One of the biggest storylines from last year's Knicks team was the lack of pick-and-roll chemistry between Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns in the second half of the season and through the playoffs. Maximizing their two-man game will be at the top of Mike Brown's to-do list, and one of the ways he might try to tackle it is through utilizing more dribble handoffs between the pair.
Brunson and Towns were both fantastic last season. The star pairing both made the Eastern Conference All-Star team midseason, and they were both named to All-NBA teams at the end of the year. Brunson was his typical dominant self, averaging 26 points and 7.3 assists per game, while Towns averaged 24.4 points and 12.8 rebounds per game.
Still, the two never seemed to fully click when sharing the court together. There were certainly flashes of it, particularly through the first few months of the season. But too often, the pairing didn't seem to be clicking on all cylinders. Part of that could be due to spacing issues the Knicks had last season, or some combination of other factors. Whatever the reason, Brown will no doubt work to fix it.
Maximizing the pair could start with more DHOs
While the pick-and-roll problems will need to be solved, Brown could also increase the handoff volume between the pair. If you watched a Kings game during Browns' tenure as head coach, you undoubtedly saw numerous handoffs between Domantas Sabonis and one of the Kings' guards or wings.
Brown loves using bigs as playmaking hubs, and handoffs are a great way to give shooters open looks coming off of pin downs. We saw this all the time with Sabonis in Sacramento, as well as with Draymond Green during the time that Mike Brown spent on the Golden State Warriors coaching staff.
Last season, Towns and Brunson averaged 4.2 handoffs per 100 possessions, per league tracking data. On those plays, the Knicks averaged 1.01 points per direct. For reference, Sabonis and Malik Monk led the league in total handoffs on the season, while averaging 12.8 per 100 possessions, which generated 1.1 points per direct.
Handoff actions also give Towns the option to fake the handoff and turn the corner and drive into the paint. Last season, Towns generated 1.26 points per direct on fake handoffs, the highest mark of any player in the league who had at least 65 such plays.