Josh Hart: Knicks Accelerant
Has Josh Hart finally put to rest the non-shooter allegations?
The Knicks will be playing for a championship in Las Vegas on Tuesday… it’s only an NBA Cup title and doesn’t affect the team’s record, but from a competitive standpoint (and financial standpoint), it means something. The Knicks defeated the Magic, 132-120, in the semifinals to clinch a spot in the title game vs. the Spurs. The Knicks as a team put up a 129.4 offensive rating (ORTG) and +14.0 net rating (NetRTG), according to PivotFade, in the victory over the Magic.
Josh Hart’s defense was on full display in the game, but he’s been a crucial part of their team on both ends, especially during the Knicks’ run over their last 20 games (16-4 record).
In over 1,300 non-garbage time possessions, the Knicks have a 125.4 ORTG and +8.3 NetRTG with Hart on the floor (per Cleaning the Glass). That’s a pretty sizable bump from the 119.3 ORTG and +3.5 NetRTG in the same such minutes from last season under former head coach Tom Thibodeau.
Throughout the back end of last season and throughout the offseason, it seemed like it was obvious that there needed to be a lineup change. The Knicks were playing four on five on offense with Hart, as teams started putting centers on Hart later in the 2024-25 season, stunting what was one of the best offenses in the sport.
After the first couple games of this season, Hart was coming off the bench and he was thriving in his role — but then injuries, specifically to OG Anunoby, forced Mike Brown’s hand. After Mitchell Robinson was moved to the bench, the Knicks had both Deuce McBride and Josh Hart in the starting lineup. Once OG returned, McBride moved to the bench, which signaled a return to last season’s starting lineup that faltered after a great start to the season.
However, the lineup has been blitzing teams across 165 possessions thus far this season. Entering Thursday’s action, it was one of 40 five-man lineups to play at least 150 possessions together, and Jalen Brunson/Hart/Mikal Bridges/OG/KAT has a 129.1 ORTG and +20.2 NetRTG, per Cleaning the Glass.
That’s a pretty far cry from last season, which saw a 119.9 ORTG and +4.1 NetRTG during the regular season, followed by a 113.5 ORTG and a -3.2 NetRTG during the playoffs.
Funnily enough, the only five-man lineup to play at least 150 possessions together this season with a better NetRTG than the Knicks’ starting lineup… is the lineup they employed while Anunoby was injured, which featured McBride in OG’s place.
The five-man lineup’s shot diet has changed, seeing fewer rim attempts, fewer midrange shots (though that was heavily elevated on Saturday, due to Jalen Brunson’s success), more corner threes, and more overall threes (shout-out to Knicks Film School's DJ Zullo on Twitter for originally putting out the data in early November).
This was a lineup that only saw 32.5% of their shots come from beyond the 3-point arc under Thibodeau during the 2024-25 season, but this season, that rate is up to 41.8% — and it was even higher before they faced Orlando on Saturday. The Magic have allowed the lowest rate of shots from 3-point land this season, limiting opponents to 33.5%, as the Knicks were at 21% on Saturday. However, that didn’t stop the Knicks’ offense, as they found a way to still destroy Orlando’s vaunted defense, shooting 44-of-64 (68.8%) on 2-point attempts and making 14-of-18 (77.8%) attempts at the rim against solid rim protectors for Orlando.
The Knicks have won nine of 10 games since they permanently inserted Hart back into their starting lineup. According to Cleaning the Glass, the team’s +16.3 NetRTG in non-garbage time minutes only trails OKC’s +17.4 NetRTG during that span (OKC has played two fewer games).
So why is it this lineup so dominant this year? As @ShaxNBA noted in one of his recent paid Substack columns, the Knicks are using Hart’s movement to create advantages and don’t just have him standing in the corner. When he’s taking corner threes — which he’s doing at his highest rate (15.5%, per Pivot Fade) since 2020-21 — he’s getting there on the move, creating better looks.
A lot to do with this increase has come in the last 12 games, as his trigger to shoot from three has become more confident. Last season, he only generated 2.3 catch-and-shoot 3-point attempts per game and it was only at 2.2 through the first 12 games this season. Over his last 12 games, Hart is shooting 41.7% from 3-point range with an overall 66.8 true shooting (TS%) in that span. He’s shooting five 3-pointers per game in that span — most have been catch-and-shoot attempts.
It’s been night and day from last season and early parts of this season for Hart’s 3-point trigger, as shown by the ALL NBA Podcast on Twitter:
And this clip from Tuesday’s win over Toronto shows just how lethal the Knicks’ offense can be with Hart not afraid to shoot from three, and him making those 3-point attempts:
The big knock on Hart was that when he was left open last season, he wouldn’t shoot the basketball – and when he did shoot, he didn’t make teams pay for leaving him open.
Entering Sunday’s action, Hart was one of 11 players to shoot at least 50% on “wide open” shots, according to NBA.com. Hart is tied with defending MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at exactly 50% on such shots. In case you were curious, the top name on that list of guys is none other than his teammate, Mikal Bridges, who is shooting an NBA-best 57.1% on “wide open” shots this season for the Knicks, as tracked by NBA.com.
It’ll be interesting to see if Hart can keep it up. He’s had hot shooting stretches from beyond the 3-point arc for the Knicks in the past, but Brown is doing more things to get Hart going. Whether the shots keep falling or not, the Knicks will need Hart to keep letting it fly.
This isn’t the first time Hart has been shooting freely from beyond the arc. His previous stretches with this 3-point volume came during that 2024 post-January stretch where the team’s second option was Donte DiVincenzo and Hart was their third-best offensive player.
This time around, Hart’s taking a bunch of threes and doing it in an efficient manner, as opposed to the previous stretches where a lot of those shots were pull-up, off-the-dribble, desperation threes… and he wasn’t efficient, to no surprise at all.
Going into the offseason and into this season, the conversation around the Knicks was that they played too many minutes without five shooters on the floor, lowering the ceiling of their offense with KAT on the roster. With Hart playing and shooting like he is, maybe the Knicks are actually using a five-out starting lineup, despite Hart being part of that group.
