Mike Brown revealed ahead of the New York Knicks’ win over the Atlanta Hawks that he has no plans to change the starting lineup despite prolonged struggles to establish itself as the vaunted fivesome it’s supposed to be. The sentiment is understandable, if not commendable. It may also be blown to smithereens by defenses using their centers to guard Josh Hart.
Sure, the vibes are borderline immaculate coming off the Knicks’ first win against a good team in approximately one month. The Hawks have been on a tear, and New York’s starters posted a plus-10.8 net rating for the game while killing it down the stretch of the fourth quarter.
Micro victories like this are a big deal when the lineup of Hart, Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, and Karl-Anthony Towns have a negative net rating for the season. But encouraging signs do not equate to new normals.
As positive as the win over the Hawks looked, the Knicks still don’t have an answer for an issue that’s dogged them all season—and also plagued them during last year’s playoffs.
The Knicks offense is cratering when bigs defend Josh Hart
Increasing the interplay between Brunson and Towns remains New York’s cheat code. We have seen more interaction with both of them since the All-Star break, and JB assisted on five of KAT’s buckets in the victory against Atlanta. But the most recent win didn’t see the Hawks follow the same blueprint as other defenses.
Atlanta used Onyeka Okongwu to guard Towns for much of the game. That allowed the Knicks to spam more actions involving both him, and JB. If the Hawks put Okongwu on Hart, New York would be inclined to use Hart as the screener (or ball-handler), in hopes of creating half-court advantages for Brunson.
This trend mushroomed as last year went on, particularly in the playoffs. That has continued this season. Hart has never been guarded by rim protectors more often, according to BBall Index. These matchups tend to be bad news for the Knicks. As Shax of The Strickland points out, the team’s half-court offensive rating implodes when centers defend Hart instead of KAT:
The starting lineup has a 114 half-court offensive rating when KAT is defended by the center vs a 83 offensive rating when Hart is
— Shax (@ShaxNBA) April 5, 2026
To me that's the difference, and why we've seen "peaks". If that doesn't paint a picture where there's some doubt come playoff time, what will? https://t.co/AhMQcWNfcm
New York will face more of this once the postseason tips off. Even teams that haven’t defaulted to bigs guarding Hart—Boston, Cleveland, Atlanta—might bust it out with higher frequency.
This issue could still force Mike Brown’s hand
Without a clear-cut solution for this problem, the Knicks will have to take a long look at doing what Brown claims he isn’t considering: changing up the starters. If and when he goes that route, Hart will pay the price.
None of which is meant to pin this on Hart alone. He brings so much value to this team. But forcing defenses away from the smalls-on-KAT approach is not among his helpful qualities.
It has nothing to do with his three-point percentage, either. He is shooting 40.6 percent on triples overall, including 42.3 percent on wide-open treys. Defenses don’t care. If they can winnow down Towns’ usage and clog the lane against Brunson, they’ll live with Hart drilling three or four or even five triples every game.
Maybe there’s a card Brown has yet to play with the starters in these situations. Failing that, the playoffs are all about matchups. And if teams are using their centers to match up with Hart, the results to this point tell us the Knicks will have to sub out Hart for Deuce McBride, or Landry Shamet.
Their season could literally depend on it.