No team is shooting or making fewer three-pointers than the Knicks

[shakespeare]

The New York Knicks have relied on their big men so far this season, despite the NBA trend of going small, and they’re currently just one game out of the playoffs in the Eastern Conference.

As they look to build on their success, there is one glaring hole in their game: No team is shooting fewer three-pointers per game (21.7) so far this season. Kristaps Porzingis is dominating as a scorer both in the paint and beyond the arc, but the rest of the team is not getting those chances.

Since the absence of injured wing Tim Hardaway Jr., that rate has dropped (19) to more than four attempts fewer than the next-lowest total in the league.

According to Cleaning The Glass, the Knicks take three-point attempts 4.5 percent more often when Hardaway Jr. is on the court. Jeff Hornacek, the head coach of the team, has said he is aware of the issue (via New York Daily News):

“Of course I want more. We’re not getting many. Some of them, we are passing up. We’re not getting the penetration sometimes to kick it out. On the break, they got to be able to let them fly.”

Perhaps the problem comes from a lack of ball distribution. Only 7.1 percent of their passes have turned into assists, which is the second-worst rate in the Eastern Conference.

It’s not shocking considering how little ball movement has occurred for the team considering the majority of their payroll is devoted to big men.

Kyle O’Quinn, one of the various bigs on the team, may be on his way out before the upcoming trade deadline. But it may be too little, too late for the composition of their roster.

At point guard, they have two minimum-contract veterans who are both over 30 years old and a rookie who doesn’t turn 20 years old until July 28, 2018.

This has led the team to take far too many poor shots, as they rank last overall (23 percent) in pull-up three-pointer field goal efficiency.

Yaron Weitzman, however, explains that their players have performed well when they have taken catch-and-shoot attempts (via Bleacher Report):

“Their wings would get more opportunities to let the ball fly if Porzingis, [Enes] Kanter and [Michael] Beasley tried passing around traffic as opposed to shooting over it.”

Only the Golden State Warriors have a better catch-and-shoot field goal percentage this season. New York is shooting 38.7 percent from downtown when taking catch-and-shoot three-pointers, which ranks Top 5 in the East.

But they rank last in the East (16.6) for attempts per game. They have not found a true spot-up shooter on their roster, as they have run this play type (15.3 percent) fewer than any other team in their conference.

Last season, this is something they relied on from 6-foot-8 forward Lance Thomas. In fact, most of his offense (53.2 percent frequency) came from this play type. Mindaugas Kuzminskas, who they recently waived, was also a spot-up shooter (35.9 percent frequency) for the Knicks.

This year, Thomas has dropped his spot-up frequency rate (43.6 percent) while Doug McDermott (30.3 percent) and Courtney Lee (22.7 percent) have become their only options for this play type.

McDermott and Lee are shooting a combined 43.7 percent from beyond the arc on catch-and-shoot attempts, which would be near the best among those with as many opportunities. But neither player has eclipsed an average of three attempts per game. For comparison, Philadelphia’s Robert Covington averages 7.2 attempts per game.

If the team is able to find these plays for their more often, the Knicks have the talent to connect on the attempts. They just need to move the ball better and trust their teammates.

https://www.google.com/amp/hoopshype.co ... y-lee/amp/

New York needs a better than average playmaker on the roster in the worse way. Not sure why the offense doesn't feature the long ball, especially when McBuckets, THJ and Porzingis in the building. In today's NBA, it seems the long ball teams are experiencing the most success.

[Don Che]

a team starting Jack and Kanter will never be good at shooting the 3.

Doug McD isnt a sniper....hes actually just a solid overall ball player.

Beasley isnt a spot shooter...i thought baker would make strides but hasnt as much as i'd like

[shakespeare]

I thought about how New York could improve its backcourt in the near future and I seriously couldn't find a single way.

Scary.

[shakespeare]

a team starting Jack and Kanter will never be good at shooting the 3.

True.

This comment made me think about Golden State and how, even if you removed Draymond and Curry from the mix, they can [and will] destroy their opponent via Durant and Klay Thompson.

New York has a long ways to go.

In today's NBA, the long ball is a weapon of mass destruction.

[spree#8]

If we shoot more threes, you guys would cry about shot selection. We play old school inside-out, which fits the players we have. Once KP learns to pass the ball better, our three point attempts will naturally go up. Our offense was top ten/eleven in efficieny with THJ and is still at 15 right now, so this is nothing to worry about IMO. Actually it is kind of refreshing to see us not bomb away like any other team. Doesn't mean we can't improve here, just saying we aren't doing anything wrong so far.

People shouldn't forget that we have the 8th highest field goal percentage playing our way. We should work on getting more easy shots inside too. Just focusing on creating more threes won't help us, we have to consider the offense as a whole and try to improve "organically" out of what we are doing.

