{"id":211320,"date":"2025-10-09T08:59:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T08:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/211320\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T08:59:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T08:59:05","slug":"knicks-karl-anthony-towns-likely-getting-chance-to-build-on-intriguing-mitchell-robinson-chemistry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/211320\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks\u2019 Karl-Anthony Towns likely getting chance to build on intriguing Mitchell Robinson chemistry"},"content":{"rendered":"

There wasn\u2019t much of a sample size last year. Only 13 games and 47 minutes during the regular season. Only 18 games and 366 minutes in the postseason.<\/p>\n

But the early returns of a Karl-Anthony Towns pairing with Mitchell Robinson were mostly promising for the Knicks, with Towns \u2014 in the middle of the worst defensive season since 2020-21 in terms of defensive rating (114.7) \u2014 able to shift to power forward. Towns learned to play alongside someone like Robinson in Minnesota with Rudy Gobert, too, he said.<\/p>\n

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And given new head coach Mike Brown\u2019s earliest lineup hint<\/a>, with Robinson starting over Josh Hart in the preseason opener last week, they\u2019ll likely have a chance to build on that early cohesion once the regular season arrives.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s very gifted with his feet, just the way he can maneuver around the court,\u201d Towns said Wednesday of Robinson. \u201cI had good expectations of what I thought of Mitch walking in, especially on the offensive end, how I can maximize his offensive game. But even he surprised me with his ability.\u201d<\/p>\n

A key piece of their overlap on the court involves Robinson\u2019s health. He hasn\u2019t played more than 59 games in each of the last three regular seasons, and in 2024-25, he only logged 13 \u2014 which forced the Knicks to balance his minutes, limit his availability on back-to-backs and, by extension, provide limited runway for the Towns experiment.<\/p>\n

\"Karl-Anthony<\/p>\n

Karl-Anthony Towns dribbles the ball during the Knicks\u2019 preseason win over the 76ers. REUTERS<\/p>\n

They recorded a 118.8 defensive rating and a strong 128.0 offensive rating during the regular season. Then, with the extended postseason minutes, those numbers were 109.6 and 105.2, respectively. And it could provide a tinge of familiarity for Towns as he adjusts to Brown\u2019s new offense, with his job the most difficult of anyone <\/a>\u2014 along with Guerschon Yabusele \u2014 on the Knicks roster, Brown said Tuesday. They need to learn all five spots, with the four spot in Brown\u2019s system interchangeable with any position one through four.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s a job, Towns said, \u201cbut I\u2019m blessed that he\u2019s trusted me with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Josh Hart, who missed practice Tuesday with his back injury, didn\u2019t practice Wednesday due to an illness. Brown didn\u2019t have any update on Hart\u2019s status for the Knicks preseason game Thursday.<\/p>\n

The Knicks hired Peter Patton \u2014 a former shooting coach for the Timberwolves and Mavericks, and most recently the Bulls director of player development from 2023-25 \u2014 as a shooting coach, according to The Athletic. Towns overlapped with him in Minnesota for the first two years of his career.<\/p>\n

\"Mitchell<\/p>\n

Mitchell Robinson slams home a dunk during the Knicks\u2019 preseason win over the 76ers. AP<\/p>\n

Brown has implemented a challenge in practices where, at the end of practice, the Knicks need to make three consecutive free throws to avoid a down-and-back sprint. At one point, Brunson had a bet for Brown: if they make all three in the first round, then Brown and the coaching staff need to run. Brown thought he was safe.<\/p>\n

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But Wednesday, that\u2019s what happened. \u201cI\u2019m a man of my word,\u201d Brown said. The staff did a down-and-back \u2014 with Robinson telling them when to go.<\/p>\n

Brown will coach his first game at the Garden on Thursday, with the Knicks hosting the Timberwolves. \u201cMSG is such an iconic venue, you know, and whether it\u2019s a preseason game or regular-season game\u00a0to be able to know that that\u2019s your home court every night, and to do it for the first time\u2026 it gives you goose bumps,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There wasn\u2019t much of a sample size last year. Only 13 games and 47 minutes during the regular…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[66348,47518,17816,32316,120550,61628,36782,25169,6429,25161,355,92429,99,6427],"class_list":["post-211320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-76ers","tag-brunson","tag-defensive-rating","tag-guerschon-yabusele","tag-head-coach-mike-brown","tag-josh-hart","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-knicks","tag-minnesota","tag-mitchell-robinson","tag-nba","tag-rudy-gobert","tag-sports","tag-timberwolves"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}