Mike Brown has been transparent about the changes coming to the Knicks' offense this season. He plans to pick up the pace, move Karl-Anthony Towns around more, and get Jalen Brunson more off-ball looks. He also plans to shoot a lot more threes. In fact, he revealed that he wants the Knicks to average 40 or more threes per game this season.
Getting up more threes will be a good thing for the Knicks; they ranked 27th in 3-point volume last season, and averaged only 32.7 3-point attempts per game over the final 49 games of the season.
They brought in several players who are capable of putting up shots this offseason, like Guerschon Yabusele, who averaged 3.9 threes per game last season, and Jordan Clarkson, who averaged 6.3 threes per game.
Brown stated that playing faster, having players sprint to the corners, more off-ball movement, and more drive-and-kicks should generate more good looks naturally, and he is probably right. Still, what Brown is asking for is a sizeable jump.
Brown is asking for a huge increase of threes
Last season, only four teams in the league averaged 40 or more 3-point attempts per game. The Knicks have a long way to go to get up that many on average. In fact, the Knicks shot 40 or more threes in a game only 20 times last season, which is less than one quarter of their total games.
Brown did stress that he wants the Knicks to take good threes, so they won't just be getting up shots for the sake of getting them up. Last year, the Knicks averaged 7.26 drives per 100 possessions that resulted in a 3-point attempt, which ranked 16th in the league.
There will certainly be an emphasis on those types of shots this season, which Brown has already alluded to.
Getting out in transition will help
Brown has also stated that he wants players sprinting to the corners in transition. The Knicks were one of the slowest paced offenses in the league last year. If the players, and the ball, are moving more, better looks should come as a result.
The Knicks shot fewer than four transition threes per game last year, which ranked in just the 26th percentile in the league. With more of an emphasis being put on getting down the court quicker, there should also be more open looks for trailing players.