Season Wrap: The 2024-25 New York Knicks

  • By Mike Passador

    Last Updated on June 22, 2025 4:44 pm by Mike Passador | Published: June 22, 2025

    The Knicks sent shockwaves through the league by trading for Karl-Anthony Towns. They were hoping that his offensive gifts would raise the team’s ceiling more than Julius Randle could’ve, giving a legitimate second primary (ignore the paradox) scoring option to ease the pressure on Jalen Brunson. New York got a taste of postseason success and wasn’t shy about pursuing more.

    How’d It Go?

    The 2023-24 Knicks had plenty of heart and a go-to clutch player, but it was clear they needed some more juice. Their first move was to bolster the wing group and the Knicks paid through the nose to get Mikal Bridges across town, forking over five first-rounders to the Nets. It was a massive decision that pointed to the team’s understanding of what they would need to take down the reigning champion Celtics, but they didn’t stop there.

    The Knicks pulled off the stunner of the summer in flipping Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo to Minnesota for Karl-Anthony Towns, adding one of the most talented big men the game has ever seen to add an entire new dimension to the roster. New York lost some depth but that didn’t figure to be a big problem with Tom Thibodeau calling the shots. Expectations hadn’t been this high for the Knicks in a long time.

    With so many significant changes, it was going to take time for everything to come together. The Knicks couldn’t keep pace with Boston or Cleveland in the regular season but were in a comfortable position by the All-Star break, sitting at 36-18. Brunson and Towns were their usual selves while OG Anunoby and Josh Hart took their games to another level. Anunoby became a dangerous offensive weapon while Hart did his share of the dirty work and then some, wearing all kinds of hats for the team so long as it helped them secure wins. A late-season injury to Brunson threatened to derail the whole operation but he crushed his rehab and was back with time to spare before the postseason.

    The Knicks ended up in a pretty tight series against the upstart Pistons, with Brunson’s clutch exploits and some big performances from Mitchell Robinson proving enough to survive. That took them to a matchup with Boston, and the Knicks were set to test all of their offseason maneuvering in the matchup that inspired such a deep level of change. It didn’t look great in Game 1 but the Knicks rallied for a massive, improbable comeback as Boston’s 3-point barrage dried up. That wasn’t the first time it would happen in the series and after Jayson Tatum tore his Achilles, it was only a matter of time before the Knicks would outlast their foe.

    The good times ended there as the Pacers dispatched New York in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Knicks offense ground to a halt and the secondary contributions they received throughout the campaign became all-or-nothing propositions. Outcoached and outworked by a deeper roster, the Knicks were agonizingly close to the Finals after clearing what they expected to be their biggest hurdle. They decided to dismiss Thibodeau in the days after their elimination, taking another big risk after another season of tangible forward progress.

    Coaching

    The book has long been out on Tom Thibodeau. In the regular season, his teams achieve success by playing hard and focusing on defense, as well as simply playing their best players more than opponents. That edge vanishes in the postseason and there’s always the looming idea that his guys run out of gas given the energy they exert that other teams simply do not over the grind of the campaign.

    Thibodeau did a decent job in the playoffs, and the decision to turn to double-big lineups was particularly inspired at times for a coach who is known for rigidity more than anything. The Knicks’ offense seemed to be of two minds depending on whether or not Jalen Brunson was on the floor and while you could argue that the coach could’ve done a better job bridging that gap, it’s hard to argue with the results that Brunson generates, especially late in games.

    Thibodeau steered the Knicks back to respectability, guiding the team as it climbed out of the gutter and back to the Eastern Conference Finals. That wasn’t enough to save his job, however, as Thibodeau was dismissed shortly after New York’s elimination. It’s a tough look, though it did really feel like Thibodeau would not be the one who could finally get the Knicks over the hump. The pressure will be immense for whoever gets the job next.

