NY Knicks’ Offense Is Improved, Yet Still Looks Doomed to Mediocrity

NEW YORK — It’s been a strange season so far for the Knicks.

They’re 14-12 and owners of the fourth-best record in the Eastern Conference, yet they’ve also been outscored by 3.4 points per 100 possessions. They join the Oklahoma City Thunder as the only two teams with winning records and negative point differentials.

The defense, which allowed the Golden State Warriors to assist on 41 of 45 buckets Thursday night in a 103-90 win over the Knicks, has been atrocious (107.5 points allowed per 100 possessions, the NBA’s sixth-worst mark).

If not for the offense, which is putting up a solid 104 points per 100 possessions, good for 14th in the NBA, the first couple of months of new head coach Jeff Hornacek’s tenure in New York would have a much different feel.

But one opposing scout who watched the Knicks in person for the first time this week thinks the offense could be even more potent if freed from the shackles of the vanilla scheme the Knicks are running.

“I was a little shocked at how little creativity there was in the offense,” the scout told Bleacher Report. “It was very strange. There were a lot of isolation post-ups, some very standard pick-and-rolls. I was expecting more.”

Some of those expectations, the scout said, were based off the type of offense Hornacek ran during his two-plus seasons with the Phoenix Suns. Those Suns teams pushed the ball up the floor and kept it moving from side to side; they were relentless in attacking the rim and seeking out three-pointers.

The Knicks, on the other hand, have relied on one-on-one play from Carmelo Anthony, Kristaps Porzingis and Derrick Rose. Only two teams—the Dallas Mavericks and Cleveland Cavaliers—are running isolations more frequently.

The Cavaliers, at least, are able to leverage those looks into open bombs and clean runs at the rim. The Knicks—who are third in the league in percentage of shots hoisted from the mid-range area—are instead repeatedly settling for contested pull-up jumpers.

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“I’m not out there coaching so I don’t actually know what the game plan is,” the scout added, “but, based on Jeff’s experience, and how Phil is always preaching about moving the ball, I guess I was just expecting more.”

Of course, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Hornacek is using a different playbook for this Knicks team. Anthony has always been a player who prefers to slow things down and go one-on-one, and he’s made a pretty good career out of doing so.

Also, the Knicks offense goes into the tank when Anthony steps off the floor. They’re scoring a blistering 107.5 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor, compared to an anemic 96.9 when he sits, even with him shooting a career-low 42.1 percent from the field.

“You know, it’s a fine balance. He’s a star player who can really create his own shot from that mid-range area,” Hornacek told reporters last week in New York. “So sometimes when we talk about moving the ball and holding it, maybe it’s a second or two too long for a normal guy. But for Carmelo, it’s fine because he can make that play.”

There’s a deeper rationale behind Hornacek’s affinity for Anthony isolations, too. 

“Some teams force four-on-three opportunities with pick-and-rolls,” he said. “We just do it with Carmelo.”

Hornacek’s goal, one would imagine, is for Anthony to morph into a cross-court pass-slinging machine, similar to what LeBron James does for Cleveland—a major reason why the Cavaliers are able to thrive off iso-ball. And Anthony’s certainly improved in this area.

Every now and then he seems to recognize the opening given to him and takes advantage. But his instincts are, and always will be, to attack first. His assist rate has plummeted from the career-high mark he set last year back to its typical mark, and he’s averaging just 0.92 …

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