The New York Knicks opened the season distancing themselves from last year’s starting five. They have since re-embraced it, adding Josh Hart back into the opening-tip fold. And now, it may be time to reconsider who they’re rolling out to start games.
Make no bones about it, the macro numbers on the lineup with Hart, Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, and OG Anunoby remain encouraging. The Knicks are a plus-19.3 points per 100 possessions, with an offensive rating north of 130, for the season. That is objectively elite stuff.
In recent games, though, this quintet has begun to lose its luster. And while it has flown under the radar amid New York’s enthralling NBA Cup run, it’s something the team needs to clock, and at the very least monitor, if not actually address.
The Knicks’ starting five is showing signs of slippage
Here is the point differential for New York’s starting five in each of its past three games, including the NBA Cup Final:
- December 9 vs. Toronto Raptors: plus-1
- December 13 vs. Orlando Magic: minus-three
- December 16 vs. San Antonio Spurs: minus-eight
Three games does not qualify as unassailable evidence. And we’d be remiss if we didn’t note that the Knicks won all of these tilts.
But the defense for this group, in particular, is starting to show cracks. The starting five is surrendering around 1.37 points per possession during this mini stretch. That is an astronomically high number, and a variety of different factors are responsible.
Though the Knicks are offensive-rebounding superstars in their own right, the starters conceded plenty of second-chance opportunities against Toronto, and San Antonio. Opponents’ shot-making inside the arc has also been absurd. The Raptors, Magic, and Spurs hit a combined 32 of their 50 two-point attempts against the starters—a 64 percent conversion rate.
Even as New York’s fivesome has held up its end of the bargain at the offensive side, it is getting harder to create overall separation. Anunoby, Bridges, and Hart are all shouldering heavier defensive workloads when playing beside Brunson and KAT, particularly when it comes to ball containment. It’s easier to paper over the flaws of that duo when Bridges and Anunoby are dotted by Deuce McBride or Mitchell Robinson, as opposed to Hart.
Do the Knicks need to make another change?
Given the overall success of the starting five to date, the Knicks don’t have to make an adjustment now. It would admittedly send a weird message while they’re in the middle of an extended winning streak.
Complicated still, Robinson isn’t available nearly enough to be tabbed as a starter. And McBride can’t supplant Hart until he returns from an ankle surgery. New York would also need to consider how Hart responds to being demoted yet again.
For the time being it, this is something to monitor—to put a pin in, and revisit. The Knicks are rolling right now, but if the starting five keeps struggling to generate separation and win their minutes, another change could be in order.