Throughout his career, New York Knicks big man Karl-Anthony Towns has built up a reputation of being a sub-par defensive contributor.
During his first season in the Big Apple, former coach Tom Thibodeau received a stark reminder of this truth, as his top-10-ranked defensive unit from the year before dropped to a middling 13 overall, while Towns, personally, registered the fourth-worst defensive rating on the team (minimum 50 games played).
Now, in 2025-26, new headman Mike Brown finds himself coming to this same realization about the veteran's lackluster production on the less glamorous side of the ball, and, though we may only be six games into the campaign, it seems more likely than not that this is a trend that's bound to linger throughout the entirety of the season.