One of the big drivers of the Knicks' controversial offseason firing of head coach Tom Thibodeau and ensuing hiring of Mike Brown was the push to refresh an offense that, to some, didn’t fully maximize its talents.
Despite falling just two wins short of the NBA Finals, the Knicks' offense was average through the back half of last season and ranked only seventh in the playoffs.
The diagnosis? More threes, more pace and more movement -- pillars of most modernizing NBA offenses -- to where the Knicks have preached for these very things before.
The difference? We’ve actually seen a radically different offensive system take hold through nine games, and the early returns are enticing.
Thus far, the Knicks rank second in the league offensively, scoring 121.6 points per 100 possessions, a rounding error behind the Houston Rockets for first. In terms of raw numbers, they’ve scored above 110 points in every game but two, and haven’t yet scored under 100 after doing so six games into last season.
This alone doesn’t mean much, coming off a nine-game sample of an 82-game season in which the Knicks have played zero top defenses. But we’re seeing the underlying foundations of Brown’s vision being developed in real time, and if this is only the ground layer, fans should start getting excited.
The Knicks aren’t benefitting off some crazy hot streak, hitting a strong but not outsized 41.8 percent of their wide open threes, per NBA.com, and their other numbers are otherwise unimpressive. The improved efficiency has been an organic change, much of which has been in geography.
Brown has radically cut out mid-range attempts from New York’s shot diet, with shots encompassing the non-restricted area paint to the three-point arc going from 30.4 percent to 22 percent of their attempts from last season to now. These have translated into a lot more threes: 43.3 attempts per 100 possessions, which ranks third in the league, and compares to only 34.5 percent last season, which ranked 26th.
This has been huge for efficiency, and can be seen at the individual level. Guys like OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges are putting up career numbers on fewer shots, an impact the stars should be feeling soon.
However, it’s not just where the shots are coming from, but how they’re generated. The scripted, often too stagnant offense of years past has been replaced with a freelance engine the Knicks can fall back on when things stall.
It won’t appear in many of the relevant statistics, but these Knicks are getting into their actions quicker and with real purpose. Spacing principles have been cemented so that inactive players are repositioning and still making defenses work.
Because of this, the Knicks have been able to generate these threes naturally by way of their system as opposed to brute forcing attempts. Where past teams would default back to a Jalen Brunson isolation or pick-and-roll when met with resistance, this squad rolls right into the next swing pass, the next 45 cut -- and everybody on the roster is taking advantage.
New York is scoring 10 more bench points a night compared to last season, and getting lots of easier opportunities, too. Karl-Anthony Towns is getting more of his patented trailer center three, Anunoby is being targeted with semi-transition post-ups, and Brunson is taking a quarter of his shots off a dribble or less.
Though this is a positive start, fans should be wary before putting in their PTO for June 2026. The Knicks were also second in offense through nine games last season, showing off increased movement and three-point reliance before regressing as the season went on.
Naturally, as the games and injuries pile up, players can fall back into their old habits. The key is building new habits to fall into, so that when these Knicks face exhaustion in a Game 6 against Cleveland in May, they’re defaulting into a pinch post look for Towns with Brunson as an off-ball threat instead of dribbling the shot clock down to 10 before making a move.
There are other things to address before that time as well, like the Knicks' free throw rate failing to improve this season. You’d like to see more rim attempts and charity stripe trips with fewer mid-range tries, but it’s a work in progress.
Still, what Brown and his staff have accomplished thus far has been praiseworthy. They got the buy-in from one of the league’s most gifted rosters to undergo one of the most drastic offensive changes of the offseason in hopes of fully realizing its potential.
We won’t be able to judge its ultimate success for many months, but for now, they appear to be headed in the right direction.
Kurt Helin
Raphielle Johnson
