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00:00welcome to new york got game
00:12welcome back to another edition of new york got game dexter henry's brian fonseca here
00:21as the nicks roll on trying to finish their west coast trip brian how you doing man doing well um
00:28nicks are on a west coast trip we've been talking about the road wins but somebody that they need
00:33in order to help tilt the scales of that we're going to talk about uh extensively today and he
00:38deserves it honestly because he's very important to this team yeah nicks saw him return to the
00:42lineup against the portland trailblazers earlier this week we're talking about josh hart and we're
00:48going to talk in this episode about why josh hart matters so much to the nicks you know brian a lot
00:52of times we talked about in the preseason and the offseason i should even say before we got to the
00:57preseason it was like okay who's the most important nick or who's the second most important nick
01:01and you talk about value on a team and sometimes i'm not saying people forgot about things with josh
01:06hart but sometimes you know josh hart now returned he had to pop out and show you know what i'm saying
01:13he had to let people remember that look this is the impact and we saw a lot of the impact when he was
01:19out recently with the injury but sometimes you could just forget because you maybe take it for granted
01:23you see all the things he does so well and you kind of get used to it right i don't think you and i
01:30have but i think a lot of what he does so well really came to the forefront when he was out i think the
01:37team like this and really any contender their glue guys are very important and you see without him and
01:45without deuce who may also deserve one of these episodes like you really see a difference and when
01:51they're not out there like it's not even just the on off numbers the the plus minus impact the net
01:57rating when they're on when they're off the floor but it's just how the team looks when josh hart is
02:03there specifically him because that's who we're going to talk about today on both ends because
02:07that's the thing about being a glue guy you guys you tend to really impact the game on both ends of
02:12the floor offense and defense yeah and i think that's the thing i think sometimes you look at a guy like
02:17josh hart and it's like oh yeah you just look at him as glue guy hustle guy yeah you know i want to
02:21put that there's there's more to it than that a little bit more to with that but before we get
02:25into that and we have some things we want to look at how josh hart impacts this next team and impacts
02:30the game i want to look at some numbers behind josh hart and take a look at how he looked when he was
02:36out so let's take a look at the numbers that we have for josh hart and these are the numbers since
02:40entering the starting lineup that was back on november 24th against the brooklyn nets you see the record
02:46right there josh hart 13 and 3 in the starting lineup four and five when he's out of the starting
02:52lineup obviously a lot of those eight games came when he was out with an injury and the knicks you
02:59can see right here these are just some simple counting stats right the points per game 120.6 115.8
03:06then you see the opposition points per game you see that defense there too right that's the other thing
03:11you look at with him so you talked about the fact that not only does he impact offense but he
03:16also impacts defense and then we saw the opposition turnovers there pretty much the same 12.8 when he's
03:21in the starting lineup 12.4 so he has an impact on both ends here and you can see those numbers
03:26really well for josh hart but like i said we're going to talk about some different things with
03:31josh hart and we have five areas that i think josh hart undeniably yeah impacts the game there's there's
03:40no doubt about it that these are the ways that he impacts the game first thing is something that
03:46you and i spoke about at the top of the season i thought it was so important to go first when we
03:52came into the season we said hey is josh hart going to be willing to shoot when he's open we saw a lot
04:00last year brian we and we're seeing it this year too so i want to be very clear we're still seeing this
04:04this year we saw so much last year of teams putting their center on josh hart and we said
04:10look josh hart has got to make teams pay right he's got to be willing to shoot the other the open
04:18three now here's what also added to that at the top of this year we also were concerned about
04:25injury to his finger how's that going to impact the shooting nobody's been talking about that when's
04:30the last time you heard somebody talk about josh hart's finger i haven't heard it it hasn't been
04:33brought up you know why because he's been shooting pretty well he's been taking the shots and making
04:39them i think his willingness just to shoot not just threes but the willingness to just shoot overall and
04:46not hesitant is so important to this next offense do you agree absolutely so we we talked about some
04:52numbers uh probably a couple weeks ago now we have them updated obviously because josh hart's played again
04:58and now that he's back um the three-point attempt rate is something that we've brought up on this show
05:03multiple times yep and the three-point attempt rate is the highest for his career since 2020 2021
05:09season at 43 so nearly half of his shots are coming from the perimeter and then you also have 6.5 uh
05:18threes per 100 possessions those are attempts that's also his most since that range um and he's in terms
05:24of that that's just the attempts then in terms of makes he's making 40 of threes which is a big thing
05:28that's a career high if that continues hats off to him because not a lot of people probably project
05:33josh hart to be a 40 three-point shooter but he is doing that he's taking them without hesitation a lot
05:39of different times there are a couple instances where sometimes you may have to you know convince
05:44him to take the three where the defender's sagging off and then carl anthony towns comes and sets the
05:49screen the defender is going to go under the screen we saw this with denny avdia against the portland
05:54trailblazers for example and then he takes a three anyway but it goes in so if that continues to
