Team: New York Knicks · Status: standard contract · Position: PF/C · Season age: 31 · Experience: entering 12th NBA season · Role: starting center and co-star · As of: 2026-07-18
2026-27 median projection
| GP | MPG | FG% | FT% | 3PM | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 68 | 31.0 | .510 | .850 | 1.8 | 20.5 | 11.5 | 3.2 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 2.4 |
Approximate volume: 7.2 makes on 14.1 field-goal attempts and 4.3 makes on 5.1 free throws. Nine-cat: top 15-35 per game. Points: A, top 15-30. Dynasty: 7.8/10, elite for contenders but no longer a youth-premium asset.
Role and evidence
Towns produced 20.1 points, 11.9 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.5 threes, 0.9 steals, and 0.5 blocks in 31.0 minutes across 75 games in 2025-26, shooting .501 from the field and .858 at the line (Hashtag Basketball). The rebound rate and two-percentage profile remain rare; the model restores some three-point volume but not his old Minnesota shot count.
He starts and closes at center, with Drummond absorbing the conventional reserve minutes. The departure of Mitchell Robinson removes a superior defensive/rebounding partner but also clarifies Towns' center role. New York's slow pace limits counting-stat upside, while Brunson's gravity protects efficiency.
The 2026 title review recorded a lower-scoring playoff role alongside Brunson but still 15.9 points, 10.6 rebounds, and 4.9 assists. That supports a stable all-category floor even when shots decline.
Market and source disagreement
Barutha ranked Towns 16th on July 14, and ESPN ranked him 17th in April points leagues. Hashtag had him 27th in analyst dynasty and 36th on the July 18 keeper crowd board; Dynatyze showed him as the 36th listed player. Redraft sources reward the immediate profile more than dynasty markets do.
Range
- Ceiling: 72 games, 22/12/4 with two threes, positive percentages, and top-12 value.
- Median: 68 games and low-30s minutes, finishing as New York's best nine-category player.
- Floor: knee/elbow management or center wear cuts him below 60 games; blocks stay modest and he finishes outside the top 40 in totals.
Confidence
Role: high. Percentages/rebounds: high. Defensive events: medium. Games played: medium because center workload and prior lower-body maintenance widen the range.
Career record
Pre-NBA: Kentucky, one season (2014-15). 39 games, 21.1 minutes, 10.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 2.3 blocks on .566 from the field, .250 from three, .813 at the line — modest counting numbers because Calipari ran a two-unit platoon that capped every starter's minutes. Consensus second-team All-American, SEC Freshman of the Year, first-team All-SEC. Draft: 2015, first round, first overall, Minnesota Timberwolves. Traded to New York in October 2024 for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo in a three-team deal, so no mid-season split rows appear below.
| Season | Age | Team | GP | MPG | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | 3PM | FG% | FT% | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-16 | 20 | MIN | 82 | 32.0 | 18.3 | 10.5 | 2.0 | 0.7 | 1.7 | 0.4 | .542 | .811 | 2.2 |
| 2016-17 | 21 | MIN | 82 | 37.0 | 25.1 | 12.3 | 2.7 | 0.7 | 1.3 | 1.2 | .542 | .832 | 2.6 |
| 2017-18 | 22 | MIN | 82 | 35.6 | 21.3 | 12.3 | 2.4 | 0.8 | 1.4 | 1.5 | .545 | .858 | 1.9 |
| 2018-19 | 23 | MIN | 77 | 33.1 | 24.4 | 12.4 | 3.4 | 0.9 | 1.6 | 1.8 | .518 | .836 | 3.1 |
| 2019-20 | 24 | MIN | 35 | 33.9 | 26.5 | 10.8 | 4.4 | 0.9 | 1.2 | 3.3 | .508 | .796 | 3.1 |
| 2020-21 | 25 | MIN | 50 | 33.8 | 24.8 | 10.6 | 4.5 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 2.4 | .486 | .859 | 3.2 |
| 2021-22 | 26 | MIN | 74 | 33.4 | 24.6 | 9.8 | 3.6 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 2.0 | .529 | .822 | 3.1 |
| 2022-23 | 27 | MIN | 29 | 33.0 | 20.8 | 8.1 | 4.8 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 2.1 | .495 | .874 | 3.0 |
| 2023-24 | 28 | MIN | 62 | 32.7 | 21.8 | 8.3 | 3.0 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 2.2 | .504 | .873 | 2.9 |
| 2024-25 | 29 | NYK | 72 | 35.0 | 24.4 | 12.8 | 3.1 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 2.0 | .526 | .829 | 2.7 |
| 2025-26 | 30 | NYK | 75 | 31.0 | 20.1 | 11.9 | 3.0 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 1.5 | .501 | .858 | 2.5 |
| Career | 720 | 33.7 | 22.8 | 11.1 | 3.1 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 1.7 | .522 | .840 | 2.7 |
Fantasy history: Season-end 9-category ranks from Basketball Monster or Hashtag were not retrievable for any season, so no specific finishes are asserted here. The category shape is legible from the verified table: from 2016-17 through 2021-22 he was a first-round nine-cat asset built on a rare combination of center rebounds, guard-level free-throw percentage on real volume, and top-decile field-goal percentage, with blocks as a genuine fifth contribution until 2021-22. From 2022-23 the blocks collapsed to non-contributing levels and never returned, which converts him from a five-category big into a four-category one. Points leagues have consistently rated him more favorably than categories since 2022-23, because the turnovers (roughly three per game for six straight seasons) and the missing blocks cost far less there than in 9-cat.
Durability: 82, 82, 82, 77, 35, 50, 74, 29, 62, 72, 75. The three collapse seasons all have identifiable causes: 2019-20 was a left knee sprain in November plus a fractured left wrist in February plus the COVID shutdown; 2020-21 was a dislocated left wrist in December, a COVID-19 infection in January that cost roughly 13 games, and a calf strain; 2022-23 was a right calf strain suffered on 28 November 2022 that cost 52 games before a March return. 2023-24 was a torn left meniscus requiring surgery in March 2024, roughly 20 games. 2025-26 was his cleanest availability since Minnesota despite three separate problems — he played through a Grade 2 quadriceps strain early, missed time with a left calf injury in December, and missed at least one game with a right elbow impingement late.
Trajectory: The scoring peak was 2016-17 to 2021-22, when he combined 24-26 points with 33-37 minutes and still shot better than .485 every year. What has actually changed since is not the offense but the defensive and rebounding profile: blocks went 1.7-1.3-1.4-1.6-1.2-1.1-1.1 and then fell off a cliff to 0.6, 0.7, 0.7, 0.5 — a seven-year decline that tracks a body wearing down more than a scheme change, and it is the single most important fact in his fantasy valuation. The 2025-26 dip is partly minutes: 20.1 points in 31.0 minutes is 23.3 per 36 against 25.1 per 36 the year prior, so the scoring rate fell only modestly, while rebounding actually improved on a rate basis (13.8 per 36 versus 13.2). The three-point volume drop is real on a rate basis too (1.74 per 36 versus 2.06), which matters because threes were his separator from other high-percentage bigs. At 31 in a slow-pace offense with reduced minutes under Brown, the honest read is a stable, high-floor four-category big whose ceiling now depends entirely on minutes being restored rather than on any new skill.
Career sources: ESPN career stats · StatMuse season-by-season · Wikipedia (college, draft) · CBS Sports 2025-26 game log
Open questions
- Does Brown keep Towns near 31 minutes or expand him after Robinson's departure?
- Can Towns return to two threes per game without sacrificing field-goal impact?