5 Adjustments New York Knicks Must Make On Offense Right Now
The New York Knicks entered Wednesday night's loss to the Orlando Magic with the NBA's best offense. They won't be there on Thursday. And they must adjust accordingly.
This isn't a hyperbolic response to one defeat. Despite what many of the stats will show, the offense has struggled against elite competition. The Knicks have faced three top-10 defenses so far, plus their dalliance with Orlando, which we know has a top-10-kind-of ceiling. New York's offensive ratings in these tilts were...not great:
Rest disadvantages are a thing, and the Knicks were on the second night of a back-to-back when hosting Orlando. Some of their worst performances also came earlier in the schedule, when head coach Mike Brown's system was still fresh.
To that end, his system remains fresh. Learning curves are part and parcel of what the Knicks are attempting to do.
Even so, they have a handful of adjustments that are already worth considering—if not outright implementing.
Pick Up the Pace
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Ball movement, body movement, three-point volume and playing at a faster pace were among the biggest talking points when Mike Brown took the reins of the Knicks. The team has largely checked all of these boxes, except the speed element.
Though you can see New York's wheels churning at a quicker clip for small pockets, it hasn't entirely shed the calling-card stagnancy. Its average first-chance offensive possession lasted 14.88 seconds in 2024-25. That ranked 29th in the NBA. This season, the average first-chance possession is lasting 14.54 seconds—the league's 26th-fastest mark.
This isn't a matter of the Knicks crossing half-court quickly and then fizzling out, either. They don't stand out when it comes to pushing out of the backcourt:
Facing Orlando's defense isn't an everyday affair. Despite the Magic's performance so far, they are big, physical and gritty. The Knicks' absence of a non-Jalen Brunson ball-handler used to facing pressure looms larger against them than other opponents.
But the squad's overall transition frequency is down for the year. So, it's not just about Orlando. Nor is it about the time New York spends playing with two bigs. It's about making a concerted effort to push the ball—after makes, off misses, following turnovers, whatever.
Prevent Karl-Anthony Towns from Forcing It
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We are entering quintessential "Easier said than done" territory here.
There is not much the Knicks can do to prevent Karl-Anthony Towns' tunnel vision on drives. If you have him stop attacking off the bounce, he loses a lot of his offensive luster. Living with those prolonged stretches in which he puts the ball on the deck solely with the purpose of drawing a foul is ingrained into the KAT experience.
Further weeding out his post touches is well within the Knicks' control, though.
Towns' back-to-the-basket sets have been nearly halved compared to last season. On occasion, though, including Wednesday against Orlando, they have become a crutch for minutes at a time.
That's fine when KAT is firing on all cylinders, but he's not. Not against Orlando. Not for much of this season. He has yet to throw an assist out of a post-up. And these possessions have also resulted in points scored by him just 37.5 percent of the time, down from 74.2 last year.
Carve Out More Reps for What Should be Your Best Lineup
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Initially, it looked like Mike Brown would more often go to the Deuce McBride-plus-the-starters look alongside Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns.
So much for that.
This fivesome is on track to log more minutes than it did under Tom Thibodeau last season. But it picked up a bulk of its reps to start the year and has been largely fazed out ever since.
Deuce-plus-the-starters racked up just 14 seconds against the Magic, according to Pivot Fade. The lineup logged only eight seconds against the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday. And before that, this quintet went three straight games without tallying a single second.
Brown has preferred to use Landry Shamet when subbing out, or beginning games without, Mitchell Robinson. You can understand his dilemma. The Knicks do not have a proven floor general coming off the pine. Tyler Kolek clearly isn't ready, which has left New York to default toward McBride.
That's not a good enough excuse for the team's best-possible five-out look totaling 22 seconds over the past five games.
Get Weirder in the Minutes Without Jalen Brunson
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Experimenting more in the non-Jalen Brunson minutes works in service of the Knicks getting extra Deuce McBride-plus-the-starters reps.
When you filter out the two games McBride missed due to personal reasons, he is playing 73 percent of his minutes with Brunson off the floor. Against the Magic, specifically, 81 percent of his ticks came without New York's captain.
These are the stints in which the Knicks can stand to get more creative. Rather than defaulting to McBride as the de facto backup 1, they could lean into bench mobs led by Josh Hart. He has logged just 20 minutes without Deuce or JB.
Testing the limits of Mikal Bridges' playmaking may be even more intriguing. He's recorded just 29 minutes without McBride or Brunson on the court, during which time the offense has actually been OK. And he's posted just seven minutes independent of those two and Karl-Anthony Towns.
The point of this futzing and fiddling would be to lessen the ball-handling and shot-creation responsibilities McBride (or even Jordan Clarkson) needs to hold in non-Brunson stretches while minimizing the number of starters in secondary lineups so Brown can get to more Deuce-plus-the-Core-Four looks.
It's risky and not necessarily ideal. But given New York's backup point guard situation, it's worth a try.
Don't Deviate from Mike Brown's Core Tenets So Easily
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For the most part, Jalen Brunson is doing an excellent job of adapting his play style to fit Mike Brown's vision. The amount of time he's spending off the ball is up, and his on-ball touches themselves aren't draining as much clock as last season.
Still, when the going gets tough, both he and the offense at large retreat into their comfort zone of expecting him to do everything.
The scant amount of time New York has spent in the clutch this season is proof. So are fourth quarters. Brunson's usage rate in the final frame this year (37.4) is higher than it was in 2024-25 (34.3). And it's only going to go up after his fourth-quarter usage rate of 46.5 against Orlando.
To be sure, raw usage is not a picture-perfect measure of stalled processes. Brunson can finish more of the Knicks' plays while working within an easier role.
In this case, though, the volume matches the eye test. We have also seen him deviate from the script earlier in the game when things bog down for possessions at a time. Veering back in this direction seemingly has a snowball effect, and New York struggles to escape it.
Leaning on Brunson as an all-everything option will be unavoidable in certain instances. Yet, if the Knicks are serious about diversifying their system beyond him, they must do a better job of powering through rough patches and sticking to the ball-and-body-movement they're trying to actualize.
Even if it costs them wins now, it should pay dividends when it matters most: in the playoffs.
Dan Favale is a National NBA Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.
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