05:59happen and if josh hart is able to convince teams hey i'm a legit 40 from three guess what's going to
06:05happen in the playoffs they're going to try to sag off of him still and dare him to do it and if he
06:10does make them pay that's going to make the offense so much better because now you have somebody else you
06:15have to account for and guess what's that going to open up driving lanes there you go josh hart we're
06:20going to talk about the assist and the passing in a little bit but his connectivity because i think
06:24he plays so well off of so many guys on this roster that the shooting is just one element of this but
06:30i think it sets up a whole lot else yeah and you know you look at the overall shooting the effective
06:35field goal percentage in terms of him shooting he's shooting 58.6 percent now these stats according to
06:40cleaning the glass we're like to look at him relative to his position it which is comparing him to
06:45other wings because that's what he's listed as on cleaning the glass is wing definitely and a 6-4 wing
06:5078th percentile ineffective field goal percentage shooting that's really good real good that's really
06:58really good now a lot of that happens it's the shot quality that he's taking so in the diet if you
07:04want to say he's taking more threes than before you talked about the over six attempts a lot of a lot
07:09of open threes right he's taking he's taking a lot of that you know his his short mid-range shots
07:1419 of his shots are those long mid-range which you don't want a lot of those obviously only seven
07:20percent in his shot diet he's you know 34 of his shots are coming at the rim so he's going at the
07:26rim or he's giving you 40 of his shots in three so that's 74 of his shots are coming from the areas
07:31that you would like and then we know how good he is at finishing as well too and being able to draw
07:37fouls that's the other key for we'll get into more of that we talk about what he can do in transition
07:42but that is part of the key for josh hart and when you look at him when you look at the video
07:47of him right when you're looking at the video of him where he's just able to take these threes you
07:51saw it even in the game of him returning against portland just how his willingness to take the three
07:58was so it mattered so much for the knicks right it just mattered so much that he was willing to take
08:04the three and if he does that it really opens up everything for him right and it's been like this
08:09all season it wasn't just a portland game we've seen the ability of him to knock down the three
08:14pointer and then the other thing for me is when you take the three the defense has to respect it so
08:19what does that do it opens up driving lanes for him and even when he gets the ball late in the
08:24shot clock he still has the ability to put it on the floor and get a quality shot right so you know
08:30you've got all those things from him and that's the real impact of josh hart because when the knicks
08:36didn't have him in the starting line if we would just look at the eight game stretch when he was
08:39out the offense it wasn't terrible or anything because the knicks offense is so good they're so
08:46offensively talented but it didn't feel the same yeah yeah you could argue you could argue he's the
08:52best connector on your roster because of that driving ability now if he shoots the three and he makes a
08:58three that's great right but if he drives you feel really comfortable with the ball in josh hart's hands
09:04if he's driving because one you know he can finish that's step one there whether it's a floater whether
09:12it's at the rim you know that he can finish through contact you know that he can draw contact he's not
09:16shooting a ton of free throws this year i feel like he can get more but he part of that is also because
09:21he's shooting more from the perimeter but he knows how to draw contact the other thing is he's been very
09:26good about finding other guys like being in a dunker spot near the rim can pass out to shooters the
09:33assists we're going to talk about that a little bit i don't want to step on it too much but
09:36as a connector getting hockey assists so to speak too like he's been great at those things as well
09:41so you're comfortable with him driving off of the fake because of what he can do with the ball
09:45whereas you have some other guys not just on the team but in the league you have some other wings
09:49where as soon as they fake and drive you're like oh what what is this going to be it becomes an event
09:53oh an adventure i'll say that what's gonna be yeah and you you trust in the decision making that
09:59josh hart's going to have ultimately and he's earned that because of what he can do with the
10:03ball and because of his connectivity and just making other guys better yeah and if he continues
10:08to shoot at the rate that we're seeing him shoot at this is going to bode for the well for the knicks
10:12when it matters in in the playoffs and one other stat lab before we move off the shooting that i want
10:17to look at josh hart's points per shot attempt guys okay so just want to explain it to you that is the
10:23total points scored per 100 shot attempts right that's field goal attempts or trips to the line
10:29including when fouled in the bonus so that counts as well too his rating for that is a 123.6 that is
10:36in the 79th percentile so what that tells you right now is he's being a really efficient offensive player
10:43when he puts the ball up or is trying to get fouled on shot attempts and i'll get to that later about
10:50how he's able to draw fouls he's really efficient and good for this next team he's really impacting
10:55their offense so this is just that's just one of the ways we talk about shooting where josh hart is
10:59so impactful for the next i want to keep it on offense here brian yeah because one of the other
11:05things that i noticed this so much when he was out for the eight games with injury pushing the pace
11:11and i'm also i'm putting two things in this category people pushing the pace and attacking the rim
11:18because and you're going to see some overlap especially when we show video and stuff you're
11:22going to see some overlap in what we talk about here when josh hart pushes the pace especially in
11:27transition a lot of times he helps in terms of getting really good shots at the rim or getting
