LeBron James raves about Knicks offensive revival and the sprinkle thats made all the difference

CLEVELAND — Making the Knicks offense more dynamic was one of the most important improvements Mike Brown was supposed to bring.One of basketball’s best minds is raving about his job doing just that.“The defense can’t just key on a couple of actions anymore,” LeBron James said on his “Mind the Game” podcast, which he co-hosts with Steve Nash.“I thought over the last couple of years with New York, you kind of got a good rhythm of how they were gonna play.

The ball was gonna end up in a certain way every single time.”Now, with the new wrinkle the Knicks have unleashed this postseason, they have become much more unpredictable.The transformation the Knicks underwent, after trailing the Hawks 2-1 in the first round, worked wonders.Karl-Anthony Towns operating as a facilitator from the elbow was freeing up Jalen Brunson to find open shots off the ball and allowing other teammates to cut and set screens around him.“You now shift your pie chart from people just thinking heavy, heavy, heavy, JB pick-and-roll, JB iso, to now the demographic of your offense shifts,” James said.“Which means the defense can’t just be keyed in on one action now.

So having KAT as the hub, at the elbow, at the top of the key, it allows JB to be off the ball, where he can set a rip screen for OG [Anunoby] to get to the rim where if [the defense] messes that up, OG gets a dunk.If they mess that up and both of them go with OG to the rim, now you have JB coming off it clean, either for a clean shot or a [dribble handoff].

Now the defense is playing catch up.That’s helped their demographic out a lot, their pie chart on what they can do offensively.“And JB is still gonna have his iso game where he’s really good, he’s still gonna have his pick-and-roll game where he’s really good.

But to sprinkle in a little bit of off-ball action, a little bit of pinch-post action, with a different hub, that helps a lot.”That new “sprinkle” has led to a whirlwind for Towns and...