The Knicks’ end-of-season struggles coincided with teams sticking wings onto Towns. And the Pistons were watching.

O’Neal’s response to Towns’ down game was the polar opposite of Stephen A. Smith, who took the Knicks big man to task on ESPN’s “First Take” on Tuesday morning and said he needed to do more to support Jalen Brunson.

The New York Knicks wanted to raise their ceiling as a championship contender, so they acquired Karl-Anthony Towns from the Minnesota Timberwolves right before the start of training camp. The addition of Towns helped improve New York's record by just one game,