PHOENIX — It’s been easy to appreciate Josh Hart when he’s not around.
And with Hart on the verge of returning from an eight-game absence — he was upgraded to questionable for Sunday’s game against the Trail Blazers — the Knicks are hoping his Super Glue powers will help put them back together again.
“He’s the heart and soul of the team from an energy perspective,” Miles McBride said. “I bring a lot of energy, we got a lot of guys that do. But he’s been doing it for so long and we’ve all been able to use him as the nucleus.”
It wasn’t supposed to be like this with Hart, by the way. He wasn’t supposed to hold everything together with his energy, leadership, playmaking.
The 30-year-old started the season coming off the bench and with a mangled ring finger on his shooting hand, the product of a dislocation from the playoffs and a setback during offseason workouts.
Hart’s jump shot was a misfiring mess for a couple of weeks to begin the campaign, and he felt compelled to clarify that another surgery to fix that finger — which would have taken months off his season, maybe more — wasn’t an option.
Then Hart stepped into the starting lineup and the Knicks took off, feeding off his rebounding and pace.
“He’s a connector. He’s a glue guy,” coach Mike Brown said. “There’s a lot of things that we can do with him on the floor, on both ends of the floor, that he brings to the team.”
Nonetheless, Hart’s badly sprained right ankle — sustained Christmas — arrived with a belief the Knicks would easily endure.
After all, they handled a nine-game injury absence to OG Anunoby by going 6-3.
They split two games with Miami after Jalen Brunson suffered an ankle sprain.
They went 6-2 after Miles McBride’s ankle sprain.
They are 2-1 this season without Karl-Anthony Towns.
Without Hart? The Knicks are 3-5 and losers of five of their past six.
Brown downplayed Hart’s absence as a singular issue for the team’s struggles — “You factor in could it be opponents? Could it be the time of the year? I’m not sure,” the coach said — but the forward’s return, which could come as soon as Sunday against the Blazers, represents the easiest and quickest fix.
“I mean, it’s tough when you’re missing a big part of your team in a new system, new offense, new philosophy, scheme,” Karl-Anthony Towns said.
A big part of the problem has been just setting up the offense. Without Hart helping to bring up the ball — which he often does with pace, especially after grabbing a defensive rebound — the Knicks are left with Jalen Brunson taking on more ballhandling responsibilities, contradicting Brown’s goal of playing him off the ball like Stephen Curry.
Tyler Kolek, Mikal Bridges and McBride have struggled to break presses as primary ball handlers.
So Brunson has more on his plate.
Case in point: in the past eight games, all without Hart, Brunson’s averages of seconds per touch and dribbles per touch have increased, according to NBA.com. At the same time, Brunson’s paint touches have dramatically decreased. So he’s doing more dribbling up the court and into low-efficiency situations.
Asked about the need for help since he’s become the team’s only reliable playmaker without Hart, Brunson, the captain, disagreed with the premise — and, as a result, strayed from throwing teammates under the bus.
“We need [Hart] back but I do believe we have secondary playmakers [after myself],” Brunson said. “We have them on our team. And you may think differently but that’s how I feel.”
Brown said the paint touches — a staple of his offensive system — have diminished across the roster.
Again, they’ve missed Hart. But it looks like his return Sunday is a strong possibility.
“Our overall paint touches are down and our overall sprays [drive-and-kicks] are down,” Brown said. “Some of it is we’re not moving the ball like we were, but Josh, again, he’s another ball handler that gets downhill very well. He makes quick decisions, gets downhill, and if you cat-and-mouse, he’s definitely going to finish. If you come to him, he’s a great spray guy. To be missing that, makes it tough when it impacts all of us.”
