TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — Josh Hart is rarely at a loss for words. But for a second on Monday morning … well, he needed a second.
With the reported blockbuster trade sending All-Star forward Julius Randle and sharpshooting guard Donte DiVincenzo to Minnesota in exchange for All-Star sharpshooting big man Karl-Anthony Towns evidently not yet consummated, New York could not introduce its prized acquisition at Monday’s media day session. Nor, for that matter, could it completely bid farewell to two critical pieces of a team that just won 50 games and came within one win of the Eastern Conference finals.
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau declined comment on any of the principals involved in the reported deal, parrying three separate questions about Towns. (After the third, an attempted end-run focused on their time together in Minnesota, he added, “Good try.”) Superstar point guard Jalen Brunson said he wouldn’t comment on the reports, going so far as to respond to a follow-up with, “Who’s Karl?”
The clarification: He’s that huge dude who just got out of a black car outside the Knicks’ Westchester training center.
“Just tall as hell,” as swingman Mikal Bridges later put it. Oh, right, Bridges — the guy New York forked over a half-decade’s worth of first-round picks to add back in June.
That’s the kind of thing that would get top billing on the first day of school for a lot of other teams. The Knicks, however, now have another matter at top-of-mind. And in the midst of holding court for more than 15 minutes on Monday, Hart, the effervescent jack of all trades, had some fun tiptoeing through the organization’s temporary limbo.
Hart used the phrase “unofficial” no fewer than six times during his press conference, by this transcriber’s count — an unofficial count, natch — as he discussed what kind of impact Towns might have on the Knicks. He repeatedly glanced to his right, in the direction of a team public relations official, as he danced through his answers. At one point, after saying, “I think someone like that, with his high character, would fit well,” he looked over and flashed a thumb’s up, as if to ask if he’d done a satisfactory job of being performatively vague; upon receiving affirmation, he nodded and smirked.
But then came a question — the question for these Knicks, really — that sobered things up.
After spending most of the last quarter-century hoping merely to make the playoffs, the Knicks — with an MVP candidate in Brunson, two of the best 3-and-D wings in the business in Bridges and the re-signed OG Anunoby, and now, unofficially, one of the league’s most dynamic offensive centers in Towns — are now expected to contend for an NBA championship. Do you think, Josh, that this team has the components to do that?
A deep breath. A pregnant pause.
“I mean, there’s always questions, right?” he said. “Some of the uncertainty with, officially or unofficially, whatever happens in the next day or so.”
Another pause.
“But I think … you know … how would I word it?” he continued. “You just don’t know. Obviously, a big move was made, and you have to try to figure out how that fits. And you had guys we were very comfortable with [who] are gone.”
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Several of them. Isaiah Hartenstein, a vital piece of New York’s success on both ends of the floor, left for a massive payday in Oklahoma City. Mitchell Robinson, New York’s other primary rim protector, continues to be sidelined following offseason foot surgery, and reportedly might not be back until December or January. (Thibodeau said multiple times on Monday that there is no official timeframe for Robinson’s return, emphasizing that the team will take a patient course.)
And now, there’s also the exit of Randle, whose bruising bowling-ball-rolling-downhill style helped kickstart New York’s recent resurrection, and DiVincenzo, who last season shot the 3 like a Splash Brother and defended with a sneering swagger. Those exits are still fresh — hell, they’re not even “official” yet — and the wounds are still raw.
“It was … yeah, that news was … it was crazy,” Brunson said. “But I’m really thankful for them and their friendships and everything, and what they brought to this team. I’m really thankful I got to get a relationship with Julius. The memories we made together was really fun. Absolutely.
“And Donte, I mean, he was a groomsman in my wedding. So that should tell you everything you need to know about our relationship. I love him to death. Yeah, I mean … we’ll see him. We’ll see him soon.”
When they do, the revamped Knicks won’t just look different. They might feel different, too — a team wagering that shedding its hard-earned ground-and-pound identity will allow it to rise to greater, more soaring heights.
“No matter what happened last year, you start it at a zero pace the next season,” Thibodeau said. “You have to build a foundation first. It’s step by step. It’s a long grind, and you prepare for that. And I would think that you begin with the end in mind. What’s it going to take at the end for us?”
When Thibodeau, team president Leon Rose and the Knicks’ braintrust took a closer look under the team’s hood this offseason, it seems they decided that “what it’s going to take at the end” is both more weaponry and more stylistic variation — on both ends of the floor. (Thibs used the word “versatility” on Monday nearly as often as Hart used “unofficially.”)
Replacing the paint-bound Robinson and elbow-oriented Hartenstein with Towns, who has shot better than 40% from 3-point range on nearly six attempts per game over the past five seasons, should dramatically reorient the geography of the Knicks’ offense.
“It allows the spacing to be … I mean, the court is going to be wide open,” Hart said.
“The rim’s going to be there,” Hart said. “It’s going to put defenses in rotations. It’s going to free up more opportunities for offensive rebounds. It’s going to be a positive.”
