Getty Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks dribbles the ball up the court during the third quarter of the game against the Detroit Pistons.
This past offseason the New York Knicks landed arguably the league’s top-billed free agent point guard in Jalen Brunson, who netted himself a four-year, $104 million deal in the process.
With the addition, the ball club finds itself rolling out its own iteration of a “Big 3” in Brunson, Julius Randle, and RJ Barrett, the latter of whom also inked a lucrative contract during the summer, receiving a $120 million extension to remain in New York through 2028.
And while consensus opinion is that the skillsets each of these aforementioned ballers possess certainly complement one another, a popular NBA analyst recently hinted that he believes one of these players will have to take a bit of a step back to let the trio as a whole shine, particularly in the scoring department.
In an October 17 episode of SNY’s “Begley’s Mail Bag,” Ian Begley was asked whether he believes Brunson, Barrett, and Randle could each finish the 2022-23 campaign with scoring averages north of 20 points.
In response, the reporter noted that considering the type of ball movement the Knicks have displayed, he believes it’s hard to envision such a turnout for this group.
“I don’t think so,” Begley said. “I think one of those three would have to take a back seat if the other two are going to average more than 20 [points].
“Because of the Knick offense and the way the ball at least was moving in the preseason, it doesn’t seem like somebody is going to get, or two people or three people are going to get enough shots on a nightly basis to get to 20 over the course of a season.”
Begley would continue by saying that, while “two of the three” may be able to put up such scoring numbers, he’d be surprised if all of them were used so heavily in this year’s scoring approach for the Knicks.
Knicks Sharing the Wealth
Through the early stages of the 2022-23 season so far it appears that Begley’s belief is coming to fruition, as the Knicks don’t even find themselves with a player averaging 20 points or more a night.
As things currently stand, New York’s leading scorer is Julius Randle at 19.5 points per game while Jalen Brunson and RJ Barrett follow along right behind him with 16.0 and 14.5 points, respectively.
Of course, there seems to be a correlation between these individual scoring averages and the team’s overall distribution game thus far, as it appears the Knicks are looking to share the wealth far more often than they were last season.
On the year, Tom Thibodeau’s squad ranks third overall in the association in assists per game, dishing out 28.5 a night.
Comparatively, by the end of their 37-win 2021-22 campaign, the Knicks ended up finishing dead-last in this category, raking up a mere 21.9 assists per game but, simultaneously, saw two of their players in Randle and Barrett drop over 20 points a night.
While we’re still in the very early stages of the new season, this apparent desire for the team to spread the ball around more often should be a positive sign for New York, as high-end ball movement generally helps lead to easier scoring opportunities.
Knicks Looking to Shoot More Three-Pointers
During an October 23 media session, Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau was asked by a reporter if he believes the offensive approach this season is “completely different” from the one they had last year.
In response, the seasoned headman noted that while he wouldn’t go as far as saying there’s a major difference in their play, he did state that there are definitely some apparent changes to their offense, and even noted that he wants to see a few more things added into their arsenal as the season progresses.
“I don’t know if it’s completely different. It’s probably a little bit faster,” Thibodeau said. “I still would like to see us take more [three-pointers] than we’re taking. And so I think there’s more for us, but [I also don’t want us to lose] the balance of being great on defense, and that’s the challenge. You have to be strong on both sides of the ball.”
Through two games played, the Knicks find themselves ranked 19th in pace of play and 10th in three-point attempts, though fall to just 23rd in converting on such attempts.