3 Knicks lineup trends to watch in second half of season

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As the NBA season nears All-Star Weekend, enough games have transpired to dive into what’s worked and what hasn’t this year.

For the Knicks, this self-reflection is crucial in analyzing their still relatively new team before they enter the postseason.

Let’s take a look at New York’s lineup data after 47 games to identify trends worth watching down the stretch…

Starters building chemistry but not dominating

The Knicks’ starting five of Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Karl-Anthony Towns is the most-played lineup in the entire league by a huge margin. They’ve played 777 minutes together, with the next most-played lineup in the NBA coming in at 515 minutes.

New York has been healthy enough to allow these starters to appear in 40 games, while only four other lineups in the league have even hit 30. This should be a major boon to chemistry for a five-man unit assembled just this past summer.

The results have yet to reflect the dominance fans are hoping for out of this group. They’re scoring 118.3 points per 100 possessions and allowing 112.7, which would rank top five and middle of the road, respectively, compared to the league at large.

They’ve been better since Dec. 1, with a stiffer defense that allowed them to outscore opponents by 7.5 points per 100 possessions. However, there are much stronger performing units across the NBA with contenders and even lower-level playoff teams boasting lineups with +10 to +20 differentials.

These numbers don’t provide much nuance, and if these five starters played half the minutes they’d likely produce a better output. It will be interesting to see how their minutes and performance together continue to move as the season rolls on.

More Brunson, less Towns as the first substitute

Lineups that include all four starters with a backup center in place of Towns are getting routinely smoked. New York’s second-and third-most played lineups are four starters with Jericho Sims or Precious Achiuwa, and they are both getting outscored by over four points per 100 possessions.

It’s unclear why this is. Perhaps losing Towns’ spacing while trying to cover…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/3-knicks-lineup-trends-watch-150000802.html

Author : SNY

Publish date : 2025-01-29 15:00:00

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