It’s no secret Karl-Anthony Cities has remodeled the Knicks’ offense.
As a uniquely expert stretch 5, the 7-foot Cities’ 3-point taking pictures and dominance on pick-and-rolls has unlocked one of many NBA’s highest-scoring and most-efficient groups.
However the man generally known as KAT has been simply as massive on the boards.
Cities entered Saturday evening’s assembly with the Detroit Pistons at Madison Sq. Backyard averaging a career-high 13.2 rebounds per sport — the second-best mark within the NBA.
That manufacturing continues to show invaluable for an embattled Knicks frontcourt that continues to be with out fellow middle Mitchell Robinson, who continues to be recovering from Might’s left ankle surgical procedure, and that solely acquired ahead/middle Valuable Achiuwa again from a preseason hamstring harm on Thursday.
“Just doing whatever I can to help this team win,” Cities, 29, stated after the Knicks’ 121-106 victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday. “We’re not the tallest team in the NBA, so for me having the size, I’ve just got to go out there and get the rebounds for us so we can have a chance to win every single night and do what we do best.”
Cities is the one Knicks starter taller than 6-7. Their second-leading rebounder, 6-4 guard/ahead Josh Hart, is averaging 8.6 boards per sport.
The Knicks entered Saturday averaging 42.6 rebounds per sport as a group, which ranked twenty third within the NBA.
It’s simple to marvel the place they’d be with out Cities, whom they acquired lower than three weeks earlier than the beginning of the common season in a blockbuster commerce with the Timberwolves that despatched ahead Julius Randle and guard Donte DiVincenzo to Minnesota.
The 6-9 Randle was the Knicks’ main rebounder on a per-game foundation final season, averaging 9.2. Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstein, who left within the offseason for a mega-deal with the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder, each averaged a minimum of 8.3 rebounds per sport in 2023-24, whereas Achiuwa added 7.2 after arriving from Toronto in a midseason commerce.
With all of them gone or injured to begin this season, Cities picked up a lot of the slack.
“It’s something we need,” stated Cities, who additionally led the Knicks in scoring at 25.2 factors per sport to start Saturday.
Cities averaged a minimum of 9.8 rebounds per sport in every of his first seven seasons with the Timberwolves, a stretch by which he began at middle. He ranked inside the prime 10 amongst NBA rebounders in 4 of these seasons, together with when he averaged 12.4 boards per sport — his earlier profession excessive — in 2018-19.
However Cities moved to energy ahead for his remaining two years in Minnesota to accommodate the arrival of Rudy Gobert, a 7-1 middle and four-time NBA Defensive Participant of the Yr.
Cities averaged 8.1 and eight.3 rebounds per sport, respectively, over the past two seasons.
“He’s always been a really good rebounder,” stated Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau, who coached Cities in Minnesota from 2016-19.
“It probably dipped a little bit the last couple of years just because he was playing away from the basketball with Rudy, but he’s always had great instincts, and he’s long. He’s a lot longer than you think. He’s strong. He’s much stronger now than when I had him in Minnesota. He’s got great hands, too. If the ball’s near him, he’s getting it, and he’s going after everything.”
To start play Saturday, Cities had collected double-digit rebounds in 19 of his 21 appearances this season and had not completed a sport with fewer than seven. He was the Knicks’ main rebounder in all however 5 of these video games.
Cities has been significantly efficient on the glass of late. Thursday’s 16-rebound effort marked his third consecutive sport with a minimum of 15 boards and the sixth time within the final seven video games that he corralled a minimum of 14.
He had a season-high 19 rebounds in solely 25 minutes in a 118-85 win over the New Orleans Pelicans final Sunday.
Cities led the NBA in rebounds per sport as just lately as Thursday, however a 20-board efficiency by Denver Nuggets middle Nikola Jokić that evening pushed the three-time NBA MVP barely forward of Cities at 13.4 per sport.
“I haven’t been a five in a while,” Cities stated, “so it’s cool to be able to show I can still rebound.”
