New York’s Unconventional Co-Star

Karl-Anthony Towns came into the NBA looking the part of a traditional superstar. He's turned into something else entirely.

Good morning! Before we get to today’s newsletter, a quick announcement that we’re doing another watch party for Knicks vs Bucks this Friday night at T2 Social, except this one comes with a few perks. For everyone in attendance who also follows Juan, Please and KFS on Instagram, you’ll be eligible to win two FREE tickets to Knicks vs Bulls on November 13 at MSG. On top of that, I’ll be giving away some complementary KFS hats to five lucky fans, and Juan, Please will be dishing merch and complementary cocktails as well. This will be our last watch party for a while, so if you’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to come out and support the team with your friends from Knicks Film School, now’s your chance. As always, entry is absolutely free.

Let’s get to the newsletter.

News & Notes

🏀 Tyler Kolek, please pick up the red courtesy phone.

With Cam Payne officially listed as doubtful tomorrow night, the New York rookie that has everyone so excited may get his first regular season opportunity to shine.

Regarding why Payne might miss the Knicks’ outing in Houston, Tom Thibodeau spoke to the media yesterday before the injury designation was released and said only that Payne was “nicked up” and didn’t practice in full.

As for Precious Achiuwa, he hasn't yet been cleared for full practice, but has participated to some degree, so that’s a good sign.

Tipoff is at 8:45 pm, and the halftime Zoom is on. Just click on this link for access.

NY’s Unconventional Co-Star

On a Friday night filled with one head-shaking sequence after another, there was one Knicks possession midway through the third quarter that somehow rose above the rest. You’ve probably seen it by now, but just in case you haven’t:

Not only is that basketball nirvana, but it’s an easy selection for this week’s Juan Shining Moment!

The only thing better than an ice cold TLT is the Knicks employing ball movement reminiscent of the ‘13-14 Spurs.

From the instant Jalen Brunson picks up his dribble and hands it off to Mikal Bridges, the ball touches the floor just once before it drops through the net 13 seconds later. In between, seven players touch the rock, none for more than a moment.

That one dribble, of course, was courtesy of Broadway’s newest star - one whose gravity and skill has suddenly transformed New York’s attack from one of bludgeoning brutality to a thing of beauty.

You almost feel bad for Isaiah Stewart on the above possession, as he’s put in a position of ultimate compromise: either hang back, conceding a three from a guy who has now made 11 attempts in 17 tries from behind the arc, or play up, thus allowing a driving lane for a dude who just worked Bam Adebayo like he was Enes Kanter.

Watching this play and others where Karl-Anthony Towns dissected an overmatched Pistons defense that had been downright respectable coming into this game, I tried to think of a basketball comp for this walking mismatch. The more I pondered, the more I came to the realization that there’s never been anyone quite like him - not in the sense that he’s the best or even the most impactful player on the team, but in his one-of-a-kind combination of skills, and the interplay of those skills with the other four guys on the court.

That’s when it hit me: the perfect comp for Karl-Anthony Towns isn’t a basketball player, or even a professional athlete.

It’s Brad Pitt.

Pitt, it has been said, is a character actor trapped in the body of a leading man. Gifted with looks and sex appeal that once inspired a personal shout out from Shania Twain (look her up, kids), Pitt looked like he might be the movie star of his generation. In some ways, maybe he was.

Just not in the way we thought.

That isn’t to say Pitt couldn’t carry a movie when he needed to, but for as much as he holds the screen in Moneyball, Pitt will be remembered just as much if not more for ensemble stuff like Snatch, Inglorious Basterds, and of course, the Oceans trilogy. It’s only fitting that he finally nabbed his Oscar in 2020, not as a lead, but in Supporting Actor for Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, where he swooped in, stole a scene or five, and swooped right back out.

That movie was the latest reminder that while Pitt is good alone, he’s best when he’s amplifying the star power of someone else, whether it’s Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Edward Norton, George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, or Leonardo DiCaprio.

Which brings us back to Towns.

Drafted No. 1 overall and possessing an unmatched skill set for a player of his size, championships were supposed to run through this transformational player after NBA GM’s twice named him the man they’d most want to build around if they were starting a team from scratch. When a guy comes into the league with that sort of fanfare, the expectation is that he’s going to do an awful lot of heavy lifting.

He did. It just didn’t go very well.

Before the arrival of Anthony Edwards, Towns’ tenure in Minnesota was akin to Cool World, Legends of the Fall, and Meet Joe Black (a fitting comp for the Jimmy Butler experience).

Needless to say, KAT is more than capable of strapping a team on his back and carrying them to victory, as he did last Wednesday in Miami, but for as awe-inspiring as that performance was, was Friday’s outing in Detroit a more optimal use of KAT’s prodigious talents?

Going back to Pitt for a moment, with all due respect to “What’s in the boooooooxxx”, “I want you…to hit me…as hard as you can,” and whatever the hell he was mumbling in Snatch, there’s an argument that no director truly unlocked the heartthrob until Steven Soderbergh made him second in command to Danny Ocean.

