Knicks should lean into it.
Either way, the next step is about evaluation, not conclusions. Two preseason games are not enough to declare a problem. They are enough to give Brown a useful test case: involve Towns early, watch what the passes and shots create, and keep what actually works.
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