Jalen Brunson is the undisputed best player on the Knicks. He has proved to be an All-NBA offensive talent who can carry an offense comparable to the upper echelon of superstars in the league. This season, to help elevate the offense of his teammates, he will need to add a new wrinkle to his game: spending more time off of the ball and screening more for his teammates.
Speaking on his podcast, The Zach Lowe Show, Zach Lowe explained how he believes Brunson's role could change this year, saying, "I think he absolutely is going to be asked to move off the ball more. I think he's going to be asked to set screens...For the guy whom you trade five draft picks for, for OG Anunoby, who can do a little bit here and there, for Karl Towns in inverted pick-and-rolls."
More Brunson as a screener?
Brunson was very rarely used as a screener last season. According to league tracking data, Brunson set a total of 15 picks for Mikal Bridges, seven picks for Karl-Anthony Towns, and seven picks for OG Anunoby. While the sample is obviously quite small, the picks he set for Towns did result in approximately 1.3 points per direct.
The value of using Brunson in more off-ball sets is multi-layered. For one, it gets other players involved more consistently. Bridges and Anunoby are valuable offensive talents; if they're involved in more on-ball actions, it makes the Knicks significantly harder to gameplan for and defend.
The other layer is that fewer on-ball reps for Brunson will allow his legs to be fresher for end-of-game situations as well as in the playoffs. He is one of the most elite on-ball players in the game, and has the shot-making and footwork to score against the game's best defenders. That said, preserving him as much as possible is a good thing.
Thibodeau did some of this
It is important to note, as Lowe did on his podcast, that the Knicks were already doing some of this stuff under Tom Thibodeau last season. It is not as if Mike Brown is coming in and taking over an offense that was entirely freelanced last season.
Still, more of it is a good thing. More organized offense is almost always a good thing. The more strain you can put on an opposing defense, while also keeping the legs of your superstar fresh in the process, is something that should be capitalized to the fullest extent.