Even when the New York Knicks struggle, head coach Mike Brown is largely being lauded for the changes he’s attempting to implement. But he’s also quickly figuring out there are certain issues, or rather, certain players, he cannot change—like Josh Hart.
Brown’s latest, and most forceful, reality check came during the Knicks’ Tuesday night loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. Hart played a little over 26 minutes, during which time he was a team-worst minus-19, and continued his ice-cold performance from the floor.
Through three appearances on the season, the 30-year-old is now shooting under 43 percent on twos (3-of-7), and a ghastly 11.1 percent from long range (1-of-9). His rim pressure is down to boot. After attempting over 45 percent of his shots inside the restricted area last season, just six of his 18 total looks are coming from that zone this year. Following Tuesday’s disasterclass, Landry Shamet is the only Knick with a worse plus-minus.
In Hart’s defense, he is still reacclimating himself after missing most of the preseason with a back injury. He is also playing with a finger splint on his shooting hand, which can impact everything from his dribbling to his finishing to his shooting.
Still, the problems bubbling to the surface are the same warts undermined the Knicks last season. Brown is finding that out for himself the hard way.
Josh Hart continues to torpedo the Knicks’ offensive spacing
Defenses have never cared about guarding Hart from the perimeter. They care even less now. The Bucks completely disregarded him at times. And when he was on the floor alongside Karl-Anthony Towns, guess what? They put their big man on Hart, and a smaller player on KAT.
New York struggled against identical adjustments throughout the regular season and playoffs in 2025-26. Things have not gotten any better this year.
The Knicks lost the minutes Hart and KAT played together against the Bucks by 14 points. They were minus-11 together in the second half alone. That just so happened to coincide with the offense’s total implosion.
This isn’t a bump in the road isolated to one game. Entering Tuesday, New York was outscored by 20 points in the Hart-KAT minutes, with a lamentable offensive rating fueled by 30 percent shooting from deep, and sub-42-percent shooting inside the arc.
Mike Brown is at fault here, too
Incorporating more of Brown’s offensive tenets can’t be expected to resolve the Hart issue. This problem is intrinsic—weaved into the fabric of his game, and exacerbated by the human roller coaster that is Towns.
If anything, Brown deserves criticism for relying on this duo too much against the Bucks. Even with Mitchell Robinson, Deuce McBride, and Guerschon Yabusele sitting out, there is no reason KAT and Hart should have logged over 16 minutes together.
This is also a Karl-Anthony Towns problem just as much as a Josh Hart problem, and Mike Brown problem. More of his threes will fall over time, but the tunnel vision on drives and post-ups persists. We can’t even be sure that he’s entirely buying into what Brown is selling. This all says nothing of the Grade 2 quad strain KAT himself said he’s attempting to gut out.
Playing the “It’s still early” card only gets you so far, though. Despite all he does, Hart has proven to be a limiting offensive factor long before now. Whether it’s on him, Towns, or the overall roster construction is irrelevant. He is a problem—one that’s not going anywhere unless New York gets nuclear ahead of the trade deadline.