Don't let Jalen Brunson distract you from Karl-Anthony Towns' historic playoff breakthrough

Outside of the Oklahoma City Thunder, no one is running hotter than the New York City Knicks. After losing two of their first three playoff games to the Atlanta Hawks, the Knicks have tallied seven straight victories (to the Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers). On top of that, they boast the greatest point differential through 10 playoff games of any team in NBA history.

Naturally, a lot of the credit is going to go to Jalen Brunson, the team's best player and the face of the most popular basketball franchise in the league. In his defense, the Southpaw has been dealing. Outside of Cade Cunningham and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, no one is averaging more points per game than Brunson (27.4).

However, this is Year 4 of Brunson tearing it up in the postseason in a Knicks uniform. In none of the previous three seasons has New York looked better than they do right now. The difference? Simple, Karl-Anthony Towns.

Karl-Anthony Towns has had a historic start to the 2026 Playoffs

On the surface, it may seem like Towns is taking a backseat. His 17.4 points-per-game average is 2.7 points below what he was contributing in the regular season and only ranks 34th among playoff players. But rather, this is a result of Towns shapeshifting his role for the greater good.

After their Game 3 loss to the Hawks, head coach Mike Brown and his staff decided to diversify the team's offense by putting Towns in more delay actions that allowed him to use his blend of gravity and vision to operate as the quarterback of their attack.

What followed has been undeniable. Towns is averaging 6.6 assists per game, which is nearly three times as much as his previous career high (2.6, set in the 2024 Playoffs). As a team, the Knicks have a 142 offensive rating and an overall on-court rating plus-22.1 per 100 possessions when Towns is on the floor.

A good way to summarize all the little things Towns' passing, spacing, and quick decision-making are doing for the Knicks' offense is to look at one-number, catch-all metrics like Basketball Reference's Box Plus-Minus (BPM) — which uses box scores stats to estimate a player's net impact on his team, per 100 possessions. Right now, Towns leads all playoff players with a BPM of plus-14.4. That is plus3.7 higher than the next highest player -- the prodigious Victor Wembanyama.

If that wasn't impressive enough, get this. In NBA history, only four players have gone through a postseason with a BPM above 14 while appearing in at least 10 games. Of course, Towns is one of those fellows. But guess who the other three are. Kawhi Leonard, LeBron James, and ... wait for it ... Michael Jeffery Jordan (per Stathead).

Towns is on a list that features the two candidates for Greatest of All-Time, and one of the few guys who can go toe-to-toe with them in spurts.

Too be fair, Towns still has at least one more series left this postseason. If the quality of his performance dips, he could fall under that BPM of 14 threshold and be omitted from this group altogether. The Knicks also have yet to face a team with a top-10 regular season net rating. So, we will need to wait and see how Towns' game can translate to stauncher competition.

But until then, why don't we all sit back for a second, and give Towns the flowers he rightfully deserves.

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