{"id":127069,"date":"2025-03-05T15:58:26","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T20:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=127069"},"modified":"2025-03-05T15:58:26","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T20:58:26","slug":"knicks-fixable-roster-flaws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/05\/knicks-fixable-roster-flaws\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks’ Loss to Warriors Reveals Fixable Roster Flaws"},"content":{"rendered":"

The big story surrounding the New York Knicks is the absence of All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a>. KAT had to miss his seventh game of the season because of personal reasons, and it is unclear when he will return to the team. To make matters worse, the Knicks suffered a rough loss at the hands of the new-look Warriors, exposing several flaws in their roster. Luckily for Tom Thibodeau, many of their issues are fixable. New York still has 21 games left to figure it out before the playoffs start.<\/p>\n

Knicks’ Loss to Warriors Reveals Fixable Roster Flaws<\/h2>\n

The goal of regular-season basketball for contending teams such as the Knicks is to identify flaws, find solutions, and implement them throughout the campaign. Other than that, you just want to stay healthy while building chemistry for the playoffs. Squads who otherwise had potential constantly flame out because they failed to find their weaknesses and address them before the games mattered. Fortunately for the Knicks, it’s clear what their issues are. They are just about locked into the East’s third seed, giving them 21 relatively meaningless games<\/a> to workshop answers to their flaws. Some of them are simply roster holes that can’t be addressed until the offseason, but many of their problems can be fixed with a full rotation or better lineup configurations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Towns is Essential to NY’s Success\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

We’ve all heard the criticisms of KAT’s play for over a decade. It’s been no different on this Knicks team in his first season here. He’s too easily attackable for opposing offenses and provides no resistance at the rim as a defensive center. KAT has been exposed constantly by elite offenses this year, and it’s cost his team massively.<\/p>\n

However, he’s one of the best offensive players in the league, and arguably the greatest big-man shooter of all time. Towns’ offensive value far exceeds his defensive weaknesses, and that concept was on full display in NY’s loss to Golden State, where they only mustered up 102 points. Towns has a +6.3 on\/off this season<\/a> for one simple reason. Without him, New York’s spacing is nonexistent, especially because they have to use Precious Achiuwa<\/a> (a weak offensive player) or now Mitchell Robinson<\/a> (a non-shooter) in his stead. With Josh Hart<\/a> in a shooting slump, giving opponents two players to sag off of and double Jalen Brunson<\/a> is damaging to the Knicks’ offense. Last night, they couldn’t recover.<\/p>\n

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How important is it for Josh Hart to play next to a floor-spacing center?<\/p>\n

The two-man lineup of Hart and KAT have posted a team-high plus\/minus of +271 this season.<\/p>\n

In contrast, the two-man lineup of Hart and Precious Achiuwa has registered a +\/- of -51 (the second-worst\u2026<\/p>\n

— Tommy Beer (@TommyBeer) March 5, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n