    The Players

    Karl-Anthony Towns
    PF, New York Knicks
    SeasonTeamGPGSMPG FGMFGAFG% FTMFTAFT% 3PTM3PTA3PT% PTSREBAST STLBLKTO
    24-25 NY 72 72 35.0 8.9 16.9 52.6 4.7 5.7 82.9 2.0 4.7 42.0 24.4 12.8 3.1 1.0 0.7 2.7
    23-24 MIN 62 62 32.7 7.7 15.3 50.4 4.1 4.7 87.3 2.2 5.3 41.6 21.8 8.3 3.0 0.7 0.7 2.9
    22-23 MIN 29 29 32.8 7.3 14.8 49.5 4.1 4.7 87.4 2.1 5.7 36.6 20.8 8.1 4.8 0.7 0.6 3.0

    ADP: 21.4/21.7 (Yahoo/ESPN) | Total Value: 5/4 (8/9-cat) | Per-Game Value: 7/6 (8/9-cat)

    Perhaps no player has done better in the court of public opinion over these last few years than Towns. He has consistently sacrificed for the good of his teams and hasn’t complained about having to change roles, even when he was taking a beating in the media. People seem to be coming around to the idea that Towns is a professional who is willing to put the team first, and while he hasn’t delivered results on a true superstar level, there’s something to be said about a guy who is this talented that is embracing a lot of different challenges that other stars would outright refuse. His pairing with Rudy Gobert worked quite well in 2023-24 but the Wolves waved the white flag on that group, moving Towns to the Knicks to recalibrate their rotation while giving New York some major firepower.

    Getting away from Gobert and returning to minutes as a full-time center worked wonders for KAT. He returned to first-round value in fantasy, outrunning his climbing ADP in the aftermath of the trade. Everyone knew that Towns playing center again would lift his value, but him getting back to top-5 status was a terrific surprise for managers who were happy to roll the dice near the first-round turn. He registered a career-high in rebounds and saw his field goal percentage climb to its highest mark since 2021-22, coincidentally prior to Gobert’s arrival with the Wolves. Towns still launched his fair share of 3-pointers but got more of his shots closer to the basket, leading to better efficiency and higher point totals.

    The playoffs were up and down but Towns was far more good than bad, including dropping 20 points in the fourth quarter of Game 3 vs. the Pacers. It was a great introduction to New York for the big man, who should be treated as a fantasy force once again.

    Jalen Brunson
    PG, New York Knicks
    SeasonTeamGPGSMPG FGMFGAFG% FTMFTAFT% 3PTM3PTA3PT% PTSREBAST STLBLKTO
    24-25 NY 65 65 35.4 9.0 18.5 48.8 5.7 6.9 82.1 2.3 6.1 38.3 26.0 2.9 7.3 0.9 0.1 2.5
    23-24 NY 77 77 35.4 10.3 21.4 47.9 5.5 6.5 84.7 2.7 6.8 40.1 28.7 3.6 6.7 0.9 0.2 2.4
    22-23 NY 68 68 35.0 8.6 17.6 49.1 4.8 5.8 82.9 2.0 4.7 41.6 24.0 3.5 6.2 0.9 0.2 2.1

    ADP: 19.0/14.8 (Yahoo/ESPN) | Total Value: 53/56 (8/9-cat) | Per-Game Value: 43/50 (8/9-cat)

    Brunson was a trendy second-round pick after a fantastic 2023-24 campaign that put him on the edge of superstardom. The second round of drafts features a lot of hope and hand-waving every year anyway, but Brunson had a few things going against him that managers were all too eager to overlook. First, a lot of his season was spent without a healthy Julius Randle, putting almost all of the offense on Brunson’s shoulders. Second, beyond a returning Randle, the Knicks acquired Karl-Anthony Towns to replace him — and also Mikal Bridges. It would’ve been a stroke of incredible luck for Brunson to maintain his level in the box score given the roster changes, but fantasy managers largely drafted him with improvement baked into the equation.

    Brunson saw his points, rebounds and 3-pointers slide but did manage to deliver a new career-high in assists, and none of that should come as a shock given the new supporting cast. To add injury to insult, Brunson missed 15 games in March with an ankle sprain, meaning he wasn’t around for many head-to-head playoffs. That’s not to say that Brunson had a bad season, as he was still a top-50 player, but that’s not what he was drafted to be. We saw peak form in the playoffs when Anunoby, Bridges and Hart weren’t able to score quite as easily and Brunson took over night after night, reasserting his clutch credentials with a handful of big-time performances in close games. That didn’t mean a lick to fantasy managers, however, and the market should correct a little bit going forward. Brunson is a great player but the ADP always set him up to fail.

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    June 22, 2025, 4:44 pm