Having watched the original Oceans remake more times than I care to admit, I can confidently say that Pitt isn’t doing all that much. He’s just…being Brad Pitt, usually while stuffing food in his face. And yet simply by doing that, he holds the entire movie together.

Now over three decades into his career, we still don’t really know what kind of actor Pitt is supposed to be. The personification of cool that is Rusty Ryan? Oddballs like Lt. Aldo Raine? Playing against type, like in Burn After Reading or The Big Short? Whatever the answer is, his career has been anything but what we would have expected coming off of Thelma & Louise. But after an up and down first decade, tt has also been, an unabashed success.

Sometimes it just takes a while to figure out the optimal use of one’s talents, even those as prodigious as Pitt’s.

Or KAT’s.

The Timberwolves, it would not be unfair to say, got tired of taking on that challenge. After drafting the Leo of the basketball world, it’s hard to blame them.

For as incredible as Anthony Edwards is though, he was never able to develop the sort of chemistry with Towns that Jalen Brunson already seems to possess. On Wednesday in Miami, Jalen assisted Towns on five of his 17 field goals. Edwards averaged 5.1 assists per game last year, and yet only once did he assist KAT on that many field goals in a single game (KAT’s somewhat infamous 62-point outing in a loss to Charlotte; aka, Troy).

Unlike Towns, Brunson proved last year that he can do all the heavy lifting and then some for a team in desperate need of a lead dog. His challenge now will be blending that style with the need to get his teammates involved, and none more so that KAT.

Early returns are promising:

Perhaps the reason is that these guys have more in common than we realize.

Just like Towns isn’t a star in the traditional mold, neither is Brunson. As we saw with Luka Doncic and even Julius Randle, he’s more than willing to cede the spotlight and knows how to play off of the gravity of others. More than that, last season saw an evolution from Brunson as an off-ball mover, as Fred Katz detailed in April.

While the types of passes he sees and is able to make will always be limited by his diminutive stature, Brunson is still an able distributor of the basketball.

Looking back at the duos that have defined the last decade of the league through their ability to bring the best out of each other, Steph & Draymond are the gold standard, although Jokic & Murray have been coming for the belt over the last few years. Towns isn’t the passer that the Joker is (he is tiers above everyone else), but it’s not impossible to imagine Jalen and Karl developing that level of chemistry. They certainly possess the talent and seem more than willing to defer; now they just need the reps.

In that sense, the last few games were a glimpse into what could be in store if these two keep at it. Being surrounded by the likes of Mikal, Josh and OG - all willing and able movers and movers of the basketball in their own right - only increases the chances of success.

Or at least that’s the hope. Ultimately, just like it’s impossible to predict when a big budget picture is going to be a hit or a flop, basketball chemistry is a fickle beast.

But just like a movie could do worse than featuring Brad Pitt, the Knicks should be happy with their man in the middle, even if he’s continuing to figure out how to be the best leading man he can be.

💫 Stars of the Game 💫

⭐️ Karl-Anthony Towns: Sticking with the Pitt comp for a tad longer, just like Brad was third(ish) billing in Once Upon A Time… behind DiCaprio and Margot Robbie, Towns takes third place here. Had he played more than 27 minutes, KAT would have had a decent shot at the fourth triple double of his career, but finishing with 21, 11 & 7 plus two blocks and a steal sure ain’t bad.

⭐️ ⭐️ OG Anunoby: OG deserves two stars all on his own, but I’m including the below clip and explanation from the always excellent Steve Jones Jr to show how his impact is bolstered by the presence of two other excellent defensive wings:

Anunoby simply being in Cade’s area code once Josh and Mikal divert Cunningham from his intended path is enough to initiate a turnover that Bridges gets credit for. Thankfully, OG gets rewarded with his easiest two points of the night, which is also our Autograph Signature Play of the Game!

Don’t forget to check out my weekly 3 x 3 video on the Autograph app later today.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Jalen Brunson: Brunson hasn’t seemed like himself so far this year. He’s only hitting 37 percent from floater range, and while that number isn’t horrendous for mere mortals, Brunson has mastered the art of the short mid-ranger.

And yet, thanks to hitting half of his 26 attempts from long range (including his first five on Friday night), Brunson is having a more efficient season overall than he did last year. The 3-point accuracy will come down some, but the floaters will undoubtedly go up.

All things considered, New York is fortunate to be above .500 even though their floor general hasn’t quite found his groove.

Final Thought

For all the talk about the difficulty level of the first 10 games of the season, the Knicks have a chance to make some real hay in the next eight days. Sitting at 3-2, they head to Houston to face the struggling Rockets, then to Atlanta to play a Hawks team that has lost four in a row, including two to the Wizards. After that, it’s back home to face the one-win Bucks, then off to Indy for a rematch with the Pacers, and then finally on to Philly, who may or may not have their stars back by that point.

Keep playing like they did on Friday night, and New York should come out of that stretch just fine.

🏀

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”