11:33to the line he's been really good at that and the pace for the knicks mike brown talked about this
11:40in a couple games i remember him talking about this after the loss to philadelphia the most recent
11:44loss to philadelphia of the two and he said look we got to get back to our pace being better and you
11:51saw when josh hart returned against portland how the pace changed when and and josh hart can set the
11:57pace in multiple ways and we'll get into the playmaking too whether it's you know jalen brunson
12:02gets blitz and he gets the ball and he pushes towards the rim or off of a rebound right sometimes
12:07even off makes you'll see him able to do that as well too so josh hart really pushes the pace for this
12:13team and there's no better way to me that you see how he pushes the pace you know other than when
12:21you look at what he does in transition and how this team looks in transition right so when you look at
12:28transition efficiency for this next team brian and you that's basically how many points did the
12:34score per 100 transition plays i have two stats for you people and then also how many points do they
12:39score per 100 possessions the knicks are plus 9.6 points per 100 transition plays when josh hart is
12:47on the floor that is in the 78th percentile really good again really damn good again now if you take
12:53this to per 100 possessions not 100 plays right so 100 possessions just offensively went to within
12:58transition they're plus 1.7 with hart on the court that's in the 86th percentile so almost about a
13:07bucket yeah per possession is what you're getting with josh hart on the floor if the ball is going
13:13towards in transition when he put when he pushes it i think he's so key when he has the ball in
13:17transition knicks fans have to feel good when he has the ball you feel like he's gonna he's gonna make
13:22a good decision he's gonna pass the ball he's gonna score right maybe scores and he gets fouled yeah
13:27it there's there's a lot of good things that happen for josh hart when he gets the ball in transition
13:31so he's taking fewer twos this year but he's still very effective from two very effective at
13:38the rim in general he is so far this season between basically at the rim three feet and in
13:46he's still 70 just about for a guard for a wing which is i mean that's good basically from three to
13:5310 feet he's at almost the highest of his career 53 from that range that's like the floater sort of
14:03range like yeah like we just played a clip from the from the blazers game where he's on the dribble
14:08drive he fakes a three he dribble drives he gets to that spot that's basically the paint puts up a
14:13floater it kind of dies on the back of her rim and rolls in but look you don't you won't get a good
14:18roll if you don't shoot so josh hart he's able to do that there so you're seeing the effectiveness
14:24even though he's taking fewer twos you're seeing the effectiveness this is what's really contributing
14:28to his efficiency because even though he's taking more threes and that's obviously going to help
14:32juice some of the numbers the fact that he's making the threes is most important but from two
14:36from transition also he's able to attack the basket effectively but he's able to create like good
14:42opportunities for his team and the assist numbers again i don't want to step on it because we're
14:45going to get to the passing but oh yeah i can't stress that enough like that's the other thing
14:48here that really because transition he's he's also driving the ball with his head up every single time
14:54because he's looking to set up other guys i'm so glad i'll get into the assist percentage and things
15:00of that nature in a bit but that's the other key of connectivity and making guys better is because
15:06when he is driving when he gets the rebound and he's going to rebound and run and you trust josh
15:11hart to do that because that's an element of his game that you love you can also trust
15:15like hey he'll know where the corner shooter is going to be as we've talked about the offense
15:20numerous times this year i'm going to continue to talk about it and guys knowing where they're
15:23supposed to be in terms of their spots like he knows i'm going to have a corner shooter here i'm
15:27going to have a corner shooter here i'm going to have somebody cutting down the lane like
15:29he knows ahead of time where all these guys are going to be so he's able to hit them in the right
15:34spots yeah head is always up on transition and when you look at the film this season of him in
15:41transition right it just look a lot of it's not going to look that different from last season
15:45right like when you see josh hart in transition your head is always up like he says he can find
15:50shooters right and you love you love to see that it's always up and you trust him so much as a
15:56playmaker or you know the other thing is he can make that decision to take it all the way to the
16:01rack by himself and when he does that sometimes really good things happen right like he might be able
16:06to draw a foul as well too and he'll take on bigger guys and because defenders have to actually
16:12respect his shot making ability at the rim right that sometimes opens up things for other guys in
16:19terms of being able to dump it off get passes and have other guys scored so it really keeps the
16:25offense flowing in that way and because he's so good shooting at the rim we talked about a shooting
16:30right his and one percentage you know how good his and one percentage is and we're not talking
16:37about the old street win and one mix safes but his and one percentage man that's right just to be
16:43clear so everybody knows that's what percentage of shooting fouls drawn did josh hart also make the
16:49shot on right so get the bucket and the foul 44.8 percent is his and one percentage definitely above
16:58league average no that's way above league way above league that is in the 94th percentile sounds
17:05right okay this is obviously also compared to other wings in the league right this comparative
17:10all stats according to cleaning the glass for me you want to know that where do you think that ranks
17:15in his career in terms of rate second the highest rate in his career 44.8 first must be last year
17:23and when first must be last year you're correct a lot of these similar numbers that he's thriving in
