Kendrick Perkins points finger at Karl-Anthony Towns as Knicks’ problem

To say the 2025-26 NBA season has gone the way the New York Knicks expected when they replaced Tom Thibodeau with Mike Brown would be a major mistake.

Sure, the Knicks won the NBA Cup, an accomplishment some, but not all, believe is worthy of a banner in the rafters of MSG, but the team sits at 25-18 overall and has lost nine of their last 11 games. While the sky hasn’t fallen in New York just yet, as the team remains in third place in the Eastern Conference, fans, pundits, and the like have begun to look for someone to blame for the team’s issues, with ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins pointing the finger firmly in the direction of All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns on Road Trippin.

“You know that the problem is Karl-Anthony Towns. You just don’t want to say the quiet thing out loud because all year you were, ‘Karl-Anthony Towns this, Karl-Anthony Towns that.’ No Karl-Anthony Towns needs to grow up and be a grown a** man,” Perkins said, “That’s what they need him to be. It’s not a Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson issue. It’s a Karl-Anthony Towns and Mike Brown issue because if you notice, everyone is benefiting from this new offense except Karl-Anthony Towns.”

Appearing in 40 games with 40 starts so far this season, KAT’s production is down versus his 2024-25 marks and his career average, but not by much, averaging 21 points. 11.6 rebounds, and three assists per game, while shooting 46.7 percent from the field and 35.8 percent from beyond the arc. Numbers, however, don’t show the growing disconnect within the team, with Towns reportedly being shopped around before the trade deadline and his own “disappointment” being highlighted in media sessions.

Will Towns still be a member of the Knicks on Valentine’s Day? It’s hard to say, but where there’s smoke, there’s often fire, and something clearly isn’t right in New York, even if Perkins’ assertion isn’t the problem per se.

The post Kendrick Perkins points finger at Karl-Anthony Towns as Knicks’ problem appeared first on ClutchPoints.