Mike Brown’s offense is evolving. It will continue to evolve over the second half of the season. The ultimate goal? Find what works best for Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and the rest of the Knicks – in that particular order.
“If you watch us closely from the beginning of preseason until now, our offense is different. And it’s different because… it’s evolving to try and fit not just Jalen, not just KAT, but all of our guys,” Brown said on Saturday before the Knicks’ game against Houston. “Knowing that those two guys are our leading scorer, our second leading scorer, first most shots, second most shots; trying to fit those two guys in that order and then everybody else is what’s most important.”
Entering play Saturday night, New York has the No. 3 offense in the NBA. So the offense isn’t broken. But nights like Thursday – when the Pistons embarrassed the Knicks and Towns doesn’t dominate a game with Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart sidelined – lead to questions about the offense.
Towns, in particular, is under the microscope this season. He entered play Saturday averaging 19.8 points – the fewest since his rookie season. After shooting 42 percent from beyond the arc last season, Towns is shooting just 35 percent this year. His shots per game are down (16.9 last season to 14.0 this season). Towns’ 14.0 shots per game this season have been impacted by his offensive fouls (he has 49, matching last season’s total).
Towns’ production and his fit have been talking points all season long for fans and media.
Here is how Brown assesses what he’s seen from the All-Star center...
“I look at KAT and he’s probably right where he should be, right? Maybe he should be the leading scorer? I don’t know, but for sure the second-leading scorer. He’s that. He gets the second-most field goal attempts, right? Behind Jalen,” the coach said on Saturday. “So if that’s gonna happen, it’s just like your work. You’re not gonna be up here (at a high level) every day. You’re gonna be (up and down)… but what is it gonna average out to? ... Hopefully it averages out to you getting the second-most if you’re the No. 2 guy. So I look at KAT, and that’s what his season’s about… So that’s the way I look at it."
“And in a game, you can literally dissect every single game and say this guy didn’t get a shot. And yeah, that’s correct. It happens sometimes. That’s life. Sometimes OG [Anunoby] may have 15 shots and KAT may have nine shots and Jalen may have 26 shots. But as long as at the end of the day it averages out to what it needs to be or what it should be, I think that’s what the season’s about,” Brown added. “(The offense is) a work in progress. You’ve gotta continue to feel and evolve as a group and hopefully you can do it around the guys that you need to knowing, ‘OK if this doesn’t work, I’ve gotta go and change this,’ and like I said earlier, our offense is different from now than it was in the preseason because I’ve had to try to adjust and make it fit everybody to where Jalen’s getting his first, KAT’s getting his second, then we go from there.”
Brown said it’s common for teams to change their offense over the course of the season. He referenced the Warriors when they added Kevin Durant.
“Even our teams in Golden State, when we got KD, we had to change,” Brown said. “It was a little different before KD, and KD gets here, we had to change it, and then as the season went along, we were like, okay this is not gonna work, we’ve gotta change it.”
Brown has said that Towns has the toughest job on offense because he has to know the power forward and center spots. In Brown’s offense, point guard, shooting guard, small forward and power forward are interchangeable to a degree. The center position is totally different.
“He’s done fantastic,” Brown said of Towns. “And yes, we’ve simplified (the offense) a lot. We’ve simplified it a lot to try to fit him in and everyone else at the same time.”
POINTS VS. PISTONS
Brown was also asked some questions specifically about the Pistons game.
In talking about the Knicks’ screens and how they need to improve as screeners, in general, Brown said this about the Pistons: “Trying to find different ways to attack their defense is gonna be something that I look forward to doing.”
Detroit has dominated New York, winning three games by a combined 84 points. The Knicks don’t play the Pistons again in the regular season. Like most Knicks fans, Brown obviously expects to see the Pistons in the playoffs.
COMPLIMENTS FOR KOLEK
Tyler Kolek played with the Westchester Knicks earlier Saturday; he scored 19 points and handed out 13 assists in Westchester’s win over the Cleveland Charge. Kolek hadn’t played for the Knicks in the past 10 days. Brown was complimentary of the second-year guard when asked about him Saturday.
“Yeah, Jose (Alvarado) is playing obviously. He’s played well for us and given us a different look. Tyler has been awesome for a year two (player). He has a chance to be a good pro, a real good pro,” the coach said. “We have to find a way to help him by finding ways for him to get reps. Today was an opportunity for us to find a way for him to get a rep.”