Despite what recent trends might indicate, the New York Knicks are objectively one of the league's hottest offensive units here in 2025-26, ranking third in offensive rating while dropping 117.2 points per game. However, their inactivity at the free-throw line has proven rather costly.
Through 67 games played, the Knickerbockers rank a lowly 25 in foul shots per game with just 21.6, the same as the cellar-dwelling Washington Wizards and even fewer than the first team to be eliminated from playoff contention this season, the Indiana Pacers (23.5).
With this lackluster production from the charity stripe, Bleacher Report's Greg Swartz has gone as far as to label their inability to generate foul shots as the club's most "glaring weakness."
Now, while there's certainly some serious weight behind this kind of sentiment -- after all, New York's main threat to a title run in the Pistons rank second in this category at 26.7 per game --, as recent campaigns have proven, regular-season production has the ability to go right out the window once the playoffs roll around.
Knicks capable of overcoming free throw disparity in playoffs
In 2024-25, this same Knicks core of Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, and Josh Hart was even worse in the free-throw department, ranking 23 in the association with an abysmal 20.7 attempts per game.
However, once the postseason rolled around, it seemed they were able to kick things into a whole new gear, as they went from drawing 17.2 personal fouls per game to 20.9 in the playoffs, which, in turn, equated to them hoisting up the fifth-most free throws on average with 25.9.
Frankly, since Brunson signed on with the Knicks back in 2022, every time the playoffs roll around New York has always managed to up their charity stripe activity.
In 2022-23, they went from the third-most attempts in the regular season (25.5) to the first in the playoffs (26.9); come 2023-24, they went from 14 (21.8) to fifth (24.4).
Though head coach Mike Brown may be a vocal critic of foul-baiting, over the last four years, the Knicks have admittedly been beneficiaries of Brunson's masterful techniques.
With this in mind, the hope moving forward is that recent history can continue to repeat itself, and New York can once again see an uptick in free throws when it matters most under the bright lights of the postseason.