A word you often hear thrown around by a team that has won a championship is "sacrifice". Coaches need to sacrifice, players need to sacrifice, and personal agendas need to be cast aside for the betterment of the team. It sounds cliché, but it is true. For the Knicks to reach the promised land, sacrifices will need to be made, including Jalen Brunson sacrificing time on the ball.
That is not to say that Brunson will be unwilling, or even apprehensive, to get off the ball more; by all accounts, he seems like someone who cares about winning above all else. Last season, Brunson averaged 8.6 minutes of possession with the ball in his hands per game, the most in the league. In the playoffs, it rose to 9.2 minutes on average.
Brunson is one of the game's best offensive engines, but for the Knicks' offense to hit another gear, it needs to become less predictable, and that means less Brunson holding the ball. Speaking on The Zach Lowe Show, Zach Lowe and Mo Dakhil stressed that the Knicks' offense needs more variety, something they can achieve by getting Brunson off the ball.
Brunson will still be involved heavily
It is important to note that moving Brunson off the ball more does not mean that he will be relegated to the corner for stretches. There are plenty of ways to involve Brunson in an offensive possession without him holding the ball for six seconds.
For starters, as dominant as Brunson is on the ball, he is equally dominant off it. He is an exceptional spot-up shooter, ranking in the 99th percentile in terms of points per possession. He is also an effective cutter, although with low frequency.
Here is how the top 30 scorers in the league compare to one another when it comes to on-ball and off-ball scoring pic.twitter.com/428HF5V6Q4
— AOP_NBA (@aop_nba) March 19, 2025
The key will be capitalizing on those plays while also increasing how often they occur. And, of course, if Brunson is spending more time off the ball, others will have to spend more time on it.
More on-ball time for OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges
The Knicks will have to run more actions involving OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges as the primary ball-handlers. Anunoby showed flashes of what he can do as a scorer when Brunson was hurt for a stretch last season, and Bridges can get involved more as well.
That's not to say that there should be stretches where Anunoby and Bridges trade isolation possessions, but Mike Brown will need to find ways to get more out of them, whether it is through two-man actions involving Karl-Anthony Towns or even using Brunson as a screener.