Why Jalen Brunson & Knicks new offense is INCREDIBLE | NBA Reaction

Why Jalen Brunson & Knicks new offense is INCREDIBLE | NBA Reaction

Let’s talk some basketball. So, we’re going to start with the Knicks. They won their fourth straight game last night again, dominating the Toronto Raptors on the tail end of back toback. So, they were without Yaka Purle, but obviously the Knicks without OG and Anobi. You know, I run into this issue every single time I cover a game on here. Everyone’s like, “Well, this guy’s out, that guy’s out.” Just there’s people out all the time. That’s just the NBA regular season. And so more often than not, these are becoming examples and demonstrations of your team’s culture from the top down so that you can maintain some semblance of success with guys in and out of the lineup. And the Knicks came out absolutely guns blazing from three. Deuce McBride has been on a special heater over the last few games. He’s 14 for 20 from three over his last three games. Hit four more of them against the Raptors. Got hot in the first half. Uh Josh Hart had one of his best games of the season. scored 20 points, hit four threes of his own, 12 rebounds, really killed the Raptors on the offensive glass during their third quarter run. That was kind of the story of the game in a lot of ways. The first quarter was Knicks three-point shooting. The third quarter was Knicks offensive rebounding and getting out in transition. And those were the two kind of stretches where they assumed control. And Toronto made a couple of runs. Scotty Barnes got randomly super hot and hit backto-back threes in the first half that kind of shrunk the lead. There was another early third quarter run where Emanuel Emanuel Quickley got super hot. Had like a 80 run by himself that dragged Toronto closer, but other than that, the Knicks basically completely shut down the Raptors offense. Male Bridges did an absolute number on Brandon Ingram from the opening tip. He got a steal, chasing him over the top of the screen. And all night long, he was fighting him off of spots, fighting him through screens, making his catches tough, attacking his base, attacking his dribble. He looked visibly uncomfortable, had some really ugly misses, had five turnovers. And again, in this four-game winning streak, the Knicks have logged a 106 defensive rating. And it really starts with that defensive pressure on the perimeter from guys like Male Bridges, guys like Deuce McBride, and guys like Josh Hart. Kind of an old school Knicks win streak in this four-game streak. like playing great defense, bludgeoning teams on the offensive glass, a lot of stuff that became a regular part of the Knicks identity a few years ago. I want to zoom in on the three-point shooting though for a minute. It was a big part of why they got their initial separation against Toronto. Obviously, there was multiple runs to control that game, but it was a big part of their first quarter run when they went up 20. And it’s been a major statistical marker for the Knicks this year. And I personally think it’s directly connected to the job that Mike Brown has done to revamp this offense. First, some basic stats. Last year, the Knicks averaged just 34 three-point attempts per game. That ranked 27th in the NBA. This year, the Knicks are averaging 41 three-point attempts per game, which ranks fifth in the NBA. All while increasing their efficiency from uh right around 36% as a team to a little over 37%. So, from bottom five in three-point volume to top five. all while increasing percentage. And this is where Mike Brown deserves a ton of credit for changing the team’s approach. There is a very intentional effort to use drives to get the defense in rotation early in possessions so that they can play drive and kick. And it’s not any just one thing. Like yes, they’re pushing in transition more. It’s kind of a gametoame thing. They’ll have some games where they just are flying up and down the floor. They’ll have other games where they’re a little bit more stuck in the half court. But it’s a mentality starting with those transition pushes and then in the half court early action that gets one of their players downhill. Brunson himself and I think Brunson deserves a lot of credit for his leadership and for his versatility by really not just buying into this style but like being one of the driving forces of this style. You know, one of those early threes for Deuce McBride was just Jaylen Brunson on the right side of the floor. I think he had I think it was Scotty Barnes if I remember correctly on like a transition cross match. Just a really heavy right-hand drive early in the possession, collapse the defense, kick out to Deuce McBride, wide open three. Just kind of embracing the the uh the emphasis on getting dribble penetration early in possessions either through transition, semi-transition, or that first action to just unlock the aggregate talent on the