While this time of year may be purgatory for Knicks fans eagerly awaiting the new season, their team is hard at work preparing for it. The offseason offers talent a chance to build on itself, taking players, and by association their teams, to new heights.
Here’s one improvement we’d like to see from each returning rotation Knick going into the 2025-26 NBA season. There’s hopes of big leaps from Tyler Kolek, Ariel Hukporti, Kevin McCullar Jr. and Pacome Dadiet, the group of returning sophomores who saw limited action on the court last season for various reasons.
Jalen Brunson: Leveraging his off-ball game and playmaking
Brunson’s unstoppable isolation and pick-and-roll bucket-getting is the invaluable force behind his ascension and postseason success, but even the brightest stars know the value of the easy score and simple pass. He’s no ball hog, but the offense could get bogged down in Brunson ball for stretches, and seemed to lean on that more as the year progressed and their efficiency declined.
Some of that may be coaching, and we’ll see exactly how much soon enough. Armed with a new playbook and the best weapons of his career, there’s no excuse for Brunson not to bump his respectable 7.3 assists a game to a nine or even ten with the attention he draws.
Karl-Anthony Towns: Pull-ups and deceleration hook shots
Some of these players have been plagued by the same issues (pick-and-roll IQ, passing out of drives and post-ups) for years on end and expecting a sudden change now maybe wishful thinking. In that spirit, let’s offer a new and simple twist that could help open things up instead of trying to patch some forever hole in somebody’s game.
Towns often gets caught hard-driving into bigs without a plan beyond getting to the cup, leading to charges or wild misses and pleas for whistles. He won’t become a Tyrese Haliburton-level weak-side passer, but he is mobile enough to add stopping his drives for a jumper or short hook to his repertoire – two shots he likes and can counter defenders over-playing his physicality with.
OG Anunoby: Face-up three
In that same vein, Anunoby’s been trying to develop his ball-handling, post-up and isolation scoring a la Kawhi Leonard. One shot he should be able to pluck from his game relatively easily is a face-up one-on-one three.
Defenders are already prone to wall up on Anunoby’s drives and he’s a much more natural shooter set than in motion, so he should play to his current skills and deficiencies by adding this look. He’s got the size and touch to hit contested looks and has flirted with this shot in the past, but adding it as a full-time weapon would open up his offense even further.
New York Knicks guard Josh Hart (3) and forward OG Anunoby (8) speak in the third quarter during game six of the eastern conference finals against the Indiana Pacers for the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. / Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images
Josh Hart: Halfcourt ball handling
Hart is an absolute menace on the ball in transition, and when he decides to go coast-to-coast sometimes looks unstoppable. Unfortunately that control and effectiveness doesn’t carry over 1:1 in the halfcourt, where the Knicks often looked lost trying to dribble the ball if Brunson wasn’t doing it.
They addressed that by signing Jordan Clarkson, but it’ll take more than one extra guard to diversify the handling attack. It should be Hart that steps up, arguably boasting the best handle and passing combination of last year’s three starting wings, but maybe with more chances to show it under a new head coach this time around.
Mikal Bridges: Above-the-break threes
We’ll take the easy answer here. When Bridges fidgeted with his form last offseason, he unlocked some high-level mid-range mastery but cooked his three-point accuracy from everywhere but the corners.
Fixing that will be pivotal as it would turn Bridges from a good shooter to one of the best in the league, and give him another weapon in the pick-and-roll, where the Knicks need some ammunition.
Miles McBride: Inside finishing
The Deuce post-breakout Sixth Man of the Year campaign was afflicted by multiple injuries, turning what was supposed to be a renaissance into a rocky season for the backup guard. He ended up with a decent shooting year and solid postseason effort, but for some reason his finishing around the rim abandoned him in 2024-25.
Getting that touch back will be pivotal this year, as McBride could be pining for a starting job, or fending off competition taking his minutes in Clarkson and Kolek.
Mitchell Robinson: Add more Gortat screens
The answer is obviously free throw shooting, but to switch things up, Robinson’s pick-and-rolls can sometimes be a little hollow in opening up action for Brunson. It can get him a switch or clear a runway, but he’s not a big lob-thrower and Robinson doesn’t do much other than catch those or position himself for offensive rebounds.
Robinson should try to set more Gortat screens (a second screen following the first on his own man) to mix in something different. Could open up more looks for Brunson, and Robinson still puts a body on immediately to get in putback position.
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