Mike Brown reveals the conversation Karl and Anthony Towns had after the loss

NEW YORK – The New York Knicks they have won just two of their last 10 games. New head coach Mike Brown has been laying the groundwork since July, based on establishing principles and assigning roles that position players and coaches to support them.

Saturday night’s loss to the Phoenix Suns confirmed that there is a crack in that foundation, especially between Brown and the star center Karl-Anthony Towns.

The Knicks were without Jaylen Brunson and Josh Hart, solidly seeded Cities in the center attention of the defense. Committed three of a team-high 17 turnovers Brown knew after the scoreless game. The coach addressed those losses as a problem, even saying he and his staff talked to the All-Star center at halftime about making adjustments.

“We said, ‘Hey, when you catch there, they’re coming. So you might have to spray fast.’ And I think he tried a couple of times,” Brown said of the bodies Towns saw in the post.

The coach added that despite those efforts, those adjustments were not made on the field. He didn’t leave much room for interpretation of what he saw gone wrong.

“They got it hands on the ball and in the end we turned it around. But we knew they were coming. And, you know, I thought our spacing was good. “We just didn’t get the ball to the right guys at the right time,” Brown explained.

This isn’t the first time this week that Brown has challenged Towns after a loss. The coach turned his attention to his star when asked about it on Thursday Draymond Greenantics, writing off the intensity and focusing on Towns’ mistakes.

“That’s the way (Green) plays. I didn’t think it affected us, I felt like KAT picked up his fifth foul and we had to sit him down. It hurt us because at that time we were playing relatively well.”

Mike Brown and Karl-Anthony Towns need to do this

The Knicks have internal expectations of reaching the NBA Finals, whose team governor is James Dolan recently shared on VFANs The Carton Show. The disparity between the team’s highest-paid player and head coach is suboptimal with less than three weeks until the trade deadline.

Time is running out for significant changes to the roster or their approach to games, which Brown says the team won’t “overhaul” despite the concerns. Are Brown’s challenges Towns’ bad habits stem from frustration, what the coach feels are the best way to motivate the 30-year-old big man, or both — they’ll only get more awkward if they continue.

Suns head coach Jordan Ott was asked before the game about guarding Towns. He noticed the three-time All-NBA center aggressiveness and skill as the leading factors that make it a solid cover. MSG Networks analyst Clyde Frazier loved Towns’ aggression during his first-quarter run on Brooks, exclaiming that “KAT” looks “like a man possessed right now!”

The game ended with second-year center Oso Ighodaro doubling Towns and stripping the ball. A first-year coach who turns a strength he touted before the game into a weakness in the first half of the game is rough all over the place.

Brown clarified after the game that the Knicks’ spacing was “good,” but their decision-making was not, leaving Towns to shoulder the blame. The admission that Towns “tried” to make the adjustments suggested to him at halftime, but didn’t, radiated frustration.

Towns’ struggles to consistently translate his talent into execution and production have to be addressed by both the player and his coaches. New York’s championship hopes may hinge on some sort of rhythm developing there.

Unless Giannis Antetokounmpo decides the extensions recently handed out to the Green Bay Packers are intolerable, both Brown and Towns will have home games at Madison Square Garden for the remainder of the season. The coach worked with some of the greatest players of all time and before, he was not afraid to publicly challenge the stars. How he and his star center respond to this adversity could define the Knicks’ 2026 campaign.