Flanking Towns with Anunoby, who has made 40% of his corner 3-pointers in each of the last five seasons, and Bridges, who has shot 42% from the corners over that same five-year span, should help bolster the long-range volume of a Knicks team that has finished just outside the top 10 in the share of its shots that come from 3-point land in each of the last two seasons. It should also afford Brunson more space in the half-court than he’s seen since he left Rick Carlisle’s offense in Dallas … and considering how good Brunson has gotten at operating in claustrophobic quarters, that could result in a boatload of buckets.
“It’s a different dynamic, for sure,” Brunson said of playing in five-out spacing. “It gives us another weapon, and I mean, the reads are definitely different. You still just have to see how the defense reacts to the different situation that we’re in, but yeah, it’s definitely … it’s a difference out there.”
It will be interesting, though, to see how big a difference that geographical shift makes in the Knicks’ offensive ranking.
As much as we might tend to think of New York as a team that makes its bones by putting the clamps on opposing offenses, exhorted by its leather-lunged coach, the Knicks have actually finished second and seventh in points scored per possession in the past two seasons — top-tier finishes fueled in large part by their dominance on the offensive glass.
“I thought we won a lot of games with our rebounding last year,” Thibodeau said.
But with Hartenstein elsewhere, Robinson recuperating and Towns likely parked largely on the perimeter, it would be reasonable to expect the Knicks to slip some on the offensive glass. Thibodeau, however, isn’t necessarily ready to concede that point.
“Whatever the strengths of your players are, you want to try to take advantage of those,” he said. “But you also have a philosophy offensively, of getting the ball into the paint, and usually, you can force the defense to collapse. … We want to drive the ball into the paint, force people to collapse, and then that brings bodies off of people, and that’s what leads to the offensive rebounds. It also leads to kickout 3s and a lot of high-value shots. So that’s what we strive for, and we try to work on that every day.”
And when you employ big, physical, long wings like Hart, Anunoby and Bridges, you might have another pathway to providing similar production.
“What you’re seeing is a lot more people sending their wings from the corners to the boards — we value that,” Thibodeau said. “The thing for us is: How do we create more possessions? … Whatever way we can create those extra possessions, we want easy baskets, so we’re going to do that. Whether it’s offensive rebounding, forcing turnovers, whatever.”
That last point — forcing turnovers — might stem naturally from New York’s newfound defensive versatility. While a team built around Towns at the 5 won’t boast the same rim protection as one with the Hartenstein-Robinson battery on the back-line, one that features Anunoby, Bridges and Hart on the wings — a look Thibodeau said he was leaning toward in the starting lineup, though he’ll “want to see how things unfold in camp first before I make a commitment to it” — could open up some new and enticing possibilities.
“The one thing that I do like is, I like the versatility of what we have,” said Thibodeau, a trace of a smile appearing on his face. “You look at Mikal, Josh and OG — you can use them on the ball and you can use them off the ball. Josh and OG are very disruptive off the ball, in different ways, and then Mikal is very, very good on the ball. And then you can rotate those guys onto the ball and you’re giving guys different looks. I think, in this league, sometimes a steady diet of one guy is not the best way to go. We can be disruptive that way. I think we could add another element to our defense.”
A more aggressive, switch-heavy scheme could result in creating more turnovers, which New York generated at a league-average rate last season. More turnovers could result in more transition opportunities, which New York generated … at a league-average rate last season. And more fast-break chances could result in more of those easy baskets that Thibs wants — and that, in concert with better spacing and more firepower, could produce the kind of attack that can go toe-to-toe with the best opposition the league has to offer.
“We were one of four teams [last season] that were top 10 in offensive and defensive efficiency,” Thibodeau said. “And I think we can improve in both of those areas.”
One of the other three teams: The Celtics, who bulldozed their way to a title behind a roster top-heavy with excellent players who could all dribble, pass, shoot, drive, screen and cut, who shared the ball, bombed 3-pointers and locked down on the perimeter. Sound familiar?
“There’s gonna be five guys out there, I think, just playing the right way,” Bridges said. “It doesn’t matter if I’m having the ball or anybody’s having the ball — the ball is just finding everybody, everybody’s feeling comfortable, playing fast, and just moving it, trying to find a good-looking shot. I think pretty much everyone on the team can drive, kick and pass and shoot. So it’s good when you have a lot of good talent who can do pretty much a little bit of everything.”
The million-dollar question — the one that briefly stopped Hart in his tracks — is just how good.
“I think we’re going to be a very good team,” he concluded. “I’m not going to sit there and label us contenders. I’m not going to sit here and label us a lottery team. I’m not going to do any of that. That’s for you guys to do. But I think we’re going to be a team that is going to go out there and compete at a high level, a team that New York’s going to be proud of.
“We’re going to bring excitement back to this city. And that’s something that, hopefully, at the end of the year, they’ll have a lot of.”