The New York Knicks weren’t known for playing the most beautiful brand of basketball last year. The team’s offensive sets were stationary, and mostly focused on setting up Julius Randle to attack in isolation. The net result was a clunky, inefficient offense. New York scored just 110.9 points per 100 non-garbage-time possessions, ranking 21st in the NBA, per Cleaning the Glass.
Things appear to have changed at the start of the current season. The Knicks have upped their offensive rating to 114.8 through their first six games, the twelfth best mark in the league to-date.
New York’s improvement doesn’t appear to just be statistical noise (though its degree may prove to be). The Knicks look like a brand new team on the offensive end of the court. Their offensive evolution starts with pace.
The Knicks are finishing 18.0 percent of their possessions in transition, the sixth best rate in the NBA, per Cleaning the Glass, as compared to a 22nd ranked 14.0 percent mark last year. New York has been fairly inefficient on the break as compared to their peers, but transition offense is sufficiently more efficient than operating in the halfcourt that a boost in frequency is a boon to the Knicks overall offensive rating regardless.
New York’s sense of urgency isn’t limited to searching out easy buckets. The Knicks are pushing the ball to get into halfcourt sets early in the shot clock, giving themselves ample opportunity to attack, kick, and attack again.
New York’s offense isn’t completely devoid of some of the stagnancy that has plagued it in the past, put its marked by a noticeable increase in quick decision making, ball movement, and possessions that include multiple forays toward the rim.
Data backs up the eye test. The Knicks have decreased their average dribbles per possesion (2.46 to 2.34) and average length of possession (3.22 seconds to 3.03), while significantly increasing their total number of drives per game (46.9 to 56.8). New York’s offense has a crispness that simply wasn’t present last year.
Freshly signed point guard Jalen Brunson has helped on that front. He’s a willing hit ahead passer and a maestro with the ball in his hands. Having a confident, competent lead ball handler to organize the offense and start the chain of drive and kick opportunities that have fueled the Knicks’ offense has been hugely beneficial.
Head coach Tom Thibodeau deserves some credit as well. He’s never been considered an offensive luminary, but his team is playing a brand of basketball built on sound principles, and he’s got buy-in up and down the lineup. New York doesn’t have a top-tier star to drive its offense, but it has a ton of good players, including several backups that could likely start elsewhere.
Thibs has leveraged the depth he has at his disposal to keep the Knicks offense humming. He doesn’t need to simplify things for the second unit. If anything New York ups the intensity of its pace when the likes of Immanuel Quickley, Derrick Rose, Isaiah Hartenstein, and Obi Toppin check into the game.
The only real question that remains is whether or not Thibodeau has the cache to keep his team’s motor running as hot as it has to start the year. Its easy to sprint the court, dive hard to the rim, and hurl yourself headlong toward the basket with the ball in your hands when you’re six games into the season. Those things become less appealing in mid-February, on a back-to-back, while you’re dealing with a nagging injury.
New York has also benefitted from feasting on some less defensively gifted opponents, including victories over Orlando, Detroit, and Charlotte. The Knicks can never have nice things, so some slippage in overall offensive effectiveness might be worth anticipating, but from a process orientation New York has flashed some promising signs.