Karl-Anthony Towns is scoring like prime Dirk Nowitzki for Knicks — and defending like present-day Dirk Nowitzki

Tom Thibodeau knew he would have to change things up after the Knicks traded for Karl-Anthony Towns during the offseason. Seven years prior in Minnesota, the head coach and Towns worked together to create the No. 4 offense in the league. The problem? The Timberwolves ranked 25th in defense. 

History is repeating itself in New York.

With Towns, Thibodeau has his first top-three offense in his 13 years of head coaching. But the Knicks' defense ranks 21st in the league heading into their Wednesday matchup against the Suns. Both of those numbers have been heavily influenced by the team's new big man. 

Towns has been a marvel on offense, looking like a peak version of Dirk Nowitzki. The problem is he's looked like a 46-year-old Dirk on defense, leading to a mediocre 8-6 record for what was supposed to be the No. 2 team in the East heading into the season.  

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Karl-Anthony Towns has saved the Knicks' offense

Towns has been unbelievable as a scorer this season. His stats speak for themselves — he's averaging 26.2 points per game on efficiency that eclipses Nowitzki during his MVP season. 

Towns has called himself the best big man shooter of all time. He has a pretty good case if he keeps up this torrid pace. No NBA player has ever shot better than 50 percent from deep while taking at least five attempts per game. Towns and Kyrie Irving could be the first to do so this season. 

Towns is far from just a shooter though. He's also scaled up his 2-point attempts, taking way more shots at the rim thanks to a more wide-open court without Rudy Gobert.

His positional change from power forward to center has made him unguardable. Towns is too fast for opposing centers to keep up with. 

When teams try to switch smaller players on him, he's too strong for even the toughest guards like Dillon Brooks or Jrue Holiday to keep out of the paint.  

Towns has developed into such a great shooter that defenders have to close out hard and fly by him to take away his 3-ball. They're guarding him as if he's the best center ever to shoot the ball, and he's scored a ton of points by pump-faking and attacking these closeouts. 

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Karl-Anthony Towns has torpedoed New York's defense

New York's defense has dropped from No. 9 last year to No. 21 this year. While it's not fair to pin that all on one player, it's been mostly the result of one player. 

The one area where Towns does contribute is on the defensive glass. The Knicks are one of the best defensive rebounding teams in the league, and Towns ranks fifth in total defensive boards. The rest is not so great. 

As much as Towns has opened up the Knicks' offense by playing center, he's also opened up the middle of the paint because of that same positional switch. Among the 56 big men who have defended at least 30 shots from within six feet, Towns ranks dead last in field goal percentage allowed.

Opponents are shooting 73.1 percent against Towns around the basket. That's almost twice what Victor Wembanyama (38.8 percent) allows. Even a below-average defender like Julius Randle allows just 61.7 percent at the rim. 

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The Knicks are trying to play Towns in drop coverage more, keeping him stationed near the rim. He's not good at the cat-and-mouse game needed to stop pick-and-rolls, too often letting the roll man get behind him for lob dunks. He does not anticipate player movement well at all, often being so far out of position that he can't even get up a contest. Any sort of hesitation move will have him in cement blocks. 

Towns isn't 100 percent to blame for the team's struggles. Mikal Bridges' defense has been a disappointment. Jericho Sims has been a much better big defender but hasn't been good enough on offense to stay on the floor. The team is missing the summer departure of Isaiah Hartenstein and badly needs Mitchell Robinson to return from injury.  

Until Robinson comes back, the Knicks are going to be stuck trying to outscore teams. This is a turbocharged version of what Towns has been through his decade in the league, and it's not going to change now.