Matthew Legros
The New York Knicks will go as far as All-Stars Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns take them this season, and an unheard-of stat shows that they can lead the franchise very far if they continue on a particular offensive trend.
Knicks are feasting when Jalen Brunson & Karl-Anthony Towns play the pick-and-roll
According to NBA.com’s John Schuhmann, the Knicks duo is outpacing the entire league in points per possession out of the pick-and-roll:
“According to Second Spectrum tracking, the Knicks have scored 1.69 points per direct possession when Karl-Anthony Towns has set a ball screen for Jalen Brunson,” Schuhmann cited.
That’s the best mark among 47 combinations with at least 25 direct possessions out of the ball screen. It’s a small sample size (just 33 possessions), but when a Brunson/Towns pick-and-roll has led directly to a shot, turnover or trip to the line, the Knicks have been ridiculously efficient.”
More screen-and-roll action could help Brunson, Towns & Knicks blossom this season
New York is fortunate enough to have two elite playmakers who can operate in the screen-and-roll together and jolt their offense. Wednesday night’s win over the Miami Heat gave a glimpse into just how effective it can be, especially when Brunson or, in the case of the game against the Heat, Towns goes on a scoring tear.
Brunson is connecting on 55.2 percent of his 7.3 field goal attempts in pick-and-roll situations. Yet, shockingly, the Knicks’ roll men are collectively averaging a mere 3.5 FGA in that half-court play type, good for No. 28 overall out of 30 teams despite converting on 71.4 percent of those looks — the league lead by a wide margin.
Thus, Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau has some empirical data to go off of as he looks for new ways to turn his collection of talent into a well-oiled machine this season. More screen-and-roll action for Brunson and Towns will likely cause them both to emerge on the campaign as the 82-game slate progresses.
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