The New York Knicks enter the 2026-27 season as defending champions. That part is great. The front office mostly ran it back: Landry Shamet, Jordan Clarkson and Jose Alvarado are all back in blue and orange. They swapped Mitchell Robinson for Andre Drummond. On paper, that looks like a reasonable substitution. But it’s not really.
Drummond is not the defensive anchor Robinson was. Not close. And that leaves Karl-Anthony Towns as the team’s only reliable rim protector. That is a lot to ask of a guy whose game has never been built around blocking shots.
Towns can anchor an offense, but the paint is another story
Give Towns credit. He improved defensively in 2025-26, especially as the season wore on. His on-ball defense looked sharper than it ever had in Minnesota. But the numbers don’t lie: Towns has averaged under one block per game for four straight seasons. Last year he hit a career low at 0.5 blocks a night.
Some of that is tied to minutes. Mike Brown played Towns just 31 minutes a game, the lowest mark of his career. That number probably stays similar given how well last season went. But the bigger issue is that Towns, like most centers with a decade of mileage, has lost a step. The burst that made him a capable shot blocker early in his career just isn’t there anymore.
Foul trouble makes the math even harder
Towns fouled out of six games last season. He finished with five fouls in nine others. For context, Victor Wembanyama fouled out twice. Nikola Jokic fouled out twice. Towns is in foul trouble far more often than other stars at his position.
That matters a lot more now with Robinson gone. There is no other defense-first center on the roster. Nobody on the bench who can step in and lock down an opposing big man. That is a real problem.
Robinson’s limited minutes still mattered
Robinson only played 14 minutes a game in the 2026 playoffs. But look at what he did in that time: 5.5 rebounds and 0.6 blocks per game, which works out to 16.1 boards and 2.1 blocks per 36 minutes. And in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, he grabbed the biggest offensive rebound in franchise history.
The point isn’t that Towns is bad. He’s not. But swapping Robinson for Drummond creates a hole. Expecting Towns to be a one-man wall is asking a lot.
OG Anunoby might be the real backup plan
Here is where the Knicks get creative. They re-signed most of their core, which made the cap sheet tight. There is not much room to add another center. But New York might have the most versatile defender in the league in OG Anunoby.
At six-foot-seven with a seven-foot-two wingspan, Anunoby can guard centers. He has spent stretches guarding Joel Embiid and Victor Wembanyama. That is not a normal thing for a wing to do. He might not be a traditional rim protector — he averaged 0.7 blocks per game, the same as Towns — but his ability to switch onto any big man gives Tom Thibodeau options.
Some Knicks fans will want a traditional shot blocker. But Anunoby might be enough. And staying under the second apron to keep flexibility for future moves matters more than adding a third center right now.
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