Over the past two seasons, two different head coaches of the New York Knicks have been under fire for starting Josh Hart on a nightly basis. Their devotion to the 30-year-old Swiss Army knife persisted, even in the face of growing piles of data suggesting that the team is better with just one, or two, of their starting wings on the floor.
Game 1 of the 2026 NBA Finals showed that while fans and analysts may have been right in what they observed about Hart, they might also want to reevaluate what they think it takes to win. Hart objectively did score just three points, on his five shot attempts, on Wednesday night. He was also one of the three most important Knicks in what wound up being a victory.
It's becoming clearer by the game that Hart is simply going to continue to do whatever the Knicks need him to. It might take him some time to adjust. It might take him having an injured finger on each hand to expand his potential as a 3-point shooter. But, one way or another, Hart is going to find a way to help the Knicks win.
He proved it with the 15 rebounds, six assists, four steals, and zero turnovers he recorded against the Spurs. And he left every single analyst, purported or legitimate, that ever said he shouldn't be part of the Knicks' starting lineup looking silly.
This very author is one of those analysts.
Hart channels Dennis Rodman in Game 1 Finals masterclass vs. Spurs
The Knicks have been tweaking how they deploy Hart in postseason settings since 2023. Former head coach Tom Thibodeau instituted far more guard-to-guard screens in the first round against the Cleveland Cavaliers than he had throughout the regular season. The hope was that Hart's impact as a screener would mitigate the extents to which J.B. Bickerstaff was exploiting his lack of 3-point shooting.
The strategy worked, leaving opponents pivoting to completely ignoring Hart behind the 3-point arc. If he knocked a couple down, though, it cleared the way for Jalen Brunson to thrive as an isolation scorer against whichever defender was unlucky enough to draw his assignment.
Hart's offensive involvement has remained a storyline all the way throughout the 2026 Eastern Conference Finals, when the differently-coached Cavaliers decided to follow suit and ignore him as a shooter. The emphasis has seemingly always been on taking the open 3-point shots that he's presented with as a result.
But even if his decision is to drive into space or pass the ball, he's just had to make it quickly.
Game 1 against the Spurs was a new frontier for Hart. The wing was left open from behind the 3-point arc, and wasn't able to make San Antonio pay with any of his three attempts. He made one of his two shots from inside the arc, leaving him at a rough 1-5 FG for the night.
The fact that the Knicks still won his 27 minutes of playing time, by 22 points, is exactly why two different coaches haven't been able to quit him. He dropped a Dennis Rodman-like statline, scoring struggles included, with his 15 rebounds and four steals.
Never tell Josh Hart the odds!
Assisting on six scores without turning the ball over once, though, might just be the most impressive part of it all. It's certainly the exact part of Hart's game that sets him apart from just about anyone else fans or analysts may be tempted to compare him to. He truly can fill in whatever gaps his team needs him to.
While most critics of analytics are simply ignorant to the potential truths they're failing to discover, Hart knows he's missing out. He genuinely prefers it that way.
The 30-year-old is a bit like Han Solo, in the sense that he prefers never to know how low the odds of potential success are. He just wants to go prove them wrong.
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