How Karl-Anthony Towns Proved the NBA Wrong
People were definitely saying the Knicks couldn’t have a serviceable defense with KAT and Brunson on the floor. They were able to have the #1 defensive rating in the playoffs largely due to KAT picking it up defensively.
Acting as the offensive hub in a few series was awesome but the defense was the most impressive part.
That Embiid tweet is even funnier in retrospect. Maybe he’ll finally make the conference finals this year.
Didn’t prove anyone wrong, these awful narratives after players win are so braindead
The entire criticism was KAT as a first option can he win and does he have that in him, he didn’t prove anything, he averaged like 9 shots in the playoffs and in the finals he was used less than even OG
He was also used very differently than he was in Minny, he was much more of a point center and not just a scorer, he averaged 3.7 turnovers and 2 assists in Minnesota in the playoffs and played awful, wasn’t aggressive enough, was way less efficient, a turnover and foul machine
I even like KAT, people were dumb, people expect everyone to be this top tier top 5 amazing player because they are paid a supermax, that’s not how it works
It just shows you how you need the right team around you, the Knicks have a very good team to cover his flaws
I heard for 2 years the Knicks can’t win a title with KAT and Brunson on defense.
people said he couldnt play defense yet 2 seasons ago he locked down jokic better than anyone, and this season he played great defense across 4 series
Ppl said he couldnt win in the playoffs, he did
Ppl said he was soft, he was by far the most physical player these playoffs
He 100% improved defensively, he also still fouled a shit ton and was able to get away with it because Knicks had a good back up and were able to go small when needed
He averaged nearly 5 fouls in the finals, he scored 2 points and went 1⁄7, fouled out and still won in a super important game 5, a first option you would never be able to do that
The entire criticism was him with a way way bigger role than he had during this run, the role that Brunson took
they gave him a lot of fouls. In the past he had the foul issue, but then was able to rein it in for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd series. Then in the finals they slapped so many fouls on him to make it more competitive.
In one game he had like 3 fouls in the first thirty seconds of the game. Only one of those was an actual foul and it would never be called in a finals series where they werent already up 2-0
The narratives being that he couldn’t be a center on a championship level defense. He wasn’t poised enough to be a 2nd option on a championship team. And he and Brunson can’t coexist on the floor defensively.
He proved all those things wrong. Him getting in foul trouble to end the Spurs series doesn’t erase his dominance in games 1 and 2, as well as being arguably the best player in the entire postseason in the first three rounds.
I mean the idea was to use him as a hub so his scoring numbers were down but he averaged 5 assists a game and shot 46%. His gravity was really good getting wemby out of the paint. I think the point of the post was that he was playing excellent team ball when people were calling him soft and selfish.
Thank you. I feel like I’ve been going crazy telling people this. Kat is still kat. He can play a part in a winning team but can’t ever be the main guy.
He didn’t really. He’s who we thought he was.
Ring culture in the NBA is crazy because as soon as somebody win it we supposed to belief that player has been great all his career.
Most of them are, people just don’t respect them for it unless things go a very specific way.
His father saying kat has now surpassed Jimmy Buttler was kind of cringe. Butler was the main guy on a heat team that made the finals twice. Kat can’t ever do that. Kat was a third option on a winning team, Buttler is still way better than him.