Despite regression pretty much across the board, Karl-Anthony Towns is still an All-Star.
He was named an All-Star reserve on Sunday, joining Jalen Brunson, who is a starter, as the two Knicks representatives.
Towns entered Sunday averaging 20.0 points, 11.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game — all down from last year.
And his efficiency is down as well — he entered Sunday shooting 46.1 percent from the field and 36.1 percent from 3-point range.
Reserves are determined by the league’s head coaches.
Evidently, they still see Towns as an All-Star caliber player.
“I’m a firm believer that winning should be a big factor in it,” head coach Mike Brown said before the Knicks hosted the Lakers at the Garden on Sunday. “We’re sitting second or third in the East right now, so we should have multiple guys on the team. Jalen [Brunson], definitely, he’s in the MVP conversation, but we’ve got other guys on this team that have stepped up and helped in a lot of different ways.
“KAT, he’s leading us in rebounds, he’s second in scoring. I don’t know how many double-doubles he has, but that’s impactful when you’re talking about doing it in a winning situation. … We should have, in my opinion, two or three guys, at least, on this All-Star team based on what our record is. Not only that — we were NBA Cup champions, so there are a lot of positives, in my opinion, that point for that to happen.”
It’s Towns’ third straight All-Star nod and sixth total.
Last year, he was a starter.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
