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Knicks playing faster, Julius Randle’s long 2-pointers, free-throw rate and more
Fred Katz

The New York Knicks said they wanted to play faster. Now, they’re doing it. And it’s happening in the right ways.

For all the talk about fast-breaking more, the Knicks’ greatest pace issue a season ago came in the moments when the game slows down. They could get out running after steals or blocks. But oh boy, were they sluggish setting up their half-court offense.

The 2021-22 Knicks could dash off a live ball. Not always, but sometimes. The reserves could move and groove. Immanuel Quickley and Obi Toppin would head off to the races after Quentin Grimes got into a passing lane. Derrick Rose, when he played, could fly from one end to the other.

But once all 10 players were across half court, viscosity ruled over all — especially in the first unit.

Some of that was because of slow decision-making inside the Knicks’ half-court sets. Julius Randle would go into isolations or someone else would slow down the whole thing. But the Knicks also were beginning possessions late.

Jalen Brunson’s presence — along with other adjustments, including Randle’s style of play — has changed the dynamic in 2022-23.

The Knicks’ average offensive possession after allowing a made basket was 18.2 seconds last season, the fourth-slowest pace in the NBA during those situations, according to inpredictable.com. But this season, it’s changed. They’ve sliced 1.7 seconds off their time in the half court — and they’re playing at the fifth-fastest pace after allowing makes.

It’s still early, and the Knicks have avoided top-notch defenses in four of their six games, but this trend is worth keeping an eye on as the season progresses.

Here are four numbers to watch from the Knicks’ 3-3 start:

1: Julius Randle’s long 2-pointers

The talk of training camp was how differently Randle is playing now than he was last season. His processing speed is quicker. He’s not holding onto the ball as much; he’s not dribbling as often. He’s running the floor harder — on both sides of the ball.

For the most part, those principles have carried into the regular season. The most jarring part, from my perspective, is the way Randle is grabbing defense rebounds and rushing down the floor to try for fast-break buckets or to get the offense set up earlier. Last season, he’d walk into the offense far too frequently.

Randle has hardly been perfect. He still has reversions. But let’s focus on maybe the greatest positive: the shot selection. For the past two seasons, Randle has edited his game to become far more midrange-heavy. In 2020-21, it worked. Clearly. That was when he won NBA Most Improved Player and vaulted to All-NBA Second Team. But he also hit jumpers like never before that season, and his magic powers went away as soon as 2021-22 began. Yet, basketball’s worst types of jump shots, those faraway 2-pointers remained.

Until now.

Randle has taken only one long 2 in six games. When he does shoot from midrange, they’re 12-footers instead of 19-footers. Last season, 25 percent of his shots came at the rim. This season, he’s catapulted to 39 percent, which is above his career average (36 percent). Part of the reason is that he’s flying from side to side more in transition. Layups are easier to get when you beat people down the floor. Another part of it is a genuine effort to take better shots.

It hasn’t been perfect. Randle isn’t hitting his 3s. He’s fallen into iso ball in some fourth quarters, but his habits are not the same as they were a year ago. The effort to change is showing.

8: Rotation players Obi Toppin has played with

The Knicks play a 10-man rotation. There is one guy missing next to Toppin.

Yup, you guessed it; he is yet to play with Randle. The starting power forward is the only regular who hasn’t shared the court with Toppin.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, even though Toppin has looked like his regular, energetic self, and is even hitting his 3s thus far. The Knicks put themselves in this position. And veering away from a Toppin-Randle frontcourt is not just a Tom Thibodeau tendency anymore.

Thibodeau prefers a rim protector out there at all times, save for a few matchup-related moments, which have not presented themselves yet. Randle will play starter minutes no matter what. But the front office watched last season (when Thibodeau shied away from using Toppin and Randle together and when Toppin took a leap in the spring), then put together a roster with two centers, Mitchell Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstein, who will soak up all the minutes at the five. The role Toppin is in now is representative of how the organization as a whole, not just Thibodeau, views him.

At some point, drafting a No. 8 pick, having him show promise and then continuing to play him only 15.5 minutes a game is worth a deeper dive. Thibodeau believing Toppin essentially can’t play alongside Randle (because that would mean the Knicks were devoid of a rim protector at the two big positions) means Toppin’s playing time is capped. But I wrote on the Toppin issue twice over the summer (here and here). Not much has changed.

51.6: True shooting percentage from top three

The offense was capped last season at subpar levels. It’s nearly impossible for a team to overcome two players who make up so much of the attack, Randle and RJ Barrett, both scoring at well below-average efficiencies. Well, it’s happening again — and with Brunson, too.

Brunson, Barrett and Randle have combined for a 51.6 true shooting percentage. Brunson, at 55.0, is the best of the three. Randle follows at 52.2 and Barrett at 47.9. The league average is 56.9.

Brunson’s figure will probably rise. He’s historically efficient and his 3-point and free-throw percentages are too low for his standards at the moment. Still, Randle’s and Barrett’s numbers remain concerning. Randle is playing differently, and he’s scoring more effectively than he did a season ago, but if so much of a group’s offense comes from two guys who are bogging down the efficiency, that offense can only do so well.

The Knicks have propped up the scoring so far, thanks to help on the periphery. The bench units are thriving. They don’t turn the ball over when Brunson is on the floor. They have been one of the best offensive-rebounding squads in the league, too, thanks to Robinson and Hartenstein. Those extra possessions are a difference-maker. But are they enough to lift the first unit’s offense for an entire season?

16.6: Free-throw rate

As the old saying goes: You do the crime, you go to the line. Or something like that.

If you imply to Thibodeau that last season’s offense underwhelmed, he’ll push back against that. One aspect he’ll mention is the free throws. The 2021-22 Knicks finished second in the NBA in free-throw rate, which measures how often a team gets to the stripe per field-goal attempt.

But that’s not carrying over to the early part of this season.

Alec Burks was one of the Knicks’ top free throwers, and he’s gone, but it’s not like their offensive success was riding solely on the shoulders of a player they traded to Detroit over the summer.

Three of the Knicks’ regular rotation players are bordering on never getting to the line at all. Rose, Toppin and Cam Reddish have combined for only eight free-throw attempts, and that’s in 284 combined minutes.

The Rose trend will continue. He’s reworked his game to avoid contact, even after he gets to the paint. The 34-year-old has suffered too many injuries at this point. The less he gets hit, the better, even if it means fewer freebies.

Reddish has always been respectable at getting to the line. So has Toppin. It hasn’t shown through six games, but those tendencies could change.

Randle is the one notable player whose free-throw rate is up from last season. He’s barely taking any long 2s and has replaced those with looks in the paint.

The big falloff is from Barrett, who has struggled to begin the fall and isn’t shooting as much now, either. The focus has been on his struggling jumper, but the process isn’t what it was last season, especially once he got hot in the second half of the schedule. The ball isn’t in his hands as much now, and it’s affected the types of shots he gets. Barrett became a free-throw glutton in the second half of last season.

He averaged 37.7 free-throw attempts per 100 shots after Dec. 31 last season. Through six games in 2022-23, that rate has sunk to 24.

At some point, it’s worth delving into the adjustments Barrett is working through right now.