Karl-Anthony Towns has already shown he can be one of the league’s most dangerous offensive centers, but the Knicks still haven’t squeezed everything out of him.
He’s living up to that standard to open this season, yet there’s another gear available - not just as a scorer, but as a passer. The simplest way to get there is also the most obvious: put the ball in his hands on the move more often. Or at least as often as New York did last season.
That matters because Towns’ drives are no longer just about him finishing at the rim. They’ve become a way to create for everyone else, too.
The numbers show the dip clearly. Towns averaged more than 9.4 drives per 36 minutes during the 2025-26 campaign, then settled just under nine during the Knicks’ postseason run. This season, that figure has fallen to seven drives per 36 minutes.
That’s too low for a player with his profile. Towns is one of basketball’s most unusual downhill threats: quick for a seven-footer, willing to absorb contact, and long established as one of the best scorers going to the basket.
What makes the drop even harder to explain is that he isn’t touching the ball less. In fact, he’s getting more frontcourt touches and spending more time with the ball per game, even while logging fewer minutes.
He’s also making more passes each night, which fits with how much more of the offense New York is running through him. If not for his tendency to attempt risky passes and the Knicks’ poor shooting, the assist numbers would probably look even better.
Still, the bigger point is that neither Towns nor the Knicks are fully cashing in on what he can do as a playmaker. His vision from a standstill has always been strong, but he’s also grown as a passer while dribbling into action.
For most of his time with the Timberwolves and early in his Knicks stint, Towns didn’t pass often after drives. His best passing work came when he could catch, read the floor, and feed cutters or shooters. Last season changed that.
The shift started late in the year, then really exploded in the playoffs. From Game 4 against the Atlanta Hawks through the end of the NBA Finals, Towns passed on more than 39 percent of his drives. Over a full season, he had never passed on more than 26.6 percent of his drives.
He has carried that trend into this year. Towns is passing on nearly 30 percent of his downhill attacks and has assisted on about one of every nine drives. The sample is still small, but both numbers would be career highs.
With the Knicks’ offense stuck in the mud, that has to become a bigger part of the plan. New York ranks 20th in points scored per possession outside of garbage time, and while that won’t necessarily last, the quickest way to improve is to lean harder into Towns. That means fewer experimental touches for OG Anunoby and more opportunities for KAT.
If that doesn’t happen, the Knicks can still help by putting more ball screens on Towns’ possessions. He also has the strength and movement to simply attack downhill more often on his own.
However it happens, the Knicks need more of Towns generating offense for himself and for others.
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