17:28like you saw the jump last season and obviously the knicks have gotten the best version of josh
17:33hart so far although there's a really good if you look at the numbers you look through the numbers
17:36there's a really good stint in portland that was when he just got there uh that was really
17:41probably no i'm sorry i i want to correct myself it it was not last year last year his and one rate
17:47was only 27 and a half percent really yes the highest the highest of his career before that
17:54you talked about it new orleans no it is that stint in portland at least it's part of the season
17:59the stint in portland when he got traded to portland during the 21 20 22 season from the peloton that's
18:04the one where his numbers a lot of his numbers are juiced those 13 games that he had were they were
18:09pretty effective 13 games 41.9 percent and one percentage now to start that 22 23 season before
18:17he got traded to the knicks it was 33.9 which is really good i just want to know for everybody just
18:22even when i said that this wasn't the highest that 41.9 was in the 86th percentile that year
18:28that's the 33.9 was in the 87th percentile that year but what he's doing now is elite better than
18:34that there's better than that this is in the 94th percentile like this is among his peers of wings
18:39he's elite at this so when you have a player like that with that kind of and one percentage in transition
18:46i mean that's how you that's what you want to do you want to score you want to get easy buckets
18:52you want to get to the line and he's hitting threes at a 40 percent clip now you really understand
18:57what the knicks were missing with him and i know we're talking a lot of offense we will get to
19:01defense too we're talking a lot of offense but this just gives you a taste of what they were missing
19:05with him now brian's been teasing this and i want to get to it josh hart as a playmaker is pretty damn
19:12dope okay josh hart is a good secondary playmaker particularly when the ball gets out of jalen brunson's
19:22hands he's sort of that release valve he can have a lot of things happen when you get in four and
19:26three actions jalen brunson gets blitzed a lot of the good things happen when josh hart has it and
19:30when they didn't have that during that eight game stretch brian you saw them struggle at times
19:35especially when brunson got blitzed especially in some good defensive teams would you like some
19:40other guys to step up like a michael bridges sure but that they're really not as good as josh hart
19:47is it that the playmaking for josh hart i think sometimes of all people we focus on and we talked
19:51about shots at the top b but the playmaking to me sometimes i might actually value this
19:58the highest yeah because it's really ties into that connectivity you're talking about
20:03what do you like about josh hart's playmaking that you think is so valuable first of all it's
20:08the willingness from a from a wing spot right it's the willingness to do this as a non-point guard
20:13let me ask you this in terms of assist percentage and for people who don't know
20:17assist percentage is basically the estimate this per basketball reference an estimate of the
20:22percentage of the teammates field goals that a player assisted while they were on the floor
20:26so the amount of you know the amount of so i know and i'm looking this i got some stats from
20:32cleaning the glass and i have that here which takes out garbage time i know it's in it's 22 where do
20:39you think he is on the team oh oh oh so i see oh so that's technically a different stat than what
20:45i'm talking about yeah yeah where do you think he ranks on the team in assist percentage it is 22
20:49but where do you think that is on the team okay so where it is on the team
20:52i mean now i think about he might be first no no it's not no the point guards are usually first
21:00but he's third he's behind he's only behind jalen brunson and tyler kola jalen brunson's at about 30
21:06okay and tyler kolek is at 28.4 right now that makes sense um mcculler is on josh hart's ass so
21:14josh hart jr is right there at 22 4 josh hart's at 22 7 um listen for a wing that's really good
21:20it's great the other thing to keep in mind is this he's third in assist per 100 possessions as
21:27well on this team but it's a career high number at 8.2 assist per 100 possessions at eight for a wing
21:34who's not a point guard who is not going to be mistaken for a point guard it's really good
21:38and a lot of it is what we're talking about in transition because he's dribbling with his head
21:42up he's finding you know cutters as well like not just shooters cutters like mikhail bridges one of
21:48the things that mikhail bridges doesn't piss you guys off at is when he cuts to the rim and makes
21:51a layup and mikhail bridges is really really good at cutting uh some of the other things people have
21:56issues with but they have a great sort of chemistry yeah yeah yeah yeah they have a great chemistry when it
22:03comes to that and josh hart's someone who's always looking for cutters not just the shooters
22:06so there's that piece of it as well but also it's not even just a fast break or transition thing because
22:13you can see this in sets there's a couple of different times in the portland game and you see
22:18you've seen this throughout the year a little bit but the offense is stagnant you can feel it you can
22:22see it we even have a clip that you'll see in a little bit but the offense stagnates he flashes
22:28to the middle of the paint where nobody's there from portland's defense nobody's on this side
22:33he flashes to the middle and it breaks down the entire portland defense because now it's like oh
22:38shit so he gets the ball in the middle car anthony towns is in the like right underneath the basket
22:43and trying to avoid a three-second call obviously um and then you have jaylen brunson on the perimeter
22:48josh hart has any number of things you could do i believe he has a shooter on the corner as well
22:51so he ends up finding car anthony towns on this play they get a bucket inside because he flashes to
22:57the middle and exposes that spot he's another guy that he just moves without the ball very effectively
23:02and you need that in today's nba because there are a lot of dudes who are only effective with the ball
