“KAT’s gotta take over!”

“He has to demand the ball!”

“He’s too soft!”

These are some of the ludicrous thoughts about Karl-Anthony Towns that you have routinely heard from national media talking heads throughout Towns’ two-season run in the big city.

But what if I told you that the key to unlocking Towns was not spamming post-ups on the low block, the way that Shaquille O’Neal begs him to on every postgame show?

In their series-tying Game 4 victory over the Hawks, the Knicks unleashed the peak version of Towns, and it was because of something far more dangerous than his ability to play an impressive brand of bully ball.

This is what the peak form of KAT looks like

Towns only made six baskets in Atlanta, but he contributed 45 points.

Alongside his own 20-point performance, Towns dished out 10 assists that led to 25 Knicks points.

When Towns checked out of the game for the final time with 7:16 remaining, he had scored or assisted on 45 of the Knicks’ 96 points, a whopping 46.9%.

That is how you run an offense through Towns.

Contrary to the talking heads like Shaq, running an offense through Towns does not necessarily mean Towns has to take 30 field goal attempts by forcing his way to the rim every time he touches the ball. Rather, it entails using him as a hub.

The Knicks consistently fed Towns the ball in the high post and trusted him to make the right decisions as they ran actions off the ball. This led to a litany of easy baskets off of Towns’ passes, including multiple wide-open dunks by OG Anunoby off of back screens from Jalen Brunson. At times, it felt like we were watching Nikola Jokic and Aaron Gordon.

For whatever reason, the Knicks have neglected to use Towns in this fashion on a nightly basis, despite seeing evidence throughout the season that an offense built around Towns’ passing is incredibly difficult to stop.

In the regular season, New York went 11-2 (.846) with a +12.2 point differential when Towns dished at least five assists. Perhaps most noticeably, they outscored teams by 9.7 points per game with Towns on the court. This is with seven of the 11 victories coming on the road, and five of those seven against playoff teams.

When Towns dished fewer than five assists, the Knicks went 38-24 (.613) with an average point differential of +6.0, including a plus-minus of just +4.1 with Towns on the court, less than half of his mark when clearing the five-assist bar.

These trends have carried into the playoffs so far. From Games 1-3, Towns averaged just 3.3 assists per game, never hitting the five-assist mark, and New York won just one game. Upon hitting 10 assists in Game 4, the Knicks cruised to a 16-point blowout.

Skeptics might claim that Towns’ assist number merely spiked because the Knicks happened to finish baskets on that particular night, but that isn’t the case at all. New York made a concerted effort to have Towns throw more passes.

From Games 1-3, Towns averaged 29.7 passes per game in 33.5 minutes per game, which equates to 31.9 passes per 36 minutes.

In Game 4, Towns threw 37 passes in just 29.3 minutes, a whopping 45.5 passes per 36 minutes. That’s a 43% increase in passes per minute compared to the first three games.

Atlanta will surely make adjustments to take away some of the back cuts that Towns feasted on in Game 4. Nonetheless, the Knicks would be downright silly not to continue using Towns in a Jokic-lite fashion as the hub of their offense. All season long, they have seen how high their ceiling goes when Towns is thriving as a distributor.