CLEVELAND — Making the Knicks offense more dynamic was one of the most important improvements Mike Brown was supposed to bring.
One of basketball’s best minds is raving about his job doing just that.
“The defense can’t just key on a couple of actions anymore,” LeBron James said on his “Mind the Game” podcast, which he co-hosts with Steve Nash. “I thought over the last couple of years with New York, you kind of got a good rhythm of how they were gonna play. The ball was gonna end up in a certain way every single time.”
Now, with the new wrinkle the Knicks have unleashed this postseason, they have become much more unpredictable.
The transformation the Knicks underwent, after trailing the Hawks 2-1 in the first round, worked wonders.
Karl-Anthony Towns operating as a facilitator from the elbow was freeing up Jalen Brunson to find open shots off the ball and allowing other teammates to cut and set screens around him.
“You now shift your pie chart from people just thinking heavy, heavy, heavy, JB pick-and-roll, JB iso, to now the demographic of your offense shifts,” James said. “Which means the defense can’t just be keyed in on one action now. So having KAT as the hub, at the elbow, at the top of the key, it allows JB to be off the ball, where he can set a rip screen for OG [Anunoby] to get to the rim where if [the defense] messes that up, OG gets a dunk. If they mess that up and both of them go with OG to the rim, now you have JB coming off it clean, either for a clean shot or a [dribble handoff]. Now the defense is playing catch up. That’s helped their demographic out a lot, their pie chart on what they can do offensively.
“And JB is still gonna have his iso game where he’s really good, he’s still gonna have his pick-and-roll game where he’s really good. But to sprinkle in a little bit of off-ball action, a little bit of pinch-post action, with a different hub, that helps a lot.”
That new “sprinkle” has led to a whirlwind for Towns and his role in the Knicks offense, though.
Just when it seemed it had been cemented, it was again forced to change.
The Towns-as-a-hub system was not as effective the first two games of the Eastern Conference finals against the Cavaliers’ big man duo of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen.
By the fourth quarter of Game 1, when the Knicks pulled off their historic comeback, they abandoned the Towns-centric system and reverted back to running the offense through Brunson with the ball in his hands.
And that’s how Brunson and the Knicks pulverized the Cavs down the stretch.
In Game 2, when the Cavs began aggressively double-teaming Brunson, he became the facilitator, rather than Towns.
And Brunson subsequently recorded 14 assists, his most ever in a playoff game.
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So far this postseason, Towns has gone from playing off Brunson, to having the ball constantly in his hands early in possessions, to once again playing off Brunson.
What’s that been like for him?
“I’ve always said I’m willing to sacrifice and do whatever it takes to impact winning and help this team win,” Towns said Saturday morning after shootaround. “That’s the blessing of our group. We have multiple ways and systems that we can utilize to help us get the win. I’ve been happy because we’ve continued to win. There’s nothing to be sad about.”
And now, it’s left the Knicks with multiple systems they can utilize when the situation calls for it.
“I think whatever it is, you kind of have a counter for it,” Mikal Bridges said Saturday. “And everybody be ready. Five guys who can play on ball and off ball so I think it’s just to be able to keep everybody honest and just read and react.”
The Cavaliers have no answer to slow down Brunson.
Their strength, defensively at least, is in their bigs with Mobley and Allen.
So it makes sense to let Brunson torch the Cavs in isolation.
But perhaps there will be a moment where the Towns-as-a-hub offense is again required, either in this series or a potential Finals appearance.