23:06josh hart does not need the ball to be effective so he can flash to the middle he can be that connector
23:11he can be like all right i'll get the ball from brunson here and i can distance car anthony towns
23:15down there car anthony towns could finish or he can get double team draw double team i'm here if that
23:20happens and i could hit the floater from inside the free throw line or the double team can come and then
23:25car anthony towns could find the shooter maybe it's og adenovi or maybe it's mikhail bridges
23:29on the corner like there's so many options because of what he can do that is crazy i mean it should
23:34like when you're third on the team in the assist percentage yeah that's really good i talked about
23:39that 22 and look all this stuff like when you see it like on film when you see the film and you watch
23:45it it really pops out because you just see how easy he's able to find guys even if it's the hockey
23:50assist is making the read for the first guy to get to the next the next guy and there you see that
23:55nice pass that brian was talking about to cat there right it's just always having a heads up and looking
24:01for the guy and some of this with the knicks do a fantastic job guys know how to relocate to their
24:06spots we've talked about this with mitchell robinson and this is probably one of my favorite times of
24:10the whole season from josh hart that that we see uh and you know mikhail bridges talked about how good
24:15his cutting is but we talked about mitchell robinson and how important it is that he always knows where
24:20guys are but the knicks do a fantastic fantastic job of relocating to their spots you gave me a stat
24:26with a system you gave me two stats good stats with assists let's talk about dropping dimes how about
24:32assist usage right okay interesting now yeah that is assist rate compared to usage rate yeah so how often
24:39did a player josh hart in this case get an assist given how much that they have the ball josh hart does
24:45up the ball in his hands a little bit of time so again according to cleaning the glass all
24:51comparative to other wings his assist usage rate is 1.19 that is in the you know what it's in the 95th
25:01percentile again this is elite for his position 95th percentile where do you think this that rate ranks
25:09in his career i'd be surprised if that's not first that has to be first it's second it's actually
25:15second it's actually the second highest really assist rate of his career assist usage rate of his
25:21career it's the second one um the highest that he had what do you think the highest was
25:26two years ago last season damn i was gonna say that he's not he's not far off last year i've seen
25:33the 77 games 1.23 that is in the 98th percentile yeah that had to be 90 josh hart has not been
25:41ridiculous when at least playing 41 games with a team he has not been below the 95th percentile
25:50in this category since the 2020 21 season with new orleans new orleans yeah he was good that year
25:57he only and that way he was in the 84th percentile then he's been elite in this category for five
26:04seasons now and this is and this is for somebody who's seventh just in straight up usage rate on the
26:09team yeah you know what i mean like he is that's a great point what he wears usages on the team he's
26:15seventh in usage but this this this ties into the efficiency that we've been talking about like
26:20he's making the most out of possessions in a way that not many knicks have been that's not to really
26:26knock the rest of the team not just facts yeah it's just it's just the efficiency on both ends
26:30of the floor we're gonna get to defense in a second but his usage even straight up is seventh
26:33and he's producing 95th percentile 90th percentile 86 percentile like that's the kind of production
26:40he's given you and that's important like as a connector you don't expect the usage to be much
26:43higher and frankly i don't know how many people expected josh hart to be this this season because i
26:49think a lot of people were you know they had a sour taste after the playoffs they were like oh they
26:52should trade him he was doing dumb shit in the playoffs you know he he might be falling off a
26:58cliff because of the health things and then we came into the season being like he's probably the
27:02guy that's going to take a big step back in minutes and it looked that way in the beginning and then
27:06they had they were like you know what josh we need to put you in the starting lineup and he started
27:11doing josh hart shit again basically yeah and now he's doing it at a more elite level for somebody who's
27:17again behind brunson cat jordan clarkson og tyler kolek and diowara in usage diowara on a limited
27:24limited sample size but but still like he's not even in the top five in usage on his own team
27:28and yet his assist usage rate is absolutely positively elite now speaking of elite got two
27:35more things we're going to shift over to defense now well this is part defense part all can be
27:39sometimes offense too we're going to talk about rebounding because rebounding is essential you
27:45finish the defensive possession with a rebound offensive rebounds can also help you keep
27:49possessions alive josh hart people is an elite with a capital e rebounder yeah i would argue
27:58brian i know you like uh to root for the people who are shorter i would argue that he is pound for
28:05pound the best rebounder in the nba pound that's a great that's go as the boxing guy here pound for
28:15pound fantastic he's the best rebounder in in the nba like like in terms of what he does at his size
28:22at six four yeah and the way he can crash the boards and the way he can wreck havoc on the boards
28:29it's crazy i got some stats for the people as we look as we look at here because josh hart
28:36whether it's on the offensive glass boxing out seven foot miles turner there yeah by the way and
28:41here's the thing a lot of the overlap you're going to see here people because when josh hart
28:45gets rebounds all it all starts the same stuff we've been talking about he'll start pushing the
28:49pace on the break he'll take it all the way to the rim right and finish all the stuff happens
28:54off of rebounds in the way that you like he'll crash the board for an offensive rebound right
28:58anytime this is why he's such a connector and the word brian keeps using everything off the rebound
