Last year the Knicks were good. Really good! Only not quite as good as they thought they oughta be, leading a franchise without a title for more than 50 years to fire their best head coach in 25 on the grounds that “our organization is singularly focused on winning a championship for our fans.” As ambitions go, that one’s unambiguous. Sooner than later, too, for sure.
Enter: Mike Brown. The Knicks hired this sweet man who’s spent much of his coaching career working with the greatest players and minds of this century to fix their flaws while embettering the stuff they’re already good at. It’s entirely too early to assess their progress or lack thereof. But late-stage capitalism pushes Vox to push its writers to push content 24/7/365, so let’s take a moment to take a snapshot of where Brown’s Knicks stand as of November 10th, compare it to last year, and see what stands out so far. (all numbers from before Sunday’s Brooklyn game, courtesy of basketball-reference.com)
Team trends
The Knicks are shooting a lot more now versus a year ago (18th in attempts per game then, fourth now), though they’ve made fewer buckets (seventh in makes and fifth in percentage last year, 18th and 22nd now). This is almost entirely due to their cratered 2-point game. Last year they were sixth in 2-point tries, third in makes and eighth in accuracy; this year they’re 23rd, 28th and 27th.
Coach Brown said he was gonna emphasize the 3-ball and hark! he hath. The Knicks have leapt from 27th in attempts to third and 24th in makes to second-best, all without their shooting taking a dive – eighth last year, 11th now. Their 3-point attempt rate’s jumped from 28th all the way to sixth. The 2.5 kids, the picket fence, the family dog: the Knicks are keeping up with the Joneses. Winning at the highest level means live three or die, and the Knicks have clearly read the pamphlet and are looking to live a good while longer.
Last season New York ranked 19th, 25th and 24th in offensive, defensive and total rebounds. This year they’re first, 15th and sixth. They’re also tops in defensive rebound percentage and second in offensive rebound percentage. If a shot goes up and doesn’t go in, it’s probably ending up in a Knicks’ hand.
Storm clouds brewing?
Knick opponents have enjoyed the inverse of New York’s shooting splits this season: the Knicks give up fewer 2-point attempts than anyone and the fourth-fewest 2-point makes, yet also give up the third-most opponent made 3s at a league-best 41% (or league-worst, from the Knicks’ perspective). The Mike Brown Knicks are throwing more uppercuts, haymakers and roundhouses, but they’re taking more, too.
Eddy Curry game tying three vs. the Milwaukee Bucks.April 7th, 2007.The Knicks won 118-113 in overtime.That Curry's his 2nd 3-point shot made in his career, and he ended his career with 2/2 from 3 (100%).He also finished the game with a career-high 43.
— MrBuckBuck (@mrbuckbucknba.bsky.social) 2025-06-28T12:36:56.564Z
Oh, my bad! I was looking for a clip of a 3 from the Knicks/Bucks game two weeks ago. Somehow Bluesky led me to this old Eddy Curry clip. Ahh, well. Enjoy it. I collect gemstones, rocks and fossils. I have a tanzanite. The earth is 200,000,000 square miles and tanzanite only exists in about a five-square-mile area near the foothills of Kiliminjaro. I have a piece of a T-rex tooth. A whole Megalodon tooth. Moon rock. Mars rock. None are rarer than a joyful Knick clip from the Eddy Curry era.
Admit it: KAT & Bridges dressed up as bears does something for you, doesn’t it?
You may have heard Karl-Anthony Towns is adjusting to a new role. That’s reflected in his shooting slash line being down across the board: from 53% field goal shooting to 41%, 42% 3-point shooting to 34% and 57% 2-point shooting to 45%. Brown ultimately wants to see more of KAT creating for others, and he knows from whence he speaks. While in Indiana, Damontas Sabonis never had an assist rate above 27.5%; while in Sacramento with Brown he topped 30% twice, peaking at 34%. A more involved role offensively didn’t slow down Sabonis’ rebounding any; in fact, he led the league in rebounds all three seasons Brown coached the Kings. Hopefully by year’s end Towns has returned to his usual self shooting without losing the pursuit of all the different ways he can impact winning.
Karl-Anthony Towns OREB and finish.Julius Randle lets him crash with no resistance.
— Jonah Maves (@hunchojman.bsky.social) 2025-11-06T20:48:14.979Z
You may have heard Mikal Bridges looks more aggressive and efficient, and this is true both in multiple ways. Bridges is the anti-KAT, shooting better from everywhere: from 50% to 53% from the field and 35% to 47% from deep, maintaining a 59% mark inside the arc last season and this. But not only isn’t Bridges ballooning his stats by chucking up shots, he’s taking 20% fewer per 36 minutes. He’s dishing more than ever, too, his assist rate a career-high 21%, far above his prior best of 16% during his Nets swan song. All while his per-game turnovers have dropped by nearly a third. That’s a lot of numbers. They’re good numbers, though. And here’s one more: Bridges’ steals are up 56% so far. If these trends continue . . .
Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby combine to make up the Goldilocks Knicks. They haven’t fallen off like Towns or gone all a-scorchin’ like Bridges; their porridge is mostly just right.
