Knicks Notes: Karl-Anthony Towns, Miles McBride, Mikal Bridges

This is still a work in progress between Karl-Anthony Towns and Mike Brown.

After saying before the season that he wasn’t totally sure how he fits in Brown’s offense, Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns has stumbled out of the gate.

Towns was shooting just 35.2 percent from the field through four games and scored a season-low eight points on 2-of-12 shooting in Tuesday’s loss in Milwaukee.

As Kristian Winfield of The New York Daily News writes, Towns basically played two different games that night.

In the first half, he did what Brown wants — quick decisions, move the ball if the double comes, trust teammates. He only took one shot in those first two quarters, but he was a +15 and the Knicks led 71-59 at halftime.

His approach changed in the third. Towns went looking for his own offense, hunting shots, and it backfired. He went 1-for-9 in that quarter and was a -14.

“(Towns’) first half was beautiful. He played the right way. And that’s all you can ask your All-Star guys to do,” Brown said. “If you’ve got an All-Star, and they’re taking him out with a second guy, believe in your teammates, believe in the process.

“When those guys make plays, eventually they won’t double as much, and you’ll get it back.”

Not everyone is buying that approach.

Stefan Bondy of The New York Post called it “unreasonable” to ask a max player to take one shot in a half. Bondy’s view is that Brown is forcing the Knicks to fit his system instead of shaping the system around the roster, and that tweaks might be needed to get more out of Towns’ scoring.

Towns isn’t pushing back publicly. He’s owning it.

“I got to do whatever’s needed to win, and first half I played how we needed me to play,” Towns said after the loss, per Steve Popper of Newsday. “And the game, I felt, switched up and I tried to get going just in case we needed me, and I just didn’t make a shot so I pressed a little bit too much.

“I have more experience than to do that, but I didn’t do what we needed me to do, and that’s on me and I take full responsibility.”

More Knicks

– Miles McBride is back with the team after missing two games for personal reasons, per Bondy. The Knicks felt his absence off the bench. Brown praised the guard’s energy and versatility, saying McBride can play on or off the ball on both ends and even rebound despite his size. In short, Brown loves him because he can plug gaps, not just score.

– Former Knicks sharpshooter Steve Novak is joining MSG Networks as a game analyst, also per Bondy. Novak is expected to work around a dozen games this season when Clyde Frazier is off.

– Veteran forward Mikal Bridges has stepped into a mentorship role with the young guys — Tyler Kolek, Pacome Dadiet, Ariel Hukporti — according to James L. Edwards III of The Athletic. Kolek said Bridges has been intentional about showing them “how to move, how to be a man and be an actual professional,” not just how to run a set.

– Mitchell Robinson went through a full practice Thursday and is considered a game-time decision for Friday in Chicago. Robinson hasn’t played yet this season due to what the team has called left ankle injury management.