Carving out monstrous leads is proving to be a strength for the New York Knicks to kick off the Mike Brown era. If this penchant for avoiding unnecessarily close games holds, it’ll potentially leave the team fresher than ever for the playoffs.
Through the early part of the season, the Knicks are playing 19.7 percent of their possessions while leading by at least 15 points, according to PBP Stats. For comparison’s sake, they held a 15-plus-point edge last year for around 16 percent of their possessions.
Put another way: New York is currently on pace to lead by 15 or more points nearly 25 percent more often than it did in 2024-25. That is patently insane. And it’s yet another development, in a long line of many, that could give the Knicks their best crack at winning a title with this core.
Get used to the Knicks building big leads
We could write off this big-lead trend as early-season noise. It’s certainly easy to do that after New York had the pleasure of waxing the Brooklyn Nets, who are basically fielding a G-League roster.
Measured skepticism is healthy. In this case, though, we’re free to buy what the Knicks are selling. After all, the slate of opponents thus far has hardly been a walk in the park. Their strength of schedule ranks eighth, according to ESPN.
The time New York is spending up 15-plus points has also taken place amid an aggregate learning curve. Everyone on the team is still attempting to master Brown’s core offensive tenets. Strides are being made almost every game, but the chemistry and cohesion should only improve.
New York’s shot profile is playing a role, too. After attempting under 35 three-pointers per 100 possessions last year, the Knicks are up north of 43 right now. The uptick in volume has resulted in nearly four additional three-point makes per 100 possessions. While reliance on the three-ball injects added variance into the results, it also arms New York with the firepower necessary to construct larger leads more often.
This would be a huge deal for the Knicks
Blowout victories are nothing if not invaluable to keeping regular-season minutes in check for the Knicks’ most important players. Brown is already doing a good job, even in the face of injuries and some glaring rotation holes.
Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Karl-Anthony Towns, and OG Anunoby are all averaging fewer minutes than they did last season. The downtick has trickled into fourth quarters. Pretty much all of the starters hovered around eight minutes or more per final frame under Tom Thibodeau. This year, Towns and Bridges are the only starters averaging over eight minutes per fourth quarter. And Jalen Brunson is actually clocking in under seven minutes.
These might seem like tiny differences, but they add up. Look no further than Mr. 82 games himself, Mikal Bridges. He’s on track to rack up more than 200 fewer minutes than he did last season. Look at crunch time, too. The Knicks are 30th in clutch minutes played so far. They were fifth last season.
Many months separate New York from the start of the playoffs. Tougher stretches await. Things will go wrong. Games will be closer. But Brown was brought in to optimize the Knicks in their current form. From his lineup experimentation to his exploration of depth to the time they’re spending up big, he appears to be doing just that.