TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — Forget about skill. For a couple of All-Stars still learning how to play together, one basket was about trust.
To end the first half of an exhibition against the Washington Wizards, Karl-Anthony Towns scampered from the paint. His new point guard, Jalen Brunson, awaited him on the left side of the court, far beyond the 3-point arc.
What came next, during the final offensive possession of the final second quarter of the New York Knicks’ final preseason game, were the first signs of two headliners becoming greater than the sum of their parts. Towns and Brunson — though they had not done it before, at least not in front of an audience — shared the same thought.
As Towns journeyed to Brunson, his defender, Jonas Valančiūnas, became overeager. Valančiūnas, a veteran center, was so sure a Brunson-Towns pick-and-roll was on the way that, before Towns even reached Brunson’s vicinity, the Wizards’ big man drifted into a defensive scheme designed to force pick-and-roll ballhandlers (in this case, Brunson) to the sideline.
That’s when Brunson and Towns, the drivers behind the most-hyped Knicks season in two and a half decades, turned telepathic.
Towns noticed that Valančiūnas was already pushing Brunson left, a pick-and-roll strategy called “ice coverage,” and altered his path. He never set a pick for his crafty teammate, instead veering back to the elbow, all while Valančiūnas strayed the wrong way. Brunson prodded the two defenders in his sightline and bounced an assist to his big man, who finished a two-handed slam.
“I didn’t wanna roll extremely hard down the middle, where Jalen didn’t have a window to pass me the ball,” Towns said. “So seeing how the play was developing, I took a step back toward the 3-point line to allow him to develop the play. And then as soon as I saw the opening and the chance where (Brunson) looked like he was in a position to throw that pass, I exploded through that hole and gave him a chance to make that pass to me.”
This was no set play. Towns was supposed to set a screen for Brunson. Instead, it was a full-on audible, an adjustment a center made in the moment after noticing a rogue Valančiūnas. But his point guard had to realize it, as well.
“It’s a trust play,” Towns said. “You trust that I’m going to be in that position in that perfect moment to make that pass.”
And Towns has to trust that Brunson will see the game through his eyes.
It’s the type of bucket the Knicks are betting will occur more and more as Towns and Brunson learn each other. And if the team wants to accomplish ambitious goals — building on the past couple of seasons, when it’s fought into the second round of the playoffs each spring — it better be correct.
The Knicks trust their starting five. Now, the starting five has to trust each other.
New York’s first unit is littered with skill, with shooters and facilitators alike, with cutters and spot-up threats, half-court slicers and transition fiends. The Knicks’ starters will score. But for this team to fight with the league’s upper class, such as the Boston Celtics, its opponent in Tuesday’s season opener, it will need more than theoretical fit. The Knicks’ whole will have to be greater than the sum of their parts.
They eyed the Celtics when they constructed this roster, combining OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart to create an intimidating, physical triumvirate on the perimeter capable of battling with the Celtics’ stampede of drive-and-kicks that begat 3-point barrages. But Boston’s dominance a season ago, when the champs posted a historic scoring margin, then lost only three playoff games on the way to a title, occurred for reasons beyond talent.
The Celtics defied first-grade math. Whatever Derrick White + Jrue Holiday + Jayson Tatum + Jaylen Brown + Kristaps Porziņģis equals on paper — it turned into something even greater on the court.
The Knicks need that, too, the extra “it factor” that comes only with time and cohesion — even if Brunson and Towns are beginning to uncover little moments of E.S.P., such as that pseudo pick-and-roll against the Wizards.
“They’re getting a lot of good, valuable time together in practice and then the games reveal exactly where you are,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “And then there’s things that we can do either before practice and after practice to help build chemistry.”
But for Brunson and Towns to become one of the world’s dynamic duos, they can’t think only about themselves. There are three teammates on the court with them. And their periphery can’t end there.
Sometimes, figuring out where a teammate is bound to go next takes watching the opponent.
For example, Brunson noticed where Towns was heading not because he knew Towns, whom the Knicks acquired not even three weeks ago but because he, too, saw Valančiūnas drifting to the sideline.
“You have to be familiar with what your opponents are doing,” Thibodeau said. “So, ‘OK, when they do this, we do that.’ It becomes instinctive. And then we can play off of that.”
Thibodeau calls this reading “the man in front of you.” He advises players to cut “when we see the back of a man’s head.”
“When we play off of that, we’re gonna get easy baskets,” the coach said.
If they do, the offense has a chance to be special.
Brunson is an all-world scorer. Towns is among the most skilled 7-footers ever to touch a basketball. Anunoby and Bridges are nails from the corners, even if Bridges’ revamped jumper appeared awkward during the preseason. Both are expert cutters. Hart, who is still finding his footing, will eventually mold into the glue guy.
But once those players leave the court, the attack isn’t nearly as imposing.
All of a sudden, a team whose strength was once depth has turned as shallow as John Tucker.
With Precious Achiuwa and Mitchell Robinson out to begin the season, Thibodeau playing his usual nine-man rotation would require him to use at least one rookie — either Pacôme Dadiet, Tyler Kolek or Ariel Hukporti, none of whom were supposed to receive minutes to begin the season. An eight-man rotation would include Jericho Sims, whom the Knicks would ideally only break in case of emergency. Apparently, there’s been an emergency. Cameron Payne will play, even though he didn’t project to be part of the rotation when he signed in July. And then there’s the sixth man, Miles “Deuce” McBride, who could receive starters’ minutes as long as the roster remains constructed this way.
The standards have changed in this organization. No longer is an enthusiastic run to the East semis the goal. And for the Knicks to fight with the Celtics — or the Philadelphia 76ers or Milwaukee Bucks or Cleveland Cavaliers, for that matter — the first unit now must wreck whomever it faces.
The Bucks’ starters outscored opponents by 15.5 points per 100 possessions last season, the best figure of any high-volume lineup in the NBA, according to Cleaning the Glass. The Orlando Magic’s starters were plus-14 per 100. The Denver Nuggets’ famously juggernaut first unit was plus-13.3, the Boston Celtics’ plus-12 and the LA Clippers’ plus-11.5.
The Knicks are designed to be in that class, though getting there will take more than just extraordinary talent.
It won’t just be about Brunson tying the shoelaces of anyone who’s guarding him or Towns looking like the second coming of Patrick Ewing. Anunoby’s heady cutting, Bridges’ funky 3-point form returning to grace, Hart scoring more than two points every 90 minutes, as he did in the preseason — none of that will be enough for a conference finals appearance, a conference title or (take a deep breath) more.
To compete with the Celtics, not on opening night but in May, the Knicks will need to build more moments like the one from the end of the second quarter against the Wizards.
They already employ five starters with complementary skill sets. But those five guys also need to read defenses, then read each other’s minds.
(Top photo: Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)