team with their driving kick play. Right. as a team. Last year they were 16th in drives per game. According to NBA.com, they’re up to seventh in drives per game this year. More drives means more help. More help means easier kickouts. Easier kickouts means more kickouts. More kickouts means more threes. The Knicks are generating 35.4 spot up opportunities per game this season. That’s the second most in the entire NBA behind the Miami Heat. Last year, they generated just 26.3. So, more than nine additional spot up opportunities every game compared to last year. I wanted to dig into the uh play type data on Synergy because I wanted to come up with like a way of kind of expressing the difference in the approach, the the difference in the balance of the way the Knicks are attacking on offense. So, the Knicks are shooting the ball as the primary ball handler out of ISO, pick and roll or postup situations 3.6 fewer times per game than they did last year. And instead, they are generating, again, we know they’re generating nine more spot-ups, which is coming out of all sorts of different types of actions. But let’s zoom in on those spot-ups specifically to unguarded catch and shoot threes. They are generating as a team an additional 3.1 unguarded catch and shoot threes per game compared to last year. So you’re taking, you know, roughly three three and a half one-on-one shot attempts and you’re turning them into three three and a half standill unguarded catch and shoot threes. And to put it very simply, I don’t care if you have Sheay or Luca on your team. There isn’t a one-on-one play in the league that is going to be nearly as efficient as an unguarded catch and shoot three. The Knicks as a team are getting 1.25 points per unguarded catch and shoot attempt this season. So, to put it very simply, the Knicks are driving the basketball more both in transition and in the half court earlier in possessions, which is helping them to avoid as much one-on-one play. And it’s caused them to completely flip their shot diet from a bottom five three-point volume team to a top five three-point volume team. So, as a result, I mean, this was a Knicks team last year that had a 117.3 offensive rating, which was good. But this year, their offensive rating is over 120. This year, they’ve gone up a level from a very good offense to a great offense. And again, I really want to shout out Jaylen Brunson here. There’s a lot of like uh you know, narrative and like this is the truth. Like the the way they were playing in the past was a lot of Jaylen Brunson kind of dribbling the air out of the basketball. It’s not his fault. It’s just the way the team was put together and the way that they were playing under Tom Thibido, right? But it wasn’t a Brunson problem. It was a style problem. And what Brunson has shown is that he can still put up the numbers that we’re accustomed to him putting up while also playing and buying into this style, which empowers the rest of the group and generates better quality shots and scores more points per 100 possessions. This is a simple stat to demonstrate this. Jaylen Brown out of an ISO drove and kicked to a player to knock down a three just 15 times all season last year. He’s done it 11 times already this year. That’s again sequences like that early kick out to Deuce McBride. Just beat his man off the dribble, draw in help, make the kick pass early in the clock. Brunson has been not just buying in, but a driving force behind the success of this new offensive approach. Some other good news for Knicks fans. Cat starting to get his footing. Another nice game from him yesterday, averaging 24 points and 11 rebounds in his last eight games. And again, these four straight wins have moved the Knicks up to number two in the Eastern Conference. And with Cleveland faltering, I mean, as you look out at the East, my issues with the Knicks were things that that over the last couple years that put me below teams like Cleveland or below teams like Boston, although they ended up beating Boston as we know. But as Cleveland has faltered and it doesn’t appear to be like there’s this clear best team in the Eastern Conference, as you start to look around, Orlando pretty young. You know, they’ve improved as a jump shooting team, but still not great. Detroit young, mistakrone, turns the ball over a lot. Cleveland obviously not looking like the juggernaut they were last year. You could make the case that the Knicks are the safest bet out in the Eastern Conference with the way things are shaping up out there. So really, really impressive stretch of basketball out in New York.

After the New York Knicks beat the Toronto Raptors, Jason breaks down how different the Knicks offense is this NBA season with Mike Brown compared to last year’s with Tom Thibodeau, how Jalen Brunson is fitting in to that system, and why it’s working for everyone.

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