The Knicks‘ball movement on Sunday was the best all season. New York finished with 33 assists on 43 shots made in a home win over the Networks.
“They changed a lot, so we cut a lot and I thought guys were unselfish,” Tom Thibodeau said later.
Karl-Anthony Towns was in the middle of it for the Knicks, finishing the game with six assists and one turnover.
Thibodeau coached Towns early in his career in Minnesota. After watching him up close again in recent weeks, Thibodeau believes Towns’ demise has reached another level.
“He was always unselfish. He was always a team-first guy. But now I think he’s really seeing things,” Thibodeau said of Towns, who is averaging four assists per game over his past five games. “He understands what the defense is trying to do. He knows if there is too much help. He now sees the entire floor. At first, like most young guys, the vision was narrower. It might have been on one guy. But now he’s seeing more than one guy. He sees the defense, he knows where everyone is. (He knows) if there’s too much help, I can fake here and throw there. That goes a long way.”
The Knicks (7-6) are 4-0 when Towns has at least four assists. He finished with 26 points and 15 rebounds on Sunday.
A FOR AND
AND Anunoby was the most consistent player of the Knicks in this young season. He put together another strong performance on Sunday night with 24 points and eight rebounds against Brooklyn. He had three offensive rebounds. Cities finished with five.
Towns also found a cut Anunoby for several quality looks up close.
Anunoby’s off-ball movement is key to New York’s five-out offense. He is also pivotal on the other side of the ball.
The Knicks are plus-five in net rating when Anunoby is on the floor.
“There is an awareness of where he is because of the shooting. When he sees the back of his man’s head, he cuts. And he transfers extremely well,” Thibodeau said. “His constant movement is huge for us.”
A BREATH FOR BRUNSON
The Knicks relied on a lot Jalen Brunson win last season. They will still need him to score a ton of points this year. But Sunday’s win over Brooklyn was evidence that they have enough depth to thrive when Brunson isn’t scoring a ton of points. He had 12 points on 3-for-14 shooting on Sunday. The other four starters had at least 20 points.
“It’s nice to have a pretty good, talented team where we don’t just depend on him to score and create,” Josh Hart said after the game. “KAT can fill it, OG, ‘Kal (Mikal Bridges), Camille (Payne) can bring energy off the bench. There’s not as much pressure on him to knock down shots and start everything. Sometimes he can take a few breaths (on) some possessions that we can still extract.”
