The New York Knicks lost their second consecutive game after the Milwaukee Bucks stole a 121-111 victory at home.

Jalen Brunson scored 36, Mikal Bridges put 24 on the board—the remaining Knicks enjoyed front row seats to Giannis Antetokounmpo’s MVP campaign.

New York went into halftime possessing a double-digit lead.

Then Karl-Anthony Towns took over the 3rd quarter—starting with an offensive foul, missing a drive to the rim and missing a 3-pointer.

Fresh from a vacation full of Giannis trade rumors, fully aware his contract perfectly matches with Giannis’s—KAT entered this early-season matchup with an opportunity to shut that trade talk down—making it laughable for the Knicks to consider moving on from him—a player who, on paper, has the ideal game to pair with Brunson.

Instead, KAT hid.

0 shot attempts after the first quarter.

Giannis scored 37 on 16-for-22 shooting from the field with 8 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 blocks and a steal.

KAT scored 8 points on 2-for-12 shooting with 12 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block.

Which player would you rather have on your team?

I never loved the idea of trading Karl-Anthony and/or OG Anunoby for Giannis—potentially losing depth, thinning their margin for error—but those two guys combined for 17 points tonight. Giannis scored more than both of them. Together.

Let’s say you manage a McDonalds, and the position for district manager opens up, and you’re competing for the open slot with a manager from another town, and your store is shorthanded one night—so the manager from the other town comes to help out and work a shift with you—and while they are slinging orders to the drive-thru window, the front desk, and to deliver drivers—faster than you’ve ever seen—you keep spilling sodas on yourself and you burn your hand on the deep fryer and your nose starts bleeding.

Karl-Anthony Towns will not be getting that district manager position.

One of two things happened tonight.

Either

1.) Karl-Anthony Towns, rattled by trade talks, took himself out of this game before it even began. Crippled by imposter syndrome or perhaps the reality he may not have found a family and home in New York—KAT knew he would fail before the opening tip.

Or

2.) Karl-Anthony Towns intentionally disappeared in front of the Bucks front office to make sure if/when a Giannis trade occurs, he’ll remain on the Knicks after Bucks GM Jon Horst witnessed how low his floor can be on any given night in the season.

Either way, looks like I’ll be watching Towns in a Knicks jersey for a long time…

What does Josh Hart do?

With Miles McBride, Mitchell Robinson and Guerschon Yabusele out, Josh Hart found himself playing crucial second-half minutes—a structural flaw rotting the Knicks for years.

Josh Hart’s ability to track rebounds, airbourne, S-tier. Rebounding is an underrated skillset; controlling possession is how you win basketball games.

But what you do once you have control of that possession makes Josh Hart the worst player in the Knicks rotation.

After an early and surprising made 3, Josh Hart missed his next 4—giving the Bucks defense exactly what they wanted, shot attempts from Josh Hart instead of Jalen Brunson.

Hart, a team low -13 in plus/minus, can’t shoot, can’t beat any defender off the dribble, throws reckless passes—are we sure he’s better than 2nd year forward Pacome Dadiet or rookie Mohamed Diawara?

Ryan Rollins is the missing piece

I can whine about Damian Lillard sabotaging the Bucks salary cap for the next few years but we’re witnessing addition by subtraction.

Ryan Rollins provides all the same perimeter scoring Damian Lillard did without the moody divorced dad shit and with an actual humility to try on defense.

Watch this effort by Ryan Rollins…

Intercepts the pass on one end and finishes the and-1 on the other 💯

NYK-MIL is LIVE on NBC and Peacock! pic.twitter.com/3iLCIjObMh

— NBA (@NBA) October 29, 2025

Ryan Rollins scored 25 points in 26 minutes (Karl-Anthony Towns scored 8 in 35), with 4 made threes, 4 assists and 4 steals.

Rollins went chest-to-chest with Jalen Brunson, didn’t flinch. Karl-Anthony Towns is in the Knicks locker room, as I write this, just flinching. Ryan Rollins could be the Jamal Murray, off-the-dribble scorer Giannis needs to return to the Promised Land. Congrats to Giannis—his patience rewarded with a tough scoring partner who isn’t half-assing the most watered-down, AI-generated, dogshit rap.

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