The Knicks stand at 8-6 as we hit Thanksgiving, winning seven of their last ten and sitting seventh in the East. While it hasn’t been a huge chunk of the season, we have somewhat of a sample to dig into what lineups are working, what lineups aren’t, and what are blips rather than trends
The starting lineup rolls on
New York struck gold with Tom Thibodeau’s early December rotation shake-up last season. After moving to the Jalen Brunson-Quentin Grimes-RJ Barrett-Julius Randle-Mitchell Robinson starting five, the Knicks turned into a winning basketball team and rode that unit to their first second-round playoff appearance in a decade.
That five outscored opponents by 6.7 per 100 possessions last season, and continue their work in 2023-24, with a plus-13.4 in 131 minutes. If they keep performing up to this level, don’t expect any internal moves or trades to fix what isn’t broken.
Grimes’s quiet year has drummed up calls for a switch, potentially for newcomer Donte DiVincenzo who’s played very well as of late. While there are some interesting ideas there, including starting Immanuel Quickley to give weak defenders nowhere to hide, it’s too early for that material a move, and Grimes is invaluable defensively.
A sterling bench unit, and some less sterling ones
Remember that bench squad in 2022 that ran circles around opponents while the starters floundered? The Knicks appear to be getting the best of both worlds this season.
The five of Quickley-DiVincenzo-Josh Hart-Barrett-Isaiah Hartenstein is their third-most-played lineup and lampoons opposing lineups to the tune of 11.5 per 100 possessions. Quickley gets adequate offensive options and spacing, Hartenstein can conduct for the team’s most active movers and Barrett gets to control more of the offense.
We’ve also seen Randle and Brunson cap off that bench four but to varying success. Randle as the lone starter outscores teams by 5.6 points per 100 possessions while Brunson’s version gets beat by 11.4 points.
Randle’s version has certainly looked better, as he adds some size and nastiness to that bench lineup that’s lacking in those areas. He also has a nice chemistry and trust with Quickley, which is often overlooked but fun to watch play out in year four of the combination.
Neither should get written off completely, though the Brunson construction does lack in size. It’s a bit too early to draw hard conclusions on these units as they’ve spent little time together.
Other observations
The two Knicks who have shared the court the most are unsurprisingly Randle and Brunson, with a plus 5.4 per 100 possessions in 434 minutes, a promising statistic. Even the eye test alone would tell you these two are developing a real feel for each other’s games, and have worked well together thus far.
It may be skewed by the small sample and that he missed time against some tough opponents, but Barrett is far and away the Knicks leader in net rating, as they’re outscoring opponents by 15.8 per 100 possessions when he’s out there, lineup specifics be damned. Even if it’s only a blip, it’s a nice development after years of these on/off statistics painting Barrett poorly.