[spree#8]

a team starting Jack and Kanter will never be good at shooting the 3.

Doug McD isnt a sniper....hes actually just a solid overall ball player.

Of course he is a sniper. He isn't just a sniper, but still is one.

[shakespeare]

If we shoot more threes, you guys would cry about shot selection.

Can't get anything past you.

Agreed, to a certain extent, but shouldn't the inside-out offensive style of play open up the door for long ball shooters? Porzingis, McBuckets, THJ and even Courtney Lee can hit a wide open long ball more times than not. All I'm saying.

Once KP learns to pass the ball better, our three point attempts will naturally go up.

Damn. Got me again, smh.

[big_j_NY]

If we shoot more threes, you guys would cry about shot selection. We play old school inside-out, which fits the players we have. Once KP learns to pass the ball better, our three point attempts will naturally go up. Our offense was top ten/eleven in efficieny with THJ and is still at 15 right now, so this is nothing to worry about IMO. Actually it is kind of refreshing to see us not bomb away like any other team. Doesn't mean we can't improve here, just saying we aren't doing anything wrong so far.

People shouldn't forget that we have the 8th highest field goal percentage playing our way. We should work on getting more easy shots inside too. Just focusing on creating more threes won't help us, we have to consider the offense as a whole and try to improve "organically" out of what we are doing.

This to me is the key to our current struggles right now...........KP has finally begun scoring as the #1 option of the offense, but now he needs to start passing like one as well.

Shaq, Dirk, Kareem, Wilt, and every other big men that was a focal point of their team's offenses DID NOT taste winning success until they learned how to recognize how to pass out of double-teams, traps, and every other defensive scheme thrown at them to prevent them from scoring.

We bitch about KP not being strong enough to overcome other team's defenses when he has a bad scoring night, but it would actually help him get better looks if he just fucking knows when to pass the damn ball.

Granted I will say in KP's defense from a young player's mindset, that the talent-level around KP needs to be at a higher level in order for KP to trust his teammates to pass the ball..........no offense to Lance Thomas, but you ain't exactly the pure example of "offensive consistency" from the perimeter despite gaining 3 pt range on your jumper about 2 years ago. And Enes Kanter has a great benefit of gobbling up rebounds that KP won't "chase" after, but Enes isn't exactly doing KP any favors on offensive spacing when KP is double-teamed.

(Man, we need to tank for Doncic REALLY BAD)

[Minkaveli]

Need Timmy back.

[gradyandrew]

Pretty terrible article. The author doesn't even mention why it's important. Nets and Mavs are in the top 5 for 3PA while Minny, SA, and Portland join Knicks and Kings in the bottom 5. Knicks are 3rd in ORB% which explains a lot of why they make and take less 3s.

[cragganmor]

Having THJ back would help a bit, but only 3 attempts per gm by clee is a drag; other starting swings routinely shoot over 6 per gm.

[gradyandrew]

Having THJ back would help a bit, but only 3 attempts per gm by clee is a drag; other starting swings routinely shoot over 6 per gm.

Cragg, what does that have to do with the price of bananas? I just don't see why attempting more 3s is either a good thing or a bad thing.

[taowave]

The Knicks are basically a middle of the pack(slightly lower) team on offense as far as EFG/TS/Pace...

As far as 3 point shooting,we arent a really bad shooting 3 pt team,19 th in the leauge at 36%..Problem is we are dead last at 21 3 pt APG,making apx 7.Compare that with Houston,who basically shoots the same percentage,but takes 43 3 pointers per.


Add to our lack of a deep ball game that we are non existent on the fast break,second worst in the league at 6ppg(Golden State is 21 ppg) and you can see what we are missing...

[nazrmohamed]

Having THJ back would help a bit, but only 3 attempts per gm by clee is a drag; other starting swings routinely shoot over 6 per gm.

I agree. And there are two dynamics in play
1- One less person to shoot threes
2- Knowing this teams can pretty much chase Lee off the line which he's done a good job adjusting to but the result is more 2 Peter

At the end of the day, I'm not concerned at this point. I know the reasons why and as many say we play a balanced attack. Once Frank gets more confident he'll be part of that puzzle too.

[Don Che]

We play a traditional style....I'm good with it

[cragganmor]

We shoot the least number of 3 pt attempts in the league, so unless we are getting a ton of layups and dunks, we're not operating at the efficiency of most good teams. The few 3's that we do take are at a decent conversion, 35%. Not being adept at making the 3 in volume exposes our d. We surrender that at 36%, not a good number vs teams that can rain them in on us. Don't have to be gsw or the rox, but we are at a disadvantage making 7.7 per gm while giving up 11.4, gotta make up that difference in easy 2 pointers or ft's