But there’s an element to his game that has proven surprising to even his teammates.

“He’s even a better pᴀsser than I thought,” Josh Hart said recently in the visiting locker room in Detroit, just as Towns cranked up “One In a Million” by the late/great Aaliyah. “Now he’s over there playing R&B in a room full of half-naked men.”

So Towns has a soft side to his musical taste and a soft touch with a basketball, but he reminded reporters that the pᴀssing prowess is hardly new — “I’ve done that pᴀss 100 times. I’ve been doing this in Minnesota.”

And the 29-year-old has a point.

Entering Monday, he was averaging considerably fewer ᴀssists (3.0) than his best with the T-Wolves, which included three seasons of more than 4.4 per game. But it’s not the numbers that are raising eyebrows in New York.