Josh Hart offered a more useful preview of Friday’s Boston game than any reunion speech could. He expects Mitchell Robinson to spend some time guarding him.
“They cross match a lot, so I’m sure he’ll be guarding me,” Hart said Thursday, as reported by SNY’s Ben Krimmel. That’s Hart’s expectation, not an announced Celtics assignment. If it happens, the Knicks should have something prepared beyond asking him to make open threes.
Using Hart as a screener for Jalen Brunson would make Robinson participate in the action instead of simply wait behind it. Mike Brown hasn’t announced such a plan. The potential assignment makes it worth testing.
The idea starts with the assignment. If Boston puts its center on Hart, a Hart-Brunson screen brings that center toward the ball. Staying deep, switching or showing higher all produce different decisions, but each would require more involvement than leaving Hart stationary away from the possession.
Make the cross-match work for the Knicks, too
Hart has already supplied some offense. In the season opener, he scored 14 points on 5-for-10 shooting, made two of five threes and added three assists. One game doesn’t establish a new shooting level. It does make the idea of treating him as a complete nonparticipant particularly unappealing.
There are several ways to run a small trial. Hart could screen, slip out before contact or take a short pass when the defense commits to Brunson. The objective would be to create a moving decision, not to turn Hart into a different kind of player overnight.
I would begin with a handful of possessions and judge the resulting shots and turnovers, not whether the first attempt looks clever. A short-roll pass that arrives late or a screen that creates no advantage isn’t automatically better than a clean catch-and-shoot opportunity.
0What do you think?Post a comment.Boston can also change the premise. Robinson might guard someone else, the Celtics could switch the action cleanly, or Hart’s defender could stay back without conceding anything useful. In those situations, the Knicks should use a different action instead of forcing this one to prove a point.
Keeping Hart spaced is a sensible alternative when the pass produces a shot he’s ready to take. The mistake would be accepting a passive assignment for an entire night without testing another answer.
Robinson helped the Knicks win a championship, and Thursday’s comments from his former teammates made the affection obvious. Friday’s tactical problem is less sentimental: if Boston uses him to patrol the paint off Hart, New York should make that choice come with some work.
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