It is no secret Karl-Anthony Towns has transformed the Knicks’ offense.
As a uniquely skilled stretch five, the 7-foot Towns’ 3-point shooting and dominance on pick-and-rolls has unlocked one of the NBA’s highest-scoring and most-efficient teams.
But the man known as KAT has been just as big on the boards.
Towns entered Saturday night’s meeting with the Detroit Pistons at Madison Square Garden averaging a career-high 13.2 rebounds per game — the second-best mark in the NBA.
That production continues to prove invaluable for an embattled Knicks frontcourt that remains without fellow center Mitchell Robinson, who is still recovering from May’s left ankle surgery, and that only got forward/center Precious Achiuwa back from a preseason hamstring injury on Thursday.
“Just doing whatever I can to help this team win,” Towns, 29, said after the Knicks’ 121-106 victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday. “We’re not the tallest team in the NBA, so for me having the size, I’ve just got to go out there and get the rebounds for us so we can have a chance to win every single night and do what we do best.”
Towns is the only Knicks starter taller than 6-7. Their second-leading rebounder, 6-4 guard/forward Josh Hart, is averaging 8.6 boards per game.
The Knicks entered Saturday averaging 42.6 rebounds per game as a team, which ranked 23rd in the NBA.
It’s easy to wonder where they would be without Towns, whom they acquired less than three weeks before the start of the regular season in a blockbuster trade with the Timberwolves that sent forward Julius Randle and guard Donte DiVincenzo to Minnesota.
The 6-9 Randle was the Knicks’ leading rebounder on a per-game basis last season, averaging 9.2. Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstein, who left in the offseason for a mega-deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder, both averaged at least 8.3 rebounds per game in 2023-24, while Achiuwa added 7.2 after arriving from Toronto in a midseason trade.
With all of them gone or injured to start this season, Towns picked up much of the slack.
“It’s something we need,” said Towns, who also led the Knicks in scoring at 25.2 points per game to begin Saturday.
Towns averaged at least 9.8 rebounds per game in each of his first seven seasons with the Timberwolves, a stretch in which he started at center. He ranked within the top 10 among NBA rebounders in four of those seasons, including when he averaged 12.4 boards per game — his previous career high — in 2018-19.
But Towns moved to power forward for his final two years in Minnesota to accommodate the arrival of Rudy Gobert, a 7-1 center and four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year.
Towns averaged 8.1 and 8.3 rebounds per game, respectively, during the last two seasons.
“He’s always been a really good rebounder,” said Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau, who coached Towns in Minnesota from 2016-19.
“It probably dipped a little bit the last couple of years just because he was playing away from the basketball with Rudy, but he’s always had great instincts, and he’s long. He’s a lot longer than you think. He’s strong. He’s much stronger now than when I had him in Minnesota. He’s got great hands, too. If the ball’s near him, he’s getting it, and he’s going after everything.”
To begin play Saturday, Towns had collected double-digit rebounds in 19 of his 21 appearances this season and had not finished a game with fewer than seven. He was the Knicks’ leading rebounder in all but five of those games.
Towns has been particularly effective on the glass of late. Thursday’s 16-rebound effort marked his third consecutive game with at least 15 boards and the sixth time in the last seven games that he corralled at least 14.
He had a season-high 19 rebounds in only 25 minutes in a 118-85 win over the New Orleans Pelicans last Sunday.
Towns led the NBA in rebounds per game as recently as Thursday, but a 20-board performance by Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić that night pushed the three-time NBA MVP slightly ahead of Towns at 13.4 per game.
“I haven’t been a five in a while,” Towns said, “so it’s cool to be able to show I can still rebound.”
