{"id":498217,"date":"2026-01-07T05:45:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T05:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/498217\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T05:45:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T05:45:21","slug":"knicks-ball-movement-has-flatlined-since-josh-harts-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/498217\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks’ ball movement has flatlined since Josh Hart’s injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Josh Hart makes an impact in so many different ways<\/a>. <\/p>\n

At the moment, though, it\u2019s one of his less talked about abilities that the Knicks are missing the most.<\/p>\n

Without him, there is a glaring lack of a facilitator and playmaker. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe Knicks\u2019 ball movement on offense has stagnated since Josh Hart has been out with an ankle injury. AP<\/p>\n

One of Mike Brown\u2019s big missions was to let Jalen Brunson play off the ball and take pressure off him to set up the offense. <\/p>\n

And, after inserting Hart into the starting lineup, that was working with him often acting as the orchestrator and usually the one pushing the Knicks in transition.<\/p>\n

But without him, the offense has become stagnant and undynamic with a lack of ball movement during this four-game skid. In their blowout loss to the Pistons on Monday night in Detroit, Brunson had zero assists and six turnovers, struggling to create for his teammates with nobody to take that load off his shoulders.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur last game, we had our lowest pass total,\u201d Brown said after practice Tuesday. \u201cI think we had 229 passes for the game, and we\u2019re averaging a little over 290. That\u2019s a big difference. When you talk about 70 less passes in one game, that\u2019s a big difference. I showed our guys, we had opportunities where we could\u2019ve gotten off the ball sooner. And that\u2019s across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hart \u2014 who is out again for Wednesday\u2019s clash against the Clippers at Madison Square Garden with his sprained ankle \u2014 averages 5.1 assists per game, second on the team behind Brunson. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

His rebounding prowess and willingness to do the dirty work are usually what first come to mind, but his ability as a creator is undeniable. <\/p>\n

More than anyone besides Brunson, he forces the defense to collapse and creates openings for teammates. And it is him who most gets the Knicks to play with pace offensively.<\/p>\n

Beyond adding more of the responsibility to Brunson \u2014 which goes against Brown\u2019s vision \u2014 there are few other candidates that can handle that playmaking load. <\/p>\n

OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges\u2019 roles in Brown\u2019s system are primarily to stay in the corners as catch-and-shoot options from 3-point range. Karl-Anthony Towns is a good passer for a big man but is not someone who can break down a defense off the dribble. <\/p>\n

Miles McBride can do it a bit but is not a natural.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Without Hart, should any of those roles change?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think having guys change roles may not be the best thing,\u201d Brunson said. \u201cIt could happen, but for us it\u2019s all about stepping up. Controlling what you can control, doing what you have to do, play to your strengths, just help your team and do whatever it takes. I think that\u2019s what Josh brings to the table \u2014 he does whatever it takes to win. So when it comes to changing your role, I just feel like everyone has to step up in a certain way. It\u2019s not just gonna be one person. We all just have to be better as a team. It\u2019s plain and simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Something else is plain and simple \u2014 the Knicks can not easily replicate Hart\u2019s role.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josh Hart makes an impact in so many different ways. At the moment, though, it\u2019s one of his…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":498218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,24114,69359,1260,405,403,3122,5226,5225,5228,13726,5227,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-498217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-jalen-brunson","10":"tag-josh-hart","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-knicks","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-ny-sports-minute","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115852235555602343","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}