5 Ways Mike Brown Will Modernize the Knicks Offense
From elbow actions to expanded rotations, how Mike Brown’s Princeton-inspired offense could revitalize the Knicks.
When the Knicks parted ways with Tom Thibodeau, it wasn’t just about changing the voice in the locker room, but recalibrating the very philosophy of how this team plays basketball. Enter Mike Brown, a seasoned tactician who quietly turned the Sacramento Kings into an offensive juggernaut. Now in New York, he inherits a roster craving rhythm, spacing, and flow. At the center of this transformation? A Princeton-inspired system, Karl-Anthony Towns as the fulcrum, and a reinvigorated approach to spacing, tempo, and rotation.
Let’s break down five tactical shifts that will reshape the Knicks under Mike Brown.
1. Dribble Handoff (DHO) as the engine of the offense
Mike Brown’s Kings led the league in DHO frequency during the 2022–23 season, with Domantas Sabonis orchestrating over 1,000 DHOs — a modern record. That system enabled Kevin Huerter to slice through defenses, using the DHO not just to shoot but to flow into second-side actions, split cuts, or short rolls.
Now picture that same template with Karl-Anthony Towns as the DHO hub and Landry Shamet flying off screens like a budget Huerter. KAT’s floor-spacing and passing touch forces opposing bigs to hedge, switch, or drop — all losing propositions when defenders trail over screens and cutters attack the seams.
With the Knicks averaging just 0.84 points per possession (PPP) on DHO sets last season (bottom-third leaguewide) Brown’s emphasis here represents a tectonic shift. Expect 4-out alignment with slot-initiated DHOs, weakside pindowns, and counters when defenders cheat the action.
2. High-post facilitation through KAT
Brown has always empowered skilled bigs. Even during his LeBron-led Cavs tenure, there were flashes of elbow-centric triangle spacing and pinch-post reads. In Sacramento, he turned Sabonis into a decision-making monster from the elbow, blending Princeton sets with modern spacing.
Towns, with his 3.2 career APG and 38.6% clip from deep, is overqualified to take that mantle. Watch for the “Delay” series — 5-out spacing with KAT at the top, initiating Chicago action (screen → DHO) with guards like Brunson and Shamet curling off his shoulder. That sets up:
This puts Towns in read mode, a stark contrast to Thibodeau’s post-iso diet that left him static on the perimeter. With Brown, Towns becomes the offensive metronome to touch, scan, react.
3. Off-ball unlocking of Jalen Brunson
Brunson carried one of the league’s heaviest offensive burdens last year: 35+ minutes per game, 7.3 assists, and the second-highest dribble rate among all guards (5.7 per touch). The result? Elite but exhausted. A bruised left leg in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals was a grim punctuation to the season.
Remember his time playing off-ball in Dallas next to Luka Doncic?
Under Brown, we’ll see more Iverson cuts, Zipper actions, and 2-man split games designed to spring Brunson off the ball. Why?
He shot 43.2% on catch-and-shoot threes — underutilized at just 0.9 attempts per game.
Only 11.8% of his usage came via off-ball actions, compared to 52.3% in isolation or PnR.
That’s offensive malpractice. Think of Brown’s Kings: De’Aaron Fox still created in crunch time, but he conserved energy throughout games by ghosting off screens and catching with an advantage. Brunson’s shift into a hybrid creator/mover model extends his prime and amplifies his efficiency.
4. Strategic expansion of the rotation
Brown's playoff rotations in Sacramento often featured nine or ten-man groups, designed to sustain tempo and defensive energy. That’s a strong departure from Thibodeau’s ironman model, where legs wear out and counters run dry by May.
Possible outcomes:
Landry Shamet as a full-time starter. His 39.7% from three, defensive versatility (6’5 frame), and knack for relocating into DHO sequences makes him an ideal system fit.
Mikal Bridges shifting to the three full-time, saving his legs for offense by handing off point-of-attack duties to Shamet. As well as playing fewer minutes and more energy towards offense.
Bench units led by Josh Hart and Miles McBride, executing simplified second-side Princeton reads to maintain rhythm.
Expanded rotations mean fresher legs, more aggressive perimeter defense, and sustained pace-a critical ingredient in Brown’s pace-and-flow offense, which ranked in the top five in offensive tempo during his Kings tenure.
5. Counters vs switches and late-clock offense
The Knicks’ half-court offense cratered in the playoffs, averaging just 91.8 points per 100 possessions — dead last among teams advancing past Round 1. Their late-game attack often resembled trench warfare: one action, mismatch hunting, no bailout options.
Brown’s counter-based scheme changes that. Against switches:
DHO re-screening punishes soft switches.
“Snap” actions (handback into slip) turn coverage confusion into rim pressure.
Weakside flare and hammer sets catch help-side defenders napping.
In late-clock situations, Brown leans into false motion — empty-side pick-and-rolls with shooters lifting from the corner, forcing nail defenders to make uncomfortable decisions. Towns isn’t just spacing here — he’s screening, slipping, and short rolling with precision.
Final whistle
Mike Brown isn’t bringing a clipboard; he’s bringing a complete offensive ideology. One rooted in movement, optionality, and trust. Karl-Anthony Towns is the keystone — not just a scorer, but an initiator. Jalen Brunson becomes more efficient. Landry Shamet becomes the glue. And the offense? It evolves into something that can withstand playoff scouting and fatigue.
No more hero-ball. No more late-clock hero ball.
Basketball, modernized — finally.