On Wednesday night, the New York Knicks won Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs, 105-95. A lot of the praise will go to the beloved Game 1 hero Knicks stars, Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns. But the Knicks coaching staff deserves some praise, too. And there’s no higher praise than saying other teams could learn something from how the Knicks use Josh Hart. The Houston Rockets should consider themselves chief among those teams.
A Coaching Masterclass in How the Knicks Use Josh Hart
Spurs event horizon Victor Wembanyama will earn his share of criticism for a 6 of 21 performance from the field. Likewise, the Spurs coaching staff, for that matter, for letting their 7-foot-4 prodigy go 2 of 12 on shots outside of the paint. But the player that Houston’s fans and coaching staff should be paying the most attention to is the heart and soul of the Knicks.
How the Knicks Use Josh Hart
Hart had an unusual stat line in Game 1 of the Finals. That is, it would be unusual for anyone else. Hart had three points, 15 rebounds, six assists, four steals, one block, and shot 1 of 5 from the field. In the regular season, the 6-foot-5 Hart had five games with double-digit rebounds and single-digit points. The Knicks have learned how to make the most of his unusual contributions. It showed in Game 1, as he led all players in plus/minus with +22.
Hart having a significant impact on the series is a surprise to nobody. It was widely speculated ahead of the series that the unanimous reigning DPOY would spend the majority of his minutes guarding Hart. Hart even quipped that such a matchup clearly singled him out as a truly lethal offensive talent. In fact, of course, the expectation was for Wembanyama to ignore Hart on the perimeter and focus on protecting the paint. Something he wouldn’t be able to do guarding the Knicks’ sharpshooting center in Towns. Well, apparently, Wemby agreed more with Hart.
Multiple times in the game, Wembanyama charged into inexplicable top-of-the-key close-outs on Hart. The results were usually the same. In some way or another, the Knicks would score. In particular, it was often Towns, as Wembanyama’s more conventional matchup, who dealt the final blow. Sometimes it was an actual lob from Hart. Sometimes it was a functional lob, wherein Hart would miss the three and Towns would snag the rebound against a smaller defender.
Having Hart around the top of the key seemed to confuse the Spurs defenders more generally as well. Even when Mike Breen made the call “Hart left open,” the Spurs didn’t get the memo.
Can the Spurs Counter How the Knicks Use Josh Hart?
So maybe the problems Hart caused the Spurs have an easy fix. They need to get out of the mindset of only leaving him open in the corners and instead ignore him anywhere on the perimeter. But there’s a reason that that isn’t intuitive for them to do. The Knicks aren’t just leaving their non-shooter to languish off-ball. The offense doesn’t grind to a screeching halt when Hart gets the ball and doesn’t shoot it either.
Instead, the Knicks are using Hart as a hub. They rely on his passing ability and decision-making to create opportunities for Hart’s teammates. Sometimes that’s Hart hitting entry passes to Towns. Sometimes, it’s dragging Wembanyama into perimeter actions by screening for Brunson.
Can The Rockets Learn From How the Knicks Use Josh Hart?
While Hart is a one-of-one player, there are lessons other teams can learn from how the Knicks are using him. The Rockets are definitely one such team. In defensive phenom Amen Thompson, the Rockets have a faintly similar player. That is, a wing who makes huge contributions, but whose value is undermined by an inability to punish defenses from the perimeter.
Thompson isn’t a second-chance Dennis Rodman, as a boundless energy, out-of-bounds rebounder like Hart. However, Thompson is one of the best defensive wings in the NBA. He can guard positions one through four, make highlight defensive plays every quarter, and, like his twin brother, convince the league’s premier offensive creators to pass the ball to the other side of the court. He’s also a demon in transition, has great touch finishing around the basket, and even shot 77.9% from the free-throw line this season.
Thompson’s ball-handling and playmaking skills were certainly tested this year by his role as the nominal starting point guard. While he averaged 18.3 points, 7.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists — along with 2.4 turnovers per game — the main takeaway was that being a starting-caliber NBA point guard may not be in his future. But being a playmaking hub at the top of the key in the same way that the Knicks use Josh Hart? That seems much more doable.
Hurdles for Hart-Less Houston
There would undeniably be hurdles for the Rockets in trying to recreate Hart’s role for Thompson. Some of those are navigable with jumps that the team can make this offseason. They could, for instance, add more shooting around Thompson and co-star Alperen Sengun. There’s a possible Rockets-Nuggets trade that could help with that.
Another approach would be getting Thompson to improve his entry passes to Sengun. Those passes are a challenge for him because his poor shooting means defenders can camp the passing lane. Learning the tricks and fake-outs to make it work would be a lot easier than reinventing himself as a shooter, though.
Finally, the biggest problem for the Rockets is not having a premier perimeter scoring threat for Thompson to facilitate. Hart’s role with the Knicks is not dissimilar to Draymond Green‘s with the Warriors (who Knicks coach Mike Brown also coached). But both forwards played alongside electric scoring guards in Brunson and Steph Curry. Can the Rockets really make something similar work with Reed Sheppard? Unfortunately, the Rockets may have no choice but to try. And even amid the heartache of failure, any attempt to modernise Houston’s offense would get a big thumbs up from Rockets fans.
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