29:04is all the stuff we've already talked about head is up kolek is in the corner great that's where
29:09you're supposed to be good makes a shot like it just the he's the ult he's the gluest glue guy
29:15on the team i like that the gluest blue guy right and you see that look at that he's he's boxing out
29:21bigger guys he's running the break and gets a tip in you saw the nba cup game against toronto
29:26he's doing all this stuff he's six four you know i'm saying that's what i'm talking about pound for
29:33pound the best rebounder yes in the game he's the middleweight champion of rebounding in the nba i
29:39like that i like that we can rock we can rock with that right so you say okay yeah i've seen josh
29:44hart have big rebounding games we saw him set the nick record for triple doubles last year
29:49you've seen all that we we get that right so let's put some numbers to it a couple stuff i like
29:56to look at offensive rebounding field goal percentage what that looks at is what percentage
30:02of the nicks miss field goals the josh hart rebound 5.7 percent for josh hart that is in the 86th
30:12percentile again we're talking about elite rebounding and that's offensive rebounds defensive rebounding
30:19okay and brian i have a question for you after this so it's the same as offensive rebound what
30:25percentage of the nicks miss field goals did he rebound right excuse me the opponents miss field
30:33goals because defensive rebound not the nicks miss field right right the opponents miss field goals
30:36did he rebound 20.1 percent is the number for josh hart what percentile do you think that is it
30:4392 you are wrong sir i'll give you another guess 90 98 you are wrong sir it is in the 100th percentile
30:56he is like he not like he is the best of the best at this yeah comparative to his first position
31:04again once again he is in the 100th percentile i have an even simpler way to look at this too
31:10okay just from a rebounding standpoint i have one more yes rebounding stat for the people that i think
31:17is dope with josh hart defensive rebounding free throws so what percentage of opponents live ball
31:25miss free throws did josh hart rebound 29.2 percent that is a ridiculous number at 6-4 that is in the 88th
31:37percentile he is a rebounding savant here's the size here here's the thing people need to realize
31:43as you're reading this off when you're mentioning the 88th percentile like the top 12 percentile higher
31:51than him they're all going to be centers they're all these aren't wings these aren't like other wings
31:58they're all going to be centers and power forward or bigger wings because because the ones i'm reading
32:04a relative to his position but there are bigger wings but but yeah yeah but there are a lot of
32:09wings who play center now in small ball lineups like for example true for example yaka perdo got
32:13hurt for the toronto raptors and they're like okay kala murray boils and sandro mamuke lasvili both of
32:19you guys are going to start or if sandro goes to the bench somebody else will start ochai abadji and
32:23they'll just go smaller because they have scotty barnes too like there are other guys who are
32:28six six and six seven i'm not going to do the thing okay don't do that who who who play who
32:36spot minutes your hands are right in the position for it i talk with my hands okay i talk with my
32:45hands we'll blame it on the culture we'll blame it on the culture but it's hey you said everybody saw
32:50brian's hands were like this that's all i'm gonna say everybody saw it his hands were he's like he was
32:55ready i'm not gonna do it but he seemed like he's ready but but that's the thing it's like he doesn't
33:00play the center position you know i mean like they're not there are not lineups where he's
33:03playing center there are lineups where some of his six seven six eight contemporaries are playing
33:08center in a much in and just an easier way to outline this for people rebounds per 100 possessions
33:14just straight up rebounds per 100 possessions he is at 12.6 and if you look at everyone up by the way
33:20tied with jericho simms once a nick always a nick um if you look at everyone else ahead of him
33:26they all play center pretty much nicole yokich caranthony towns steven adams uh kalel ware bam
33:33out of bio jared allen this isn't in any particular order i'm just shouting out names luke cornett
33:37jalen johnson thomas bryant alex are like all of these guys everyone i've mentioned six nine seven feet
33:44all play the center position and then you get to josh hart at 12.6 and then you have to work a while
33:51to find another true wing after that probably like jordan walsh scotty barnes that's where you're
33:55getting to that point but again some of the jordan walsh plays minutes at the four for the celtics
33:59scotty barnes plays all over the place but he's he can guard other centers like certain other centers
34:05in the nba um and then just on the team if you're looking at the rebounding metrics he's generally
34:10going to be only behind like cat and mitchell robinson maybe huck porty if it's an efficiency
34:16thing depending on what the rebounds are he's third in rebounding percentage in his career
34:20right now he's third best rebounder percentage of his career 14.2 which is also fourth on the team
34:25and on the team the only guys ahead of him are their bigs yeah that again that tells the story there
34:30about how elite he is at best pound for pound rebounder league would you call him the middleweight
34:36champion of rebounding middleweight champion of rebounding i'm not i'm i'm sticking with it i mean
34:40listen all the stuff we're talking about with josh hart i don't know please let us know in the
34:44comments what you think is the most important or valuable skill that he brings to the table because
34:49i think you could make an argument for any of these like i really feel like you could make an
34:54argument for any of these we should end with that like we should end with which one we think is
34:59actually all right i i'm not sure look at right now we got one more thing to go through i'm not sure
35:04that i have the answer to the question but brian said i have to find the answer i think we should
35:08that'd be fun so okay we're gonna try to find an answer at the end last thing we're gonna talk
35:11about brian loves this defense yes yes now josh hart last season brian i thought had a down year
