Paul Pierce believes the Knicks have the wrong top option if they want to win big. Speaking on the No Fouls Given podcast, the Hall of Famer said, “And I said this and this is not a knock on Jalen Brunson, he can’t be your best player on a championship team.”
Pierce drew a direct line to his own Celtics experience and made the blueprint clear. “For us, KG was our best player. I was the closer and I understood that like throughout the course of the game we got to go to KG, you know, that’s how I feel like this should look,” he said.
That opinion puts Karl-Anthony Towns at the center of the discussion in New York. The Knicks built a roster around Brunson’s shot creation, but Towns posted 20.1 points, 11.9 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game in the regular season, giving the team its most versatile inside-out presence.
Brunson was the team’s primary scorer at 26.0 points per game and again carried heavy late-game responsibility. In the playoffs, he has led the offense with 27.7 points and 6.0 assists per game, while Towns has added 21.3 points, 11.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists.
Pierce’s point is about hierarchy, and about how championship teams usually have one player who sets the physical tone while another closes the game.
That logic fits Towns’ profile. He gives the Knicks spacing with 1.5 made threes per game, elite rebounding, and a scoring efficiency that forces defenses to choose between helping inside or staying home on the perimeter.
The question now is whether New York’s best version comes with Towns as the engine and Brunson as the finisher, or whether Brunson’s ball dominance remains the core of everything. Pierce made it clear which route he would take.
For the Knicks, the answer may decide whether their playoff ceiling rises or stalls. Towns has the size, the shooting and the stat line to be that fulcrum; Pierce just said the team has to treat him like it.
