The Knicks have a lineup problem (not the one you think)
Turning Deuce loose might not be the solution to all of the Knicks’ problems.
The Knicks are in the midst of one of their worst stretches of basketball in the post-COVID bubble era of hoops. They’ve lost nine of their last 11 games, dating back to New Year’s Eve in San Antonio against the Spurs when they blew a 19-point lead to end 2025.
Over this 11-game stretch, they have a 112.9 offensive rating (ORTG), 121.0 defensive rating (DRTG), and -8.1 net rating (NetRTG). All of those marks are ranking near the bottom of the league. They haven’t been able to shoot at all in that stretch, posting a 54.8% true shooting (TS%) and 51.3% effective field goal percentage (eFG%). Their offense would probably be even worse if they didn’t have a 29.2% offensive rebound percentage (OREB%) in that span. Their defense is yielding a 60.7% TS% over their last 11 games. For the record, Luka Dončić has a 60.5% TS% on the season for the Lakers.
There’s been a lot of fuss recently about Mike Brown’s coaching, Karl-Anthony Towns’ future fit with the team on both ends, and how the Knicks should go about their lineups and rotations. When the Knicks veered towards contending when Jalen Brunson became an All-NBA talent, the front office figured that they needed to have adequate wings around him to maximize the spacing and to cover for his defensive flaws.
The Knicks traded RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley to the Raptors for OG Anunoby in December 2023, then gave Anunoby a five-year, $212.5 million contract. They later traded a haul of five first-round picks to the Nets for Mikal Bridges in June 2024, then gave him a five-year, $150 million extension this past summer that starts in 2026-27.
Right before 2024 training camp, they also made a move for KAT, shipping out Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo. It’s no secret at all that KAT also had his defensive flaws; that led to Minnesota originally trading a haul of picks for Rudy Gobert.
Fast forward around a year and a half following that final trade and things are spiraling. The Knicks are a disaster on defense with Brunson on the floor. The offense in general has now ultimately cratered. After KAT had made defensive strides to start the season, those have all declined, all while his offensive production has been some of its worst since his rookie year.
So what’s the solution? Before blowing things up — whether that’s by trading KAT, firing Brown, or another avenue — it’s important to point out something that’s empirically not working. The Knicks have played 125 regular season games over the last two seasons, and we have ample data regarding a number of lineup configurations.
Josh Hart was reinserted back into the starting lineup when Anunoby was injured in November and the Knicks were thriving. When Anunoby returned, Hart stayed in the starting lineup, and last year’s starting lineup – which everyone complained about last year – was blossoming.
However, the thought process has always been to just simply insert Deuce McBride into Hart’s spot in the lineup. We have 133 minutes of data over the last two seasons, most of which are from this season, and with the recent struggles of the team, the impact of that Brunson/Deuce/Bridges/Anunoby/Towns lineup (+3.6 NetRTG) has fallen more in line with the problematic starting lineup with Hart (+2.7 NetRTG)!
It’s more than that. It’s not just swapping Hart for Deuce. The Knicks’ biggest issue with their lineup construction is that Anunoby and Bridges don’t function well together on the basketball court with the team’s two stars (Brunson and KAT). The Knicks have blown out teams over the last two seasons in minutes where Brunson and KAT are sharing the floor with Hart, McBride, and one of the two highly-acclaimed wings – it just doesn’t work with both of them.
Looking more into the lineup data, it’s not specifically that those two don’t function well together, period. Anunoby and Bridges had a +14.0 NetRTG in 98 minutes with Cam Payne, Hart, and KAT last season. This season, they have a +11.5 NetRTG in 95 minutes with Tyler Kolek and KAT (insert one of Jordan Clarkson or Hart alongside them).
Furthermore: Double big with the starters and no Hart (Brunson with OG/Bridges and two bigs) produces solid impact (+11.8 NetRTG in 2025-26), but with Mitchell Robinson’s inability to play heavy minutes, that’s better off not being a starting lineup. The starters with Mitch instead of KAT have positive impact numbers (+9.2 NetRTG in 2025-26) but it’s mostly just a run-and-gun game (lots of offense, no defense) in that already-limited sample size (25 minutes).
That’s a lot of lineup configurations, so your head might be spinning. Let’s summarize everything: It’s pretty obvious that the current starting lineup is an issue – we have two seasons worth of data and a head coach firing that tells us this. However, McBride simply slotting into the starting lineup, creating a five-out shooters lineup might not alleviate things. Despite McBride being one of the team’s best point-of-attack defenders and their best 3-point shooter, the defense has been awful during his time with the starters.
With the knowledge that Brunson obviously needs to play – because he’s your best player and your chance at winning playoff rounds – the next line of thinking for Brown should be having Anunoby and Bridges as a pairing play fewer minutes alongside Brunson.
Brunson has played 544 minutes with both OG and Bridges on the floor with him this season, posting just a +3.8 NetRTG in those minutes. Meanwhile, OG and Bridges have only played 243 minutes together this season without Brunson on the floor, crushing teams with a +13.5 NetRTG. That’s a very successful pairing that’s played together without Brunson in less than 15% of the team’s minutes this season, so if Brown is all about experimenting, why not experiment more with their star wings on the floor without Brunson?
Anunoby and Bridges do a lot of the same things on offense and defense. They create chaos in passing lanes, they don’t create off the dribble and are more often passing to ball-handlers or shooters, and they’re catch-and-shoot specialists. While they’re both pretty good at what they do, it leaves open other holes: Lack of ball-handling, not as much POA defense, and creation. That’s honestly probably why a lineup with just one of them and both of Deuce/Hart has worked so well in the past (side note: Brown hasn’t gone to it for OG really at all in 2025-26 and he got to experiment more with it for Bridges when OG has injured earlier in the season).
Being honest, I’m not exactly sure how Brown can make that happen while also creating a prospering locker room with two of their higher-paid players having their minutes decline. At the same time, that’s why he’s the head coach… it’s his job to figure it out.
But if the Knicks can’t figure this out, having all these pieces work in one fashion or another, then they probably need to act this summer – whether that’s making a big swing for a Giannis Antetokounmpo-type superstar or trading out their high-earning starters for better depth. That’s for Leon Rose and Brown to decide, but the clock is ticking faster than ever now.
