How Knicks can succeed without an elite Jalen Brunson

11/11/2024 11:13 AM

The New York Knicks continue to search for answers this season. After a convincing 22-point win against the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night led to a fiery post game tirade from Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Knicks fell flat against the Indiana Pacers on Sunday, giving up 132 points in a loss where they held the lead entering the fourth quarter. Ironically, the Knicks beat the Bucks even though superstar point guard Jalen Brunson missed all five of his three pointers. and they fell to the Pacers despite Brunson having his best game of the season.

So, what gives? Where does New York go from here, and can they get back to winning behind Brunson, instead of in spite of him? Let’s explore.

What went right for the Knicks against the Bucks?

First of all, the Bucks are not very good. They still have a lot of top end talent, but their schemes are simpler than most teams, and they are flat-out not executing. They are 19th in the league in both points per game and three-point field percentage, with neither of those figures being indicative of success.

But the Knicks showed how and why they can still be good in their win over Milwaukee, despite Brunson’s poor shooting from deep. OG Anunoby was brilliant on defense, holding Giannis Antetokounmpo to just 24 points on 11-for-21 shooting, with most of his damage being done in the second half when the game was already out of hand.

Furthermore, Karl-Anthony Towns had one of his best games as a Knick, as he scored 32 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in 32 minutes of action. Josh Hart was back to his old ways, scoring 11 points, grabbing nine rebounds, and dishing out seven assists. As a team, New York grabbed 48 rebounds, which is seven more than they do on average, and they hoisted up 46 three-point attempts (more on that in a minute).

Why did the Knicks lose to the Pacers despite a big game from Jalen Brunson?

The Knicks looked like an entirely different team in the following game against the Pacers. Brunson scored 33 points on a season-high 65 percent shooting from the floor, while also dishing out 10 assists. Towns scored 30 points and grabbed nine rebounds, Hart scored 16 points and collected 10 boards, and Anunoby scored 25 points while hitting three of his four shots from behind the arc.

But offense alone isn’t going to win games. Before we move on from the offensive side of the ball, though, it is worth mentioning that Mikal Bridges and Miles McBride combined to make just one of their 11 three-point attempts

The real problem against Indiana, though, came on the defensive side of the ball, particularly in the fourth quarter. Myles Turner stroked three after three en route to 25 points on 5/8 shooting from deep. Tyrese Haliburton looked revitalized after a very slow start to the season, racking up a season-high 35 points and 14 assists. And beyond that, Bennedict Mathurin also scored a career-high 38 points.

Ultimately, defense and effort weren’t an issue last season. But the Knicks shot 55 percent from the field against the Pacers, and they still lost. They were slow to close out, they didn’t communicate well enough, and they simply didn’t get stops.

What’s going wrong with the Knicks this season?

There are a number of things happening simultaneously that have led to New York’s struggles. Losing Donte DiVincenzo hurt the Knicks in the sense that it robbed them of their only true catch-and-shoot specialist. Replacing Mitchell Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstein with Towns was never going to lead to great results on the defensive side of the floor. Towns’ effort and consistency has been better than advertised, but he is the team’s only NBA-caliber center. That’s a tough pill for any team to swallow.

Additionally, the Knicks are still trying to figure out how to plug Bridges into their lineup and get him into the action. And Brunson continues to try to figure out when and how he can get calls like he got last season, which is apparently a fairly large mental hurdle.

Oh, and most of the starters are gassed come crush time. The Knicks have three players (Bridges, Anunoby, and Hart) averaging more minutes than anyone on last season’s roster, and their starting five is averaging more minutes per game than any other five-man rotation in the league.

What can the Knicks do to get back to their winning ways?

While things will be different once Robinson returns, the Knicks need to make changes immediately. Beyond that, they can still be successful without Brunson playing like he did for most of last season. How is that possible?

First of all, they should seriously consider inserting McBride into the starting lineup in place of Hart. Sure, Hart has been consistent of late, but he’s more valuable off the bench, and it would allow Bridges to consistently play as the team’s small forward, which is a spot he’s more comfortable with. Bringing Hart off the bench adds more size to the second unit, which is notoriously small and inexperienced as currently constructed.

Swapping McBride for Hart also adds another shooter to the team’s starting lineup, replacing a 32 percent three-point shooter in Hart with a 42 percent three-point shooter in McBride. That move might remedy some of the team’s shooting woes, and it might give Brunson even more room to operate. For what it’s worth, New York is currently 20th in three-point attempts per game (35.5), despite shooting the third-highest three-point percentage in the league (40.5 percent). Something needs to give when it comes to getting more three-point shots up.

Another thing that will eventually fall the Knicks’ way is the return of Precious Achiuwa. Coach Tom Thibodeau said that the six-foot-eight-inch big man was “making progress” towards his return, but he still hadn’t been cleared to practice as of Sunday.

Achiuwa will return sooner than later, and he represents another quality player, and a big man none-the-less, who will inevitably have a positive impact on the game. New York only played eight players in their most recent loss to the Pacers, and two of those eight (Jericho Sims and Tyler Kolek) played nine minutes and two minutes, respectively. So, Thibodeau would happily welcome back another NBA-ready player.

Like we’ve said before, the Knicks deserve our patience. We really can’t be too critical of them until Achiuwa returns, and maybe not until Robinson is back. However, their effort and execution must improve. Losing is one thing, but giving games away is something else entirely. And the latter will not be tolerated for too long, healthy or not.

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