Through six games played in the 2025-26 campaign, it's rather evident that the New York Knicks have a Malcolm Brogdon-shaped hole within their rotation.
Roughly a month after inking a one-year deal with the franchise, the veteran point guard surprisingly announced his retirement from the game of basketball following a nine-year professional career.
Though never officially known as an All-Star, Brogdon spent a large chunk of his career serving as a franchise floor general with the Indiana Pacers, and, during the past few seasons, seamlessly transitioned into a spark plug second-unit weapon, even earning Sixth Man of the Year honors while with the Boston Celtics during the 2022-23 season.
The initial reaction to his addition to New York's roster was overwhelmingly positive, as his ball-handling skills, shooting abilities, and sound defensive chops were believed to be major boons for a depth chart that, in 2024-25, lacked in all three areas within their backcourt reserves.
Now halfway through the first month of the new season, the Knicks have unsurprisingly found themselves struggling in the very same areas many believed Brogdon would have been of great service in.
Several Knicks problems could have been solved by Malcolm Brogdon
As things currently stand, the 3-3 Knicks have struggled in a slew of areas on the floor.
As of this writing, the ball club ranks 21 in assists per game (25.0), 13 in three-point percentage (36.5), 19 in points per game (115.5), and 24 in steals per game (7.2). These metrics only dip to 24 (7.2), 19 (33.7), 28 (26.2), and 30 (2.0), respectively, when solely looking at their bench production.
On top of everything, new head coach Mike Brown has clearly made it a point to play Jalen Brunson more off-ball this year, which, though in theory is logical (especially if he wants to ease any durability woes), in practice it's an experiment that has yet to fully take off due, in large, to the fact that his secondary and tertiary handlers and facilitators are far from reliable.
Without Brunson on the floor, New York finds itself dishing out a mere 6.3 assists compared to 18.7 with him on it. As far as his off-ball scoring is concerned, while they're still trying to adopt such an approach, only 32.3 percent of the All-Star's made field goals have come off an assist.
While the season is still very much young and, as a result, there's still plenty of time for the team to turn things around in these aspects of the game, when looking at these particular struggles, it's hard not to think about what could have been had Brogdon staved off retirement.
Considering these statistical standings and visible struggles when it comes to non-star shot-making and off-ball creation, having a player like Brogdon who, for his career, averaged 15.3 points and 4.7 assists on 46.3 percent shooting from the floor and 38.8 percent shooting from deep, and who cashed in on 37.1 percent of his catch and shoot triples just last season, could have been a tremendous luxury, especially coming off the pine to spell Brunson.
Sadly for the Knicks, life had other plans.