35:20defensively i do not feel like it was one of his best defensive seasons of his career i think he's
35:25been much better this season um now the next defense we'd still like to see that get a little bit
35:31better um he's struggled and but hey it looked terrible terrible when he was not on the floor
35:39during the eight games that he was out due to injury and you saw the stats that we had brought
35:43up before since he had entered the starting lineup the next record with him next record without him
35:48you saw the defense with him and without him yeah not good at all whatsoever a lot of look you can
35:56look at the counting stats you can look at steals you can look at blocks you can look at all that but
36:02i really look at the impact the on and off of what happens when he's on the floor offensively and
36:07defensively right but since steals he's a guy who can play in the passing lanes sometimes pretty good
36:14steal percentage so how many steals did the player get per team play right 1.9 percent 80th percentile
36:22pretty good real good pretty pretty good real good like david used to say yeah right it's pretty good
36:31pretty good in that so you like what he's able to do in terms of defense right he's not a big shot
36:35blocker only a half percent block percentage right he's not a guy he's you know mid in terms of fouls
36:42he uses his fouls he doesn't foul a ton but he uses it pretty pretty well but josh hart does impact the
36:50team defensively there's there's no doubt about his impact what stands out to you about the way
36:55he's able to impact his team defensively because i'll tell you what they looked a lot better when
37:00he came back defensively than they did without him and especially late in games where the next
37:05defense has not looked good i think on a team with jaylen brunson and carl 30 towns the most important
37:10thing is switching and the most important thing is being versatile josh hart is both of those things
37:16because you can comfortably throw him on almost every position there are some centers that he can
37:22maybe guard like i honestly we saw the clip with miles turner earlier if you had him on miles turner
37:28i kind of get it because miles turner generally especially now he's going to want to hang out
37:32there from three and shoot and if he shoots over josh hart and makes one it's okay it's whatever it's
37:38whatever but josh hart also has the opportunity to crash the boards from there but ultimately it's just
37:43the switchability like you could throw him on so many different types of players ball handlers
37:47straight up wings knockdown shooters guys who are going to be actively moving without the ball
37:53cutting moving off screens pin downs like josh hart is going to be able to track some of those guys as
37:58well um and you would hope and you would feel good about his chances of not getting lost there like
38:04some other guys could get lost potentially in the action um one of the other more simpler things if
38:09you just want to look at a defensive impact yep now i'll preface this by saying as somebody who
38:15loves defense we still as a basketball community and i know there are a whole bunch of websites that
38:20have popped up that are doing better and better at tracking data but we still don't have a great way
38:26to really measure defense especially for the wings we've gotten good at it with with with the bigs to
38:33some degree more so with bigs who stay in the paint not bigs who switch um because bigs are
38:38honestly overvalued by a lot of metrics but we still don't have great defensive metrics to sort
38:43of measure how effective somebody is other than when you find sats like hey this person was three
38:50and 11 when guarded by this person three of 11 when guarded by this person sometimes that still works
38:55but but i'll say this josh hart leading the team in defensive box plus minus is probably not an
39:02accident at 1.6 now that's not counting 44 minutes of picom datia in which he's somehow 2.4 but
39:10but i might i might look past that i'll call it an anomaly but you want to do 1.6 for josh hart
39:17leaving the team in defensive box plus minus and also a straight up box plus minus he's third on the
39:21team after mikhail bridges and jalen brunson um no stat no stat is perfect but it's again it's another
39:27microcosm of what we're talking about where if you just look at any number josh hart is going to be up
39:32there in a lot of them for the knicks and if you more importantly more importantly more importantly
39:37if you just watch the games you really get a sense of all the things he can do and what we're talking
39:42about like there were knicks fans asking us could he be an all-star at some point yeah more so last
39:50season because this year he didn't even enter as a starter but he's one of those role players and i've
39:56joked about this before like if he were to put together a season where he averaged 15 9 and 5
40:01then yeah like back in the days he'd probably be an all-star but now the numbers are so outrageous
40:06where it's probably not going to be the case probably not right but like when you all-star
40:13or not right all-star glue guy he's an all-star glue guy yeah still calling pound for pound best
40:19rebounder in the league all-star or not he's a very impactful player for this next team and i think
40:24knicks fans got a real taste of that you know if you didn't think he was before i think you really saw
40:29when he was out for those eight games just how impactful he was not just to the offense man
40:34but also defensively and probably more so importantly that just how he was when you look
40:39at his defense you know you just look at it it he's had an impact all season the way you can just
40:44play the passing lanes that is absolutely amazing right and again what does he do turns it into a
40:50transition bucket right see it's all connected with josh hart the ability to guard and transition
40:55there without fouling that is really impressive as well too you know knocking the ball away and
41:01it's like if he gets the ball towards the front court he's there it's a one-man fast break and that
41:06usually goes pretty well for the knicks and also it could be a good help defender as you see him able
41:13to get a block you know against seven foot ryan kulkbrenner might be seven one of ryan kulkbrenner
