The Knicks have been bad at offense for a long time, not having ranked in the top half of the league in eight years. Can this year finally be the year they crack the top 15 of the NBA in offense?

Sitting on the edge of the 2022–23 NBA season, feet dangling happily over nothing but 82 games of air and possibility, it’s important to remember just how historic this campaign could be. I get emotional just talking about it, to be honest. Give me a second to compose myself before getting this surreal next sentence out.

(takes a deep breath in, and slowly exhales out)

OK, now I’m ready: Our New York Knicks have a puncher’s chance at an above-average offense this season.

It’s slightly hilarious to consider how seismic a shift simply not being bad at 50 percent of the game would be for this franchise. According to Cleaning The Glass, it’s been eight seasons since the Knicks finished in the top half of the league in offensive efficiency, last hitting that shin-high bar of one-way competence in the 2013–14 season when they finished 11th. In the eight seasons since: 29th, 23rd, 18th, 21st, 30th, 29th, 24th, and 21st.

The only team with a longer streak of offensive futility is the Orlando Magic, who last cracked the top 15 in 2011–12. Don’t feel bad for them, though. With a roster of basketballing angels like Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero, it’s only a matter of time before this league-leading streak of offensive skidmarkery is well and truly snapped. 

For the Knicks, it’s not hard to see where the bulk of the improvement would come from. Swapping 3,266 minutes of Kemba Walker and Alec Burks at point guard for 3,266 minutes of Jalen Brunson and Derrick Rose at point guard is as emphatic a positional upgrade as you’ll find anywhere in the league this season. Sprinkle in not-the-worst-offensive center in basketball Isaiah Hartenstein taking the-worst-offensive-center-in-basketball Nerlens Noel’s minutes, and we’re really cooking. Add to that the precarious possibility of Julius Randle managing to avoid leaning into and bear-hugging with the force of a thousand mothers the absolute worst version of himself this time around, and we’re having a bona fide offensive party.

So the personnel is better, but what will the on-court DNA of this gloriously average to slightly-above-average offense be? 

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