Josh Hart suffered what was considered a minor back injury during the New York Knicks’ preseason opener. So much for that.
The 30-year-old didn’t play a single second of preseason basketball after tweaking his back. That in itself isn’t a damning development. The prospect of him still not practicing, and then not playing in the Knicks’ opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers is a different story:
Josh Hart and Mitchell Robinson did not go through Knicks practice today. Brown says he's unsure about their availability for the opener vs. Cleveland but reiterates that it's next man up. Robinson is having his workload managed workload. Hart is progressing.
— Kristian Winfield (@Krisplashed) October 20, 2025
Full-blown panic should not be the default here. Still, as SNY’s Ian Begley noted on a recent episode of The Putback with Ian Begley, we also can’t ignore that Hart’s injury situation warrants some level of concern.
“Shortly after the injury, I was hearing it’s not something to be overly concerned about,” Begley says, at around the 4:31 mark. “The idea was that he’d be there for opening night...Now, he’s not practicing. He’s not taking contact. Maybe he hasn’t been cleared for contact, and that’s concerning…You have to question whether you’re going to have him Wednesday [against Cleveland], and how bad that injury actually is.”
The Knicks could be operating out of an abundance of caution
This could all be much ado over nothing. Mike Brown and the Knicks have made it clear they’re trying to lighten the load on their top players, and Hart could benefit from being treated with caution as much as anyone.
Over the past three years, across both the regular season and playoffs, Hart ranks eighth in total minutes played. He would be even higher up that ladder if he didn’t spend part of 2022-23 with the Portland Trail Blazers, and instead played under Tom Thibodeau. Look no further than Jalen Brunson as proof. He is seventh in total minutes played during this span.
A little extra rest for Hart isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s a long season. Eighty-two games is a lot. The Knicks are in Finals-or-bust territory for the first time since Patrick Ewing’s heyday. There’s little value in rushing Hart back for an opening-night tilt, or at all.
Managing his workload is even more important when you consider the bombshell he dropped on Media Day: He will be wearing a finger splint on his shooting hand all season, in hopes of delaying what seems to be unavoidable surgery until next summer.
It remains to be seen how much the splint will impact Hart’s game. But his shooting is already wonky. There’s no way it helps. He could feasibly even struggle to rebound or finish at the same clips.
New York can’t survive without Josh Hart for too long
More rest for Hart may be a good thing in some ways. He gets to manage his injury, and the Knicks could be forced to field more true five-out lineups in his absence.
Still, the silver linings have their limit.
New York is already managing Mitchell Robinson’s workload in an unsettlingly covert way. Beyond that, Hart is one of the team’s few rotation wings. The Knicks run out of 2-3-4 hybrids after him, OG Anunoby, and Mikal Bridges. If Hart misses time, they become more reliant on dual-big looks, three-guard lineups, and potentially rookie Mohamed Diawara.
That is…not ideal.
Sure, the Hart injury situation could still be nothing. It could also be something. That the Knicks seem to be treating it as more than nothing is something unto itself—and worth degrees of concern.