NBA insider Brian Windhorst offers his thoughts on one big New York Knicks trade undercut Tom Thibodeau.
Tom Thibodeau’s team is well known for sharing two general characteristics. One is the player’s extremely tough spins, and the second is a strong defense.
2024-25 New York’s Knicks stuck to the Tom Thibodeau formula, which relies heavily on his starters. And that’s one of the reasons that stems from his firing.
But where this past season actually took a step back, it was on defense. Despite having a strong record, they weren’t as good as they were last year.
The Knicks have allowed more points than the Orlando Magic, Boston Celtics and Miami Heat after ranking first in East in team defense in 2023-24.
| New York Knicks | Allowed points | Conference rank |
| 2024-25 | 9,158 | Fourth |
| 2023-24 | 8,873 | First |
The New York Knicks decided on a massive trade before the season, securing the town of Karl Anthony from the Minnesota Timberwolves, in exchange for Donte Divinsenzo and Julius Randle.
And unlike Draymond Green, who pointed to Mikal Bridges’ trade as the reason for the Knicks’ unfulfilled season, NBA insider Brian Windhorst believes it was the Karl Antony Towns trade that knocked the team on the course.
He argues that this is a trade created by Knicks President Leon Rose, not Tom Thibodeau’s request.
Windhorst told The Hoop Collective:
“And while you know, they didn’t win, they weren’t the finals, they were making progress, and even after the bridge trade, I think it was clearly controversial and definitely dangerous, I still liked where they were.
“And then there’s a cat trade, and that’s clearly a Leon Rose trade.”
Windhorst says he doesn’t think the town matches the player characteristics the Knicks have seen before to bring to the team.
“They did a really good job of adjusting the players they acquired in the way the coaches wanted them to.
“Tiv wanted hard work, high effort, low drama grinder, first defense. Branson wasn’t the first defense, but he certainly played the same type of style that Tib always wanted from his point guard.”
In the fallout from the series’ defeat to the Indiana Pacers, it allegedly caused the defense of Karl Anthony Towns to have annoyed some of his New York Knicks teammates.
This came amid criticism from Magic Johnson, but another former player, Austin Rivers, came out with a strong defense of the town.
The Knicks won 51 games during the regular season, reaching the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 25 years. However, this was not enough to save Thibodeau’s work.
Windhorst admits there are positives and negatives in the town’s match, but ultimately he felt that he was a bad fit for the team Thibodeau was trying to create.
He states:
“That trade, and really, I think there is a benefit to it, but that was my first time trading.