The New York Knicks have spent most of the last two seasons starting Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, and Josh Hart. They lost their minutes last season, but have a 7.1 net rating in 338 minutes under new coach Mike Brown. The coach previously told reporters that they were working on adjustments to opposing defenses guarding Hart with their centers, arguably the lineup's biggest issue. Those adjustments seem to involve using the Swiss Army knife as a screener. In the team's recent win against the Spurs, Hart set the most ball screens he has all season.
Using Hart as a screener can help mollify his lack of 3-point shooting
Brown putting Hart's high motor to work by utilizing him as a screener and playmaking option isn't a new development. The Knicks have been doing this since their first-round playoff series against the Cavaliers in 2023. But it felt like something they had gotten away from over the years, despite continuing to trust Hart with a starting spot.
Sunday's game against the Spurs didn't start the trend, it confirmed it: Hart set more screens on the ball than he had in any other game thus far in the 2025-26 campaign, which caught the eye of NBA analyst Zach Lowe.
On Monday's episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, Lowe shared insights regarding the Knicks' adjustment to the defensive coverage of Hart – and how it showed against the Spurs on Sunday.
"I remember talking to a head coach, maybe two months ago...and I was like, 'so, who are you going to put your center on? You going to do the Hart thing, probably, right? Like, that's what the matchups make sense, where you're gonna put your center on Hart?' and he's like, 'I don't know, man. Josh Hart feels like he solved that one, and like he's hurt a lot of teams by making open 3's, and doing Josh Hart things, and crashing the glass. And I'm kind of afraid to do it.' And, he didn't do it," Lowe told titular host Bill Simmons.
The long-time analyst took his conversation with that NBA coach, and presumably others, and was able to extrapolate some interesting information from it. He told Simmons that this proved why Karl-Anthony Towns and Hart are so important to the Knicks' championship efforts – and he was right.
"This is how teams think about gameplanning for the Knicks. It really starts with Towns and Hart, and the Knicks felt like today they hit a gear with that that they had not hit this season."