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3 Game Plan Adjustments That Could Help Knicks This Season

These adjustments could unlock a new level, even for the defending champs.
Shaz Ally|
Dec 27, 2025; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; New York Knicks head coach Mike Brown on the sideline against the Atlanta Hawks in the first quarter at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images
Dec 27, 2025; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; New York Knicks head coach Mike Brown on the sideline against the Atlanta Hawks in the first quarter at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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New York Knicks

In some ways, a weight has been lifted off of the Knicks' shoulders after this carefully designed core actually won the title. Now it's on every other team to knock them off.

But, it's also clear New York's locker room isn't satisfied with just one championship and has eyes on another. As a result, there's some tweaks to the team's game plan that could play out this year in order to keep every threat on their toes and make the defending champs even more dangerous.

In this article

  1. Breaking down Mike Brown's adjustment process with Knicks
  2. Wrinkle 1: Karl-Anthony Towns top-of-key play
  3. Wrinkle 2: Pinch post adjustment
  4. Wrinkle 3: Help-beaters

Breaking down Mike Brown's adjustment process with Knicks

The Knicks' first year under Mike Brown consisted largely of a learning period. Brown introduced a brand new offensive system, applied it, received feedback, and repeated that cycle throughout the year.

The road proved bumpy enough scheme-wise to break the season into five distinct factions, each worth understanding before our discussion of what could happen this year.

New York's play-calling trends
New York's play-calling trends | Created via R, my own data

Part 1: Learning the motion offense

Without getting too specific, Brown started the Knicks operating conceptually, meaning that the offense followed a set of rules rather than called plays. The early season bump in motion offense percentage and “weave” or handoff-based offense reflects this clearly. For a more detailed breakdown, check out my Substack page for extensive video and additional data.

Part 2: Play-call addition and openers

As the above visual shows, the motion offense gradually dissipated as Brown layered in more set plays. I believe this came by design, the heavy motion offense served as a learning period for the players without fully highlighting main stars and specific players.

The set plays aimed to fix that, while also adding openers and initiators for the motion system. I labeled these as set plays within the weave concept, since they were initiated differently.

Part 3: Freedom

Midway through the season, the offense leaned more freelance-heavy. Freelance offense omits conceptual structure and set plays entirely, think a basic ball-screen for Brunson or a matchup-hunt isolation.

Before this period, Brown ran what I’d call organized offense more: a mix of conceptual plays and set plays. Even though the Knicks scored fewer points per possession through freelanced offense, the extra freedom signaled growing comfort and trust with the roster.

Part 4: Getting Karl-Anthony Towns right

It’s no secret that Karl-Anthony Towns’ gravity at center made him a massive part of New York’s offense from day one. But March brought an increased urgency to involve him more directly.

Brown and his staff experimented with different plays to get Towns touching the ball, notice the rise in set play usage during this stretch. Delay action, post-up plays, and hub sets all entered the play-call rotation. They used Towns in ways the offense had never seen before in this later month.

Part 5: Hub adjustment

Building off March’s offensive system, the Knicks entered the Atlanta series with it only to fall flat. Those struggles prompted a complete offensive overhaul, returning to the motion offense philosophy while adjusting the hub sets to better suit Towns’ comfort. That didn’t stay constant throughout the playoffs, as tougher defenses forced further adjustments along the way.

Wrap up

That covered a lot of ground, but the context was much needed. Despite all the success and eventual championship, the Knicks were as a revolving door scheme-wise, one thing rises, another falls, maybe it comes back around.

What I want to emphasize is Brown’s growth concerning the familiarity with the roster. Adjustment periods will come again, but last year’s collaborative process taught both the staff and the players a great deal about what to expect from each other.

With that in mind, let's now look ahead to changes that could happen this year.

Wrinkle 1: Karl-Anthony Towns top-of-key play

New York Knicks Delay Usage
New York Knicks Delay Usage | Created via R, own data

As discussed, Brown and Towns figured out a great deal about how to use him. A big part of that centers on initiating offense from the top of the key. Expect Towns in this role far more often than last season.

That certainty comes from the numbers the Knicks posted after installing the new Delay set plays in March, and they're incredible. The staff seemingly recognized that and pushed the button more often. Across 553 Delay plays, they averaged 1.01 PPP, a solid number at that volume.

Drilling into specific plays they added, like the rip screening action when Towns catches at the top of the key, the numbers get even better.

The Knicks scored 1.13 PPP with a 1.14 ePPP across 72 plays. Those rank as elite values, suggesting they should run this play far more often. Keep in mind the Knicks added this play in March, a full season ahead provides enormous runway to expand it.

Simply pitching the ball to Towns at the top of the key also unlocks his own game without needing a called play. His gravity extends multiple feet beyond the arc, forcing defenders to close out hard and struggle to recover on his drives. Centers matching up with him in these spots face a particularly brutal task catching up.

Towns ranks as the highest-volume trailing three-point shooter among stretch bigs for a reason. Putting the ball in his hands at the top of the key puts defenders into one of the toughest situations they'll face.

Wrinkle 2: Pinch post adjustment

I've covered this extensively on my Substack, which is worth a read for the full breakdown. The basic premise: the Knicks adjusted the pinch post to better suit Towns' comfort. Stripping away the extra movement from the motion offense, they planted KAT at the elbow rather than asking him to read and react within a flowing system.

For much of the season, the elbow flash came embedded within the motion offense, a series of handoff plays and reads where Towns never quite knew whether the ball would find him or not. He won't have to worry about that next season.

Now Brown has said he wanted to expand on it. What's good about it is that Towns can get more touches, maybe he's in more positions to drive it, and they now have more time to set the play up rather than go through the typical handoff motions.

Wrinkle 3: Help-beaters

Help Beater Rate By Game
Help Beater Rate By Game | Created via R, own data

We've talked at length about Brown's growing comfort with the roster. What stood out most during the second half of the year was how sharp the Knicks got at beating help in Brunson's isolation chances, or Towns' post ups.

In basic terms, beating help means exactly what it sounds like, countering the defense's help on an offensive player. The wrinkle I expect to see this season involves doing it more often and earlier in the season.

Points of stagnation showed up during the year in these situations, as the visual reflects. In the playoffs, help-beaters ranked as the Knicks' most effective offensive weapon. Accounting for just 5% of total plays, they generated a blistering 1.25 PPP across 66 chances.

The Knicks have great cutters throughout the roster. Both wings, OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges excel in space, though in distinctly different ways. Anunoby attacks cuts with aggression, bodying up smaller defenders and looking to finish with force. Bridges operates more as a quick decision-maker, beating defenders through deception and speed rather than physicality.

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Shaz Ally
SHAZ ALLY

Shaz Ally (Shax) is a freelance contributor who digs into NBA data analytics and offense/defense strategy, with a heavy focus on the New York Knicks. Shaz pairs original data work, shot quality metrics, tracking studies, film breakdowns, with editorial writing that explains what the numbers mean on the floor.

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