41:18right by the way and you know can guard against you know bigger players bobby portis 611 your boy
41:24bobby portis and then you see what what does that happen able to get an and one and we talked about
41:28how elite that and one percentage is so this is a guy that just impacts winning all around and fans
41:37really have to see it's not you know why we decide to have this discussion because i feel like it's so
41:42timely with his return and we're obviously recording this before the knicks played their game the third game
41:46of their road trip against sacramento was so important with their his return to this lineup so
41:51not only can you just hear the numbers and look at the numbers and understand what they mean but
41:56this is why you have to you know i always say it's the eye test with the numbers you know are your
42:00are the numbers kind of lining up what your eyes are seeing yeah and i think if you've watched the
42:05josh hart since he became a new york nick and his impact yeah you can understand exactly how impactful
42:12he is you can see energy but then sometimes there's a little bit more in the details with the numbers
42:17right it's a little bit more when you look back at it now i'm gonna close on this because we got to
42:22answer your question we just talked about five things here we just talked about josh hart's willingness
42:28to take the open shot we talked about him pushing the pace and attacking the rim we talked about his
42:34dopeness as a playmaker his amazingness as an elite rebounder and his on ball and help defense which one
42:44is the most important quality to the knicks success in 2026 what do you say well if you're putting it
42:53that way i actually think it's the willingness to take the open shot which i kind of think you're
42:58gonna agree with that because that was that's something that you were really hitting hard before the
43:03season started yeah because because i'll explain why real quick the rebounding you you don't take
43:09it for granted but you know it's there like you just know he's gonna do that that's part of the
43:13package that's why that's why y'all love him um the defense similarly like you know it's there uh the
43:20playmaking while i think it's been better there's been playmaking like he's been a good playmaker
43:26throughout his nick career and this year it just you can you can see that it's it's different especially
43:31with this newer offense with mike brown uh he's able to showcase more of that because of the way
43:36that they're doing things now and then the pushing the pace and attacking the rim like he was lead at
43:41that even last year like we as we documented during the season the willingness to take the open shot
43:46though i'm not gonna say it's it's brand new but that's the thing that's probably changed the most
43:52and ultimately it's going to make him and by extension the team harder to guard in the playoffs and in
43:59these close games so to me i think that's what's most important out of all five of these honestly
44:05amazing glue guy qualities i agree it's because it was a it was i would say it was a question mark
44:12yeah for us coming into the season how's josh hart gonna shoot how's the shooting gonna be how is his
44:18finger is he gonna be willing to take the shot we talked in the offseason the attempts had to go up
44:23they have gone up they're over six a game now from three we're talking about you gotta keep
44:27defenses honest and now he's seemed to have gained his confidence once it started going down from
44:32early in the season and just how does that rise what may is made a three-point shooting drop off
44:38a little bit is it is there a world in which it gets down to like 38 sure that's still great it's
44:42still really good you will sign for that if josh hart if i told you josh hart from shooting just under
44:4734 last year would have went up to 38 we all would have signed for it yeah i think that's the thing is
44:52the willingness to take because we've seen times for josh hart where the confidence has waned and
44:57then he hasn't had it i felt like you saw it a lot last year but i think as he's become more comfortable
45:02in mike brown's offense the other stuff i'm with you it's a given and the other stuff i feel like we
45:07know he's good at but right now if he's feeling good with the ball going through the net and he's
45:12willing to take the shot when teams put centers on them and he can make them pay that's huge for the
45:16nixon playoffs because at some point teams are gonna have to say yo we can't do this anymore yeah we can't
45:21play this way anymore and i think the less they're able to do that is is the better a strong number
45:26two for me is playmaking because the playmaking has gotten better i think it's gotten better and i
45:32just think that he truly understands his role what to do especially when jalen brunson's blitzed and
45:37teams are willing to take the ball jalen brunson's hands particularly when he's hot but when you got a
45:44release valve guy like josh hart who gets in four and threes and knows what to do that's
45:49he's you trust that he's gonna make the right play you trust that he's gonna make the right play so
45:55hey i understand some people were down on josh hart through the playoffs last year he did not have a
45:59good overall postseason run we were straight up about this but his impact on his team this year
46:04it's been pretty damn good let us know what you think what is the most important of these five
46:11qualities to the knicks with josh hart is there something we miss something else that we should
46:16talk about that makes him so valuable to the knicks let us know in the comments why you thought he
46:20mattered so much to the knicks this year and how much let us know how much you missed him while he
46:24was gone you can let us know that too josh hart definitely was missed by the knicks and we'll be
46:28intrigued to see what his impact continues to be as he's now back in the lineup continues to stay in
46:34starting lineup we will see more of that that's going to do it for this edition of new york got game
46:39he is brian fonseca he won't do six seven or move his hands like that but he also knows who's the
46:46best pal for pound rebounder in the nba i'm dexter henry we'll catch you next time on another edition
46:51of new york got game and thanks for watching new york got game boom shakalaka
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