Knicks are a well-oiled offense with Jalen Brunson playing on and off the ball
Knicks guard Jalen Brunson looks on against the Memphis Grizzlies in the second half of an NBA basketball game at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Knicks' front office has not been, after years of patience, risk-averse. And they may have taken that to another level by experimenting with their most important piece — Jalen Brunson.
Two years ago they broke up a contending team with a pair of major trades. Then, in the wake of the first Conference Finals appearance in a quarter century, they fired the coach who had orchestrated the success. So we know that their all-in approach is done with no fear.
But still, there were doubters, maybe myself included, that even if the change this summer on the bench brought a new voice, that it was worth the risk of changing a system that emphasized the common sense approach of putting the ball in the hands as often as possible of Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Both players have multiple All-NBA selections on their resumes and add in that Brunson was named the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year last season and the idea of moving the ball out of their hands to create a more democratic system makes the coaching change and trades look like minor bandages.
Maybe it was worth wondering if Mike Brown would try to turn Brunson Into some version of De’Aaron Fox, who helmed the offense in Sacramento when the team put up the top-ranked offense in the NBA and Brown won Coach of the Year honors. But Brunson’s game is dissimilar to Fox in some ways. Fox being one of the fastest guards in the game. Instead, there has been some shift to a style that might look more like the five seasons Brown spent as an assistant to Steve Kerr at Golden State, watching Steph Curry.
“Yeah, I’ve talked to a couple point guards around the league throughout the course of the years I have a lot of respect for, especially the ball dominant ones that play pick-and-roll,” Brown said before Wednesday’s game.
“And nobody can be like Steph, he’s an amazing player and an amazing person, too. Amazing family. What makes him so unique is the ability to play on the ball and off the ball.
“So in a seven-game playoff series, teams have a hard time adjusting to him because it’s hard to take away everything. So being around him for six years, you learn a lot. And so I always felt that if I every had a team, I don’t care what my point guard is like, I’m going to try to get him off the ball so that he’s comfortable with it during the regular season.
"And then come playoff time, teams can’t sit on it and say, he’s dominant in the pick-and-roll so let’s keep it out of his hands. Now you’ve got to defend him in a lot of different ways.
"Not only that, it’ll be hard to just get up and deny him, bully him, because he’s not just going back to get the ball every time. If the defense wants to play you this way, go to the corner. The ball will find you if we’re moving and spacing the right way.
"That’s what I did with Fox. He’s a pick-and-roll dominant guy, ball in his hands. And that’s what I’m trying to do with Jalen.”
Brunson has done, well, exactly what he always does. But he has done it with less dribbling, more screens and more catch-and-shoot opportunities.
“I preach that in practice and walk-throughs and stuff like that,” Brunson said. “As a team, we work on them. In the offseason, that’s what I work on. I work on relocating . . .
"It was a lot of the stuff I did this summer and the ball is going in when I do it.”
Through the first 10 games of the season though the offense has steadily begun to look like a well-oiled machine with little fall-off for Brunson and Towns while a player like OG Anunoby has been lifted to career-high numbers across the board. And as a team, the Knicks have been forcing the PR staff to rifle through the history books to try to find performances that match what we have seen of late.
The Knicks have scored at least 133 points in each of the last three games entering Wednesday’s meeting with the Orlando Magic. They went a stretch of four quarters between the second half against Minnesota and the first half versus the Nets in which they piled up 160 points. And after maybe some eyebrows were raised even in the locker room in the preseason over shifting roles, it would be hard for any of the players to argue with their opportunities.
The disclaimers that we must attach to all of this: First, small sample size. The last three games in which the team piled up at least 130 points every night, were against three of the worst defenses in the league. And all of this has been happening in a five-game run at home after losing three straight on the road.
“Getting a little better,” Brown said. “These guys are willing to grow and try to do what’s best for the team while not getting too high or too low. They’re a group that tries to pay attention to detail of everything that’s thrown at ‘em and I think they genuinely want each other to have success.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
