Following Monday night’s 121-90 road loss to the Detroit Pistons, Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns described the current four-game losing streak as “a bad, bad time,” adding, “You can’t have it be this bad.” Coming from KAT, whose issues are emblematic of the Knicks writ large, the quote is striking.
We’re less than halfway through the season, and the team is still 23-13. That’s good for third in the East behind Boston and Detroit. Towns finished the game with a plus/minus of -27. Amongst the 13 players who saw the court Monday, only OG Anunoby’s -31 was worse. The Knicks gave up 21 fastbreak points and conceded 33 points off turnovers in their loss to the Pistons. The Pistons got what they wanted, scoring 52 points in the paint while knocking down 16 threes at a 52 percent clip.
Unfortunately, defensive showings like Monday night have been par for the course. During this four-game losing streak, the Knicks are giving up 124 points per game. They’ve also allowed opponents to shoot 51.5 percent from the field. For reference, Denver, the best offensive team in the league, averages 124 points per game and shoots 50.8 percent from the field.
The defensive rating for these past four games is telling. It puts the Knicks in the company of the Utah Jazz, Washington Wizards, and Sacramento Kings—hardly a who’s who of playoff contenders.
What the Knicks Need to Do to Get Their Groove Back
Effort and Communication
As I previously noted, within Mike Brown’s new system, point-of-attack defense has been an issue for this Knicks team all season. It’s become routine to see opposing ball handlers sashaying to the rim unimpeded. Below, Cade Cunningham works his way past Anunoby while Miles McBride waits in a help position. McBride loses track of a cutting Ausar Thompson, allowing Cunningham to find him for a dunk. The icing on the cake, Towns’ late contest at the rim.
It wasn’t just Cunningham. Jaden Ivey, Daniss Jenkins, Javonte Green, and even the offensively challenged Thompson each had their moment, blowing past Knicks defenders en route to easy baskets. Watch in this ESPN clip as Ivey goes coast-to-coast against a backpedaling Tyler Kolek. Kolek is nearly in the restricted area by the time he establishes any defensive posture.
Cunningham’s game highlight reel is an indictment of the Knicks’ defense in isolation and as a team.
Several times in the video above, Cunningham beats his defender in isolation, drawing in help defenders. This season, the Knicks’ defensive rotation has been slow or non-existent.
Take this Pistons possession at the 5:15 mark in the third quarter, with the Knicks down 19. Cunningham starts his dance a few feet inside the logo. He calls for Ron Holland II, guarded by Jalen Brunson, to set a screen. Holland sets one with mild effort, but it’s enough to throw the Knicks into disarray. Brunson jumps the right side of the screen, forcing Cunningham back middle, while Kevin McCullar Jr., his initial defender, scrambles to get over the screen and back in front of Cunningham.
Cunningham uses an in-and-out dribble to evade the off-balance McCullar Jr., who ends up fouling him en route to an and-1 finish. Mitchell Robinson comes over to help, but the help is late, and his contest winds up being irrelevant to the play.
Should Brunson have hedged on the screen so hard instead of switching? Why did McCullar initially switch onto Holland, then break off him to chase Cade down? It seems to boil down to a lack of communication and confidence in where their teammates will be.
Help Wanted
The team’s lack of credible isolation defenders has put a larger burden on Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby. Bridges, in particular, has uncharacteristically struggled as a stopper. That’s left Brown searching the end of his bench for answers. Fringe rotation players like Kolek and 6’9″ forward Mohamed Diawara have been cast as perimeter defenders without evidence that they can fill those roles.
The trade market offers little hope. Any player that fits the bill for what the Knicks need will almost assuredly be coveted by other contenders who have the cap room and assets to make a deal. Hamstrung in their options, the Knicks must look inward to solve their defensive issues. According to Brown, “Everything is on the table.”
This must include tough conversations with players like Brunson, Bridges, and Towns. Brunson must put in more effort, even if he remains a liability. He’s one of the more cerebral players in the league; there’s no reason he shouldn’t be an effective communicator on defense à la Chris Paul in his heyday. Towns must improve his weakside defense. His defensive rating of 114 ties his career low from 2022-23, and he played only 29 games that season.
Bridges must regain the form that saw him make first-team All-Defense in 2022. Last year, the Knicks finished 13th in defensive rating with practically the same lineup. There’s no reason this iteration of the Knicks should perform so poorly on the less glamorous side of the ball.
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