How the Knicks (and Hawks) finally unlocked Karl-Anthony Towns’ full potential

KNICKS BIGGEST WEAPON

Mike Brown always delivers an opening statement before taking questions postgame. After eliminating the Hawks, his tone was one of appreciation — directed at Quin Snyder.

“I’ve gotta give Atlanta credit and Quin Snyder,” Brown said. “They forced us to put our thinking caps on, and they forced us to play different, find ways to make the game easier for our players while putting them in their strengths, while trying not to hinder them.”

The Hawks forced the Knicks into a recalibration. After stealing Game 2 at Madison Square Garden and taking a 2-1 series lead in Atlanta, they exposed something New York had struggled with all season: maximizing its biggest weapon.

That weapon — a 7-foot, six-time All-Star — had already flashed it. Towns posted a triple-double in an April 1 win over Memphis with Jalen Brunson sidelined. The advantage was always there against an undersized Hawks frontcourt anchored by Onyeka Okongwu.

But for the first three games, the Knicks looked like their regular-season selves — struggling to fully integrate Towns into the offense.

With the series slipping, that changed.

The Knicks began putting the ball in Towns’ hands above the arc and running off-ball action around him, unlocking his playmaking and forcing the Hawks to react. The result: a more fluid, selfless offense — and a team that finally resembles what it was supposed to be.

“It’s all about the actions, so [KAT’s] played phenomenal,” Brunson said. “The way we’ve been able to trust each other, all of us obviously including him, it’s been great. So we’ve got to continue to build off that and be ready to go.”

FULLY COMMITTED TO KAT

Towns’ emergence cuts both ways.

As much as the Knicks weren’t prioritizing him, he wasn’t demanding the ball. He wasn’t consistently imposing his size and skill — particularly against Atlanta’s cross-matching defense.

The Knicks didn’t just want to run offense through Towns. They wanted him to take ownership of it.

“I feel like we’ve been comfortable with [going to Towns],” Miles McBride told The Daily News. “I think KAT is doing a better job of asserting himself, posting up, wanting the ball, and then making the plays. He’s a great player. So I feel like it’s kind of both of our parts as a team. We’ve got to make a conscious effort to get great players the ball in areas we know they’re going to excel. At the same time, they have to want to be assertive in those positions.”

Did the Knicks always believe Towns could be this impactful under the right conditions?

“Absolutely,” McBride said.

It took pressure to bring it out.

Brown adjusted the offense once during the season — then again after the Game 3 loss in Atlanta.

“We changed what we’d done offensively, but again, it was because we were pushed to do it,” he said. “We feel pretty good about what we fell into.

“We had to find more ways to put our guys in their strengths while getting to it quickly while still having options. I’m not a guy that likes to call every play. I want our guys to be able to read where the advantage is quickly throughout the course of the action. And Atlanta forced us to find a way to do that and we feel pretty good about where we’re at right now. But it happened holistically after Game 3.”

The adjustment has reshaped the Knicks.

Towns now stands alone in NBA playoff history as the fastest to record a triple-double. More importantly, he’s no longer an afterthought within this offense.

That role has flipped. Towns is the focal point — and the Knicks are at their best when everything runs through him. That’s been evident all along.

Now, they’re fully committed to it.

“It’s understandable that the fans didn’t know what version they would see of us especially after — during this series we didn’t play our best basketball,” Towns said. “And for us to make a statement about who we are when we’re clicking on all cylinders — it’s great for us to have this kind of tape to look back at and see when we’re playing our best what are we doing throughout the game.”