The 2025-26 NBA season hasn’t quite gone according to plan for New York Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns. Towns has been nowhere near his best, and came under fire from Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley on Inside the NBA before the Knicks clashed with the Houston Rockets on Saturday. O’Neal, who has been extremely critical of today’s big men, called out the 30-year-old for playing soft.
“I would say this to his face if I was his teammate, he’s playing soft,” O’Neal said. “Playing really soft. You gonna have to decide who you wanna be. Inside or outside, but whatever you decide you have to be consistent. You can’t say, ‘I’m the greatest big man shooter,’ and play like he been playing. When he plays like that, me and Chuck do not have a problem.
“But he gets in foul trouble too much,” O’Neal continued. “He plays really silly. Again, if I was on his team, I would look into his face and say, ‘KAT, we need you. There’s big aspirations for the Knicks, and you’re playing soft.'”
This isn’t the first time that Towns has been called soft, and it won’t be the last. It is a label that has stuck with him throughout his career, and he hasn’t been able to shake it off.
Towns has also been criticized for taking too many threes, and that’s what Barkley pointed to here. He bluntly stated that the six-time All-Star doesn’t understand how to play the game.
“To me, he don’t know how to play basketball,” Barkley said. “… He is a terrific seven-foot shooter. The same criticism me and Shaq had of Joel Embiid, the matchup dictates whether you shoot threes or you go post up. That’s what I mean by not [knowing] how to play basketball.
“When he got a little guy on him, there is no need to shoot threes,” Barkley added. “… If they’re gonna play Joel Embiid on you, take him outside, put him in the pick and roll… He’s a heckuva player, but when they put a little guy on you, go in the post.”
Barkley pointed to Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic as someone Towns should try to emulate in this aspect. Jokic takes threes, but when he’s matched up with a smaller defender, he’ll back them down and score inside.
“He’s a great shooter,” Barkley stated. “And people criticize me and Shaq ’cause we get mad at all these seven-foot guys shooting threes. I don’t mind you shooting a couple of threes, but the way the NBA is played today, they gonna put all these little a** dudes on you. I ain’t let no lil dude guard me. You put a little guy on me, I’m gonna take his lil a** in the post and punish him.”
Towns can fall in love with that three-point shot at times, but that’s not the real problem right now. He is shooting 4.5 threes per game in 2025-26, his fewest since he put up 3.5 per game all the way back in 2017-18 for the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The problem is that Towns just hasn’t fit in well in this Mike Brown offense. We have seen real improvement from the likes of Miles McBride since Brown became head coach in 2025, but not the star big man.
Towns is averaging just 19.8 points, 11.9 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game in 2025-26. He has been very inefficient by his standards, too, shooting 46.7% from the field and 34.9% from beyond the arc. That’s the lowest field goal percentage of his career and the second-lowest three-point percentage.
Brown has benched Towns down the stretch in games on a few occasions, and they just don’t seem like a good fit. To make matters worse, his struggles have reportedly led to his trade value going down as well. It will be very interesting to see what happens in the summer if the Knicks have a disappointing end to this season.