Brunson’s struggled a bit from deep (38% last year, 33% this year), and Anunoby’s been a bit better from there (37% last year, 41% now), but otherwise both are shooting about the same. Brunson’s shooting more, scoring more and assisting less, though also handling the ball less and dribbling less, meaning more of his points are coming courtesy of his mates; 27% of his 2s being assisted is his highest rate since his rookie season, and the 52% of assisted 3s would be his first significant year-to-year leap since his breakthrough 2021 season in Dallas. Anecdotally, the most common statement I’ve heard from Knick fans this year besides “Monica McNutt better be Clyde’s successor” and “Where can I watch tonight’s game?” is “I’ve seen Brunson make more corner 3s/assisted 3s already this year than the past three combined.”
OGA is A-OK
Anunoby’s only ever made one All-Defense Team. Second Team in 2023. Isn’t that weird? OG was oddly vocal this offseason – in that he actually vocalized something – about aiming not only for First Team All-Defense, but Defensive Player of the Year. For what it’s worth, despite his minutes being down from a year ago he’s averaging nearly as many blocks as last year’s career-high and half a steal more than when he led the league in 2023, meaning more stocks than ever. And while Brunson’s getting by with a little help from his friends more than before, Anunoby’s assisted 2s are down from 72% to 60%. Unhinged OG has always seemed like peak OG. Not that “unhinged” means uncaring. One of the many reasons we love OG.
Don't see this every day. OG Anunoby elbows Kevin Huerter, stops to see if he's okay, then dunks it
— Steph Noh (@stephnoh.bsky.social) 2025-11-01T02:08:47.333Z
Miles, Mitch & Man-At-Arms
Miles McBride is creating a lot more for himself inside the arc – 29% of his 2s are assisted, down from 38% last year – while getting more help outside it – 92% of his 3s are assisted, up from 81% last year. I wondered if the presence of Jordan Clarkson, who can create for others, might have something to do with that, but Clarkson’s assist rate has plummeted in half since joining the Knicks. Another McBride mcnugget: he appears on four of the team’s top-20 two-man lineups by point differential, yet each of the top-3 (McBride with OG, KAT and Bridges, respectively).
Mitchell Robinson is shooting a career-low 55% from the field. He’s also averaging 3.7 blocks per 36 minutes, his most since the absurd 4.3 he put up his rookie year. I don’t care. I don’t care I don’t care I don’t care. So long as he’s healthy come April. And stays healthy through June.
Man-At-Arms was a character on He-Man. He was a master of all kinds of technology and weapons – ergo the “arms” – and he had one of the great mustaches in animation history. Josh Hart reminds me of Man-At-Arms. The MacGyver type. What do you need? They got you. Plumber says fixing the problem gonna cost $800? Hart can do it for $150. Looking for a good used car under $10 grand? Hart knows a guy who knows a guy selling 2018 models with 50 thousand miles on ‘em for $5K.
According to the numbers, Josh Hart doesn’t have a single unassisted 2 this season. There’s no way that’s right. Right? Haven’t we seen Hart either drive by someone for a bucket or get a tip-in or something? Whatever. His rebounding is up and his assists are nearly equal, and Hart’s at his best setting up others anyhow.
Quite the closeout from Naz Reid on Josh Hart
— Jonah Maves (@hunchojman.bsky.social) 2025-11-06T20:57:29.558Z
What have we learned so far?
Proof Mike Brown believes in collective power: everyone’s minutes are down. Everybody’s. Brunson: 35.4 to 34. KAT: 35 to 33.1. OG: 36.6 to 33.9. Bridges: 37 to 35.1. Mitch and McBride are each down about a minute. Last year Hart led the league in minutes; this year he’s fifth on his own team, as close to KAT in fourth as Guerschon Yabusele in ninth.
In 2024-25, five Knicks averaged 35-plus minutes (only the 10th time in NBA history that’s happened); this year only Bridges does, by a tenth of a point. Brown is, 10% into the season, consistently asking less of everybody now, ostensibly so there’s more in the tank should the Knicks be playing in Oklahoma City come June. Even Ariel Hukporti is somehow getting less run per game than Jericho Sims used to. If the Knicks win the championship, they should build a statue outside the Garden featuring the top-7 rotation guys enjoying themselves on the bench late in a blowout.
More proof Mike Brown believes in collective power: the Knicks have only played 10% of their schedule, yet Landry Shamet has already played 20% of the total minutes he did last year.
Proof of what you can accomplish when your group shares a common vision: everyone’s shots are down. Everybody’s – mostly. Towns: 16.9 to 14.3. Mikal: 14.4 to 11.1. Hart: 10 to 6.9. Deuce: 8.5 to 8. OG is steady Eddie, his 13.9 shots a night the same as last year. Brunson is up from 18.5 to 21.6. When you employ the best guard in the conference, you let the man cook.
Some of these trends will slow or even reverse; six months of injuries, the league seeing enough of the Knicks to throw counters and the Knicks seeing enough of the counters to counter them back are annual, inevitable agents of erosion. Brown wouldn’t have been hired if he wasn’t on-board with reversing the biggest red flags of the Thibodeau era. Playing more guys fewer minutes is as pretty as the sunset; it’s also as predictable. Get this team to the Finals and the sky’s the limit.
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