In every year except his rookie season, Jalen Brunson has made at least 40% the catch-and-shoot 3s he has attempted. The 2024-25 season, however, was the first time in Brunson’s career that fewer than half of his 3-point attempts were of the catch-and-shoot variety. With Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges joining the New York Knicks, Brunson’s usage rate and shot attempts decreased slightly, but he wasn’t exactly less ball-dominant. For the second straight season, he led the entire league in average seconds per touch (6.06) and dribbles per touch (6.04), and both numbers were slightly higher than they were the previous year.
Mike Brown, the Knicks’ new coach, wants to get Brunson off the ball more often. He wants to find Brunson more spot-up 3s. “The ball will be in his hands, especially down the stretch, and so to make the game easier throughout the course of the game is going to be a big thing,” Brown told reporters last week. Brown has also been talking about pushing the pace, making quick decisions and playing out of concepts rather than set plays. All of this sounds sensible, but it’s still September. Despite being slow and sometimes stagnant on offense, under Tom Thibodeau last season New York was still playing on the last day of May. That’s a high bar to clear.
The State of Play
Last year: The Knicks finished 51-31, their best record since 2013, with Brunson making the All-NBA Second Team, Towns making the Third Team and both of them starting in the All-Star Game. After the All-Star break, though, their offense fell off, and this was only in part because Brunson missed a month with an ankle injury. They looked overmatched against elite competition during the regular season, but, after a tight first-round series against the Pistons, they upset the Celtics in the second round to advance to the conference finals for the first time in 25 years. Making the ECF was not enough, however, to save Thibodeau’s job — after losing to the Pacers in six games, the Knicks fired the coach who had presided over their turnaround.
The offseason: The Knicks were denied permission to interview various coaches employed by other teams, but eventually settled on Brown and hired Chris Jent as his lead assistant. Early in free agency, they signed Guerschon Yabusele to a two-year, $11.3 million contract using the taxpayer midlevel exception and added Jordan Clarkson, who’d accepted a buyout from the Jazz, on a one-year deal for the minimum. Leading up to camp, they re-signed Landry Shamet and signed Malcolm Brogdon, both for the minimum.
Las Vegas over/under: 53.5, per BetMGM
The Conversation
Knicks believer: As Spike Lee keeps saying, this is the Knicks’ year. They’re deeper than they were last year, and I particularly love the Guerschon Yabusele addition. He is exactly what they needed: a proper 4 who can space the floor, post up mismatches and defend 5s when necessary. You remember Malcolm Brogdon won Sixth Man of the Year in 2023, right? The only reason people haven’t made a big deal out of that signing is that he has been stuck on losing teams since then. I’m happy for Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart because they won’t have to grind through 40-plus minutes during the dog days of the regular season anymore. I know New York isn’t the betting favorite in the East, but I’m not worried about Cleveland. This team has just as much firepower, and, as we saw in the playoffs a couple of years ago, it’s tougher.
Knicks skeptic: Spike said last year, too. And when you consider how teams tend to fare after firing Tom Thibodeau, you may want to walk that back. Thibs elevated the franchise the moment that he arrived, turned Jalen Brunson into a superstar and got the Knicks to the conference finals. You should just hope that they aren’t punished too severely for getting rid of him. If this season is derailed by injuries or scandal, you’ll know the Thibs Curse is real. You’ll be lucky if you ever get to discover how wrong you are about the Cleveland matchup.
Knicks believer: I don’t believe in curses. I do believe in Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns and Anunoby and Bridges and the rest of the rotation. I believe, too, that you’re going to see a much more cohesive, well-rounded team this year. The wings are going to be more involved in the offense. KAT is going to initiate more actions. Mitchell Robinson is going to play a lot more than 290 regular-season minutes, and his mere presence will clean up a lot of things defensively.
Knicks skeptic: About that: Is Robinson starting? Brown has said he wants the Knicks to make other teams feel them defensively, but he has also said he wants to play faster, with the floor spaced. How the coaching staff decides to manage the frontcourt rotation is a huge variable, and it points to some fundamental problems that no coaching staff can change: Their best defensive lineups will feature Robinson at the 5, and their best offensive lineups will feature Towns at the 5. Opponents are going to hunt Brunson and Towns, and playing Towns at the 4 takes away from what makes him so special on offense.
Knicks believer: Blah, blah, blah, I heard all of this stuff last year and then the Knicks made the conference finals anyway. Towns made the Western Conference finals the previous year playing a lot of 4, too. Maybe they’ll start double-big, maybe they’ll start Hart again. Honestly, I wouldn’t have a problem with them starting Yabusele or even McBride. In 2025, lineup versatility and depth are important and playing the same five-man unit a zillion minutes is a red flag. Brown is going to look at all sorts of stuff over the course of the season, and that’s going to be refreshing. If Tyler Kolek has a strong preseason, he might actually have a chance to crack the rotation!
Knicks skeptic: We’ll see about all that. You should probably know that Brown drove Kings fans nuts last year by not giving Keon Ellis enough playing time. In fact, before Brown got fired, Sacramento’s starters were the sixth-most-used lineup in the league. I’m sure lots of things about the post-Thibs era are going to seem refreshing at first, but if there’s not real, sustained improvement, you’ll find yourself missing his gravelly voice, his intensity and even his stubbornness. I’m genuinely curious, for example, if Brown is going to remain committed to getting Brunson off the ball more often. In theory I like the idea, and I always liked when Thibodeau would use him as a screener, but the reality is that the other guys weren’t good enough playmakers justify taking the ball out of Brunson’s hands regularly. Maybe this will be different now that Brogdon and Jordan Clarkson are on the team, but I’m not sure about that (and, based on his recent injury history, I’m not sure how often Brogdon will even be available). New York had the fifth-best offense in the league last year. If Brown makes the Knicks faster and less predictable, he might also make them turnover-prone, less organized and, ultimately, less efficient.