Is Karl-Anthony Towns Already Causing Problems for Knicks?
The New York Knicks suffered their first loss of the season, falling 115-107 to the Miami Heat. Karl-Anthony Towns and the bench both struggled badly.
Towns finished with 15 points and 18 rebounds, but his offensive game looked completely off. He shot just 2-for-8 from three-point range and committed frustration fouls that hurt the team at critical moments.
Jonathan Macri of Knicks Film School was blunt about what he saw. He questioned whether Towns is "comfortable in this offense" after watching him struggle throughout the game. Macri noted that Towns is "the greatest shooting big man of all time," yet he took eight threes and still looked out of sync.
The biggest red flag was Towns picking up silly fouls when frustrated. This forced him to the bench in the third quarter when the Knicks desperately needed scoring, especially with Jalen Brunson resting. Without Towns on the floor, the offense completely stalled and Miami pulled away.
Can Karl-Anthony Towns Find His Comfort Zone in New York?
The Knicks bench was even worse than Towns. The reserves scored just 21 points compared to Miami's 44 bench points. They shot a horrible 1-for-18 from three-point range and went 6-for-32 overall from the field.
Summer additions Gershon Yabusele and Jordan Clarkson failed to deliver. Clarkson went 2-for-11, though Macri said he's not worried since "he's a shooter" and some nights the shots just don't fall. Yabusele is the bigger concern after managing just 2 points on 1-for-6 shooting.
Macri didn't mince words about Yabusele's conditioning issues. He said Yabusele "looks like a guy out there who is in need of another few months to get into game shape" and noted he "can't stay in front of anybody on the defensive end and he can't make a shot either". With Mitchell Robinson still injured, the Knicks need Yabusele to step up quickly.
It's only three games into the season, but the warning signs are real. Towns needs to find his comfort level in this offense and stay composed when things aren't going his way. The bench shooting must improve dramatically or the Knicks will struggle against quality opponents.
If these problems persist, New York could waste what looked like a promising start to their season.
Insider Provides Update Celtics Willingness to Trade $100 Million Guard
The Boston Celtics have been pretty busy this offseason. After Jayson Tatum suffered a torn Achilles tendon in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, the front office quickly pivoted and worked on shedding salary this offseason. That has led to Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, Luke Kornet, and likely Al Horford all heading out the exit door over the past few months.
A couple of new faces have arrived in town, with the flashiest of the bunch being guard Anfernee Simons, who was picked up from the Portland Trail Blazers as part of the Holiday trade. And yet, while Simons was only just acquired, his name has been involved in trade rumors frequently since landing in Boston, and it sounds like the front office is still listening to trade offers for the talented guard.
Celtics Still Open to Trading Anfernee Simons
Trading Holiday was a tough pill for Boston to swallow, but in return, they got a talented young scorer in Simons who could help replace some of the scoring output that will be absent with Tatum expected to miss most, if not all, of the 2025-26 campaign. Last year, Simons averaged 19.3 points, 4.8 assists, and 2.7 rebounds per game while shooting 42.6% from the field.
As we have seen throughout the offseason, though, the C’s are intent on becoming as cap compliant as possible so that when Tatum returns, they can load their roster back up again. The team already flipped Georges Niang to the Utah Jazz shortly after acquiring him as part of the Porzingis trade, which shows that the team is open to moving on from Simons so soon after picking him up.
With the NBA offseason in a bit of a dead spot, some folks wondered whether the team had given up on its quest to trade Simons. According to NBA insider Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report, that isn’t the case, as the Celtics are still listening to offers on Simons as they look to shed even more salary ahead of the new season.
“The Celtics, to my understanding, are going to continue to look for salary-shedding opportunities, and they are going to continue to listen to incoming trade calls for Anfernee Simons,” Fischer said on “NBA Insider Notebook with Jake Fischer.”
Should the Celtics Trade Anfernee Simons?
Simons is on an expiring contract that will pay him $27.7 million next season. While that’s not an awful price to pay for Simons, the Celtics could become fully cap compliant if they unload him in another trade. At the end of the day, does Boston want to try to be competitive next season, or build their roster back up once Tatum returns?
All signs have pointed to the latter option being their preferred path forward, making it seem likely Simons will get traded. The C’s aren’t going to make a trade just for the sake of doing so, but you can bet they are still working the phone lines trying to find a way to shed Simons’ salary just a couple of months after initially acquiring him.
