NEW YORK — Mike Brown, as frustrated as he had been all season, offered up a threat.
After Sunday’s game against the Golden State Warriors, the New York Knicks coach took the podium to vent about yet another poor start from his team. Brown was perturbed by the starters’ lack of focus and defensive physicality. Brown was so angry, he didn’t name a Defensive Player of the Game, a ritual he does after every victory.
Yes, the Knicks won on this night, but they struggled mightily against an injury-stricken Warriors team that more closely resembled frat bros in jerseys cosplaying as Golden State than the actual Warriors. Because of the slow start of New York’s starting lineup, it trailed by 15 going into the second quarter against a Warriors team starting someone named Malevy Leons.
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The Knicks’ starting lineup was supposed to be the franchise’s everything when it came together two summers ago. Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Karl-Anthony Towns cost the Knicks all of their flexibility in exchange for the pursuit of a title.
“It’s not too late to do anything,” Brown said when asked whether he considered a starting lineup change. “If I feel the need, I will. I’m not thinking that right now. I’m concentrating on each individual because, like you said, we’ve started different people at different times. It’s collectively.”
If the time comes, though, when Brown decides he’s going to make a change, Bridges, not Hart, should be the casualty.
Why do I single out those two? Well, Brunson is going to start. Duh. Anunoby will start. Towns will start. Hart and Bridges are often the targets of fan frustration. Hart isn’t naturally a shooter, which allows defenses to guard him with their center and put more athletic wings on Towns. That can muck up the Knicks’ offense and doesn’t make life easier for Towns, who more often dominates when a traditional center is guarding him. Bridges’ inconsistent play has caused many watchers to pull their hair out. If his jump shot isn’t falling, which it hasn’t been for quite some time now, his flaws only become more obvious.
The usual starters didn’t get a chance to redeem themselves Tuesday night in a win against the Indiana Pacers because Brunson was sidelined with an injury. However, the starting lineup with Jose Alvarado in place of Brunson started the game just OK. New York was up just four points against a mangled and bad Indiana team when Brown brought in his first substitute.
Brown has yet to rule out a possible starting lineup change. He apparently still needs to see more of his normal starting unit before he does that. The Knicks had a slow start in Utah when Landry Shamet replaced the injured Hart. It didn’t have a great start with Alvarado in for Brunson. The original starting five hasn’t blown anyone away during most of its time together. This season, it has a net rating of plus-1.5 in 380 non-garbage-time minutes. Last year, the net rating was just plus-1.6 in more than 800 non-garbage-time minutes. Technically, that’s positive, but nowhere near good enough given the resources invested.
Hart brings many things to the table that this starting group needs. I didn’t need his 33-point, seven-rebound and five-assist performance against Indiana to come to this conclusion. The veteran is low maintenance. He doesn’t need the ball handed to him to be impactful. Hart chases down 50-50 balls and wins them more often than not. He’s one of the best rebounding “guards” in the sport, and the starters don’t have any consistent glass hitters outside of Towns. Hart acts as a pseudo secondary point guard in a unit that doesn’t have any natural ballhandlers outside of Brunson. When teams blitz Brunson, Hart can take advantage of a four-on-three situation by attacking space and finding a teammate or finishing at the rim, which he does as well as anyone who is 6 feet 4 and under in the NBA. The slow-playing group would play even slower without his presence because of his ability to grab a rebound and go.
And when he believes in his 3-point shot, as he did against Indiana, Hart can often make teams pay for leaving him open.
He does it all. Every starting lineup needs someone like Hart.
“Josh does a lot of things to make options available,” Towns said. “He can get a rebound, outlet it quick, pushing pace and making the defense have to converge on him. Around the basket, he does the full-court dribble with the euro, gets to the basket and kicks it out to the corner for a 3.”
Bridges, on the other hand, is going through a trying period, to say the least. The man the Knicks traded five first-round picks for is shooting 39 percent from the field and 30 percent from 3 in March — the latter number he’s doing for the second month in a row. Bridges primarily takes high-variance shots in this offense, and part of that is on him. The 3s are a natural part of Brown’s offense, but the mid-range jumpers Bridges relies on heavily are a choice. His layups mostly come in transition and, because of that, he rarely gets to the free-throw line. So, when the jumper isn’t falling, his performances can be loud for the wrong reasons.
Defensively, Bridges has been fine. But he’s better off the ball, jumping passing lanes, than he has been as the primary on-ball defender. This starting lineup needs a dogged on-ball defender, and that role just doesn’t consistently suit Bridges. Shamet has done that job more consistently this season. The injured Miles McBride, too, might be a better option in that department.
The five draft picks are gone. The optics of benching Bridges shouldn’t matter if the goal is to win. If it works, no one will think about those picks. If it doesn’t, the five picks are already bad press anyway. Bridges is only 29 years old, but he has a lot of miles on him. He hasn’t missed a regular-season game in his NBA career. To an observer, the drop in production sometimes feels like it’s because of the wear and tear on his body, though he’s never acknowledged that. Coming off the bench and limiting his minutes might be best for Bridges at this point in his career. Also, if he’s able to play in a lineup where he can have the ball in his hands a bit more, maybe that swings the variance in his offense to more favorable levels.
Whatever Brown decides to do, he has to do it fast. There are 12 games left until the playoffs, and the starting lineup has almost two years’ worth of data showing it’s just not good enough. Some people believe Hart should be the one to go. I think it should be Bridges. Regardless of who is right, we can all agree that a change is needed.
“If we play better from the start, we don’t have to play catch-up,” Brunson said Sunday. “It’s definitely something we need to get better at. It needs to be our focus.”