TARRYTOWN, N.Y. -- A high-stakes game of hot potato between two All-Stars spawned a showy bucket.
On paper, the New York Knicks had just displayed their new offensive principles from the top shelf. They got into their attack early. They wasted no time from there. They involved the guards; then the two leaders, Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, went into a pick-and-roll.
During the first quarter of an exhibition against the Minnesota Timberwolves, basketball magic sparkled.
Brunson picked up his dribble, shot faked his defender, Julius Randle, and stepped through an off-balance opponent to fire an on-target bullet to Towns, who had retreated to the paint. Even in the post-Tom Thibodeau era, one with first-year head coach Mike Brown installing a new offense, the Knicks are not the Knicks without Brunson juking someone, even if it's a friend and former teammate, out of his Sketchers. Towns held the pass for long enough to realize he didn't need it and immediately flung the ball back to a cutting Brunson, who rolled in an off-balance layup.
On its face, 10 seconds of exhibition ball defined all the Knicks preached during the preseason.
They want to get into the offense faster. Well, they ran their first action of this possession, a handoff between Brunson and Miles "Deuce" McBride, only four seconds into the shot clock. They want to encourage quick decision-making and purposeful cutting. Towns and Brunson could not have been swifter.
This was beauty, a sign of the Knicks comprehending a faster-paced offense than they've used in years, one based more on reads and concepts than on set plays. Yet, even in elegance was imperfection -- and thus arose a teaching moment.
The Knicks ran this action often during the preseason, especially when two point guards, such as Brunson and McBride, who will pair together often in 2025-26, shared the court.
Brunson initiates the possession and heads to McBride, who receives a pitch back from his point guard. McBride can make a play from there or whip it back to Brunson, as he does on this play. The big man on Brunson's side -- in this case, Towns -- then ventures up to set a ball screen. There is also an option to toss the rock into the high post and run what's called a split action, where the two perimeter players screen for each other.
But the hope is the Knicks can be even more crisp than they were on this dazzler.
New York tips off the regular season Wednesday evening, when it hosts the Cleveland Cavaliers, a team constructed around intuitive cutting and purposeful movement. They and the Knicks are the two clear favorites to win the conference. And for the Knicks to do so, they aspire to reach another level from the one they did on this play.
Take Brunson, for example, who is not used to running this type of two-man action so often.
The Knicks are making handoffs, such as the above one between Brunson and McBride, a key part of their identity. Brown's offenses in Sacramento sprouted around similar types of actions, in part because the Kings employed one of the world's great dribble-handoff big men, Domantas Sabonis, and in part because this is how Brown teaches.
Now, any of the Knicks' perimeter players can scurry around a screen to grab the rock from a teammate. And anyone -- from the 7-footers to the Brunson-sized pests -- can be a screener.
The Knicks ran 66 dribble handoffs per 100 possessions during the preseason, far more than anyone else in the NBA, per Second Spectrum. Second in the league was the Denver Nuggets, who were down at 46. For even more context, the Knicks averaged 23 DHOs per 100 possessions last season, which placed them in the middle of the pack.
This is new -- including for Brunson, an unselfish superstar learning to play a new style.
The reality is, as much brilliance as Brunson flaunts on this deke into a bucket and as much as Towns matches that energy with the quick-flick dish, the possession starts with a nitpick. When the Knicks are operating at full capacity, when this isn't still a learning process for them, Brunson will hand the ball off to McBride differently.
Watch how Brunson approaches McBride at the start. He dribbles in McBride's direction, then underhands the ball back to his guard, telegraphing the play in the process and not getting in the way of McBride's defender, which defeats the purpose of the handoff.
The Knicks ran this action 10 or so times during the preseason and not once did Brunson actually screen McBride's man. Doing so starts with his direction.
"Every cut, every move, you want to be a scoring threat, and right now we're not quite there," Brown said.
Here's how the Knicks can get there, at least with this action.
Brown is coaching Brunson, or any other player heading into a dribble handoff, not to move toward his teammate but instead into the defender who is guarding his teammate. In this case, it's Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards. Because Brunson doesn't make contact with Edwards, the Wolves don't have to switch defenders. It doesn't open up a driving lane for McBride. It doesn't force Edwards to err under a screen and thus allow an unperturbed jumper to a sweet shooter.
The play ... just continues.
"What we're still doing a little too much is, I'm coming off and instead of going at (the defender), I'm going right at Deuce and tossing it here," Brown said, reenacting the play. "We're just exchanging spots."
When the Knicks perfect this action, Brunson will beeline straight at McBride's defender. Depending on where the opponent commits, Brunson can make a read from there. Maybe a lane spreads for him to drive downhill. Or maybe it doesn't, which means Brunson has to jump stop, set a screen on McBride's man and simultaneously hand it off to the 25-year-old.
The Knicks have used only a few scripted plays so far this preseason. Brown's focus is more on concepts, an approach ripped from his years as an assistant to future Hall of Fame coach Steve Kerr during the height of the Golden State Warriors dynasty. The Warriors employ bright players capable of learning several actions, the sequencing of reads on those actions, then making decisions from there.
Brunson is a coach's son, both literally and in vibes. McBride has a similar sort of mind. Brown's offense is relying on brains as much as ability.
"We're setting the foundation and basis of our offense," Brunson said. "Once we get that and get close to mastering it, we will move out to the next piece."
They say don't mess with success, but that depends on your definition of success.
An unexpected trip to the conference finals last spring didn't satiate the Knicks, who moved on from Thibodeau for Brown, in part because of his offensive philosophies. Team president Leon Rose released a statement shortly after firing Thibodeau, writing that the organization was "singularly focused on winning a championship."
The Knicks have stated their goal in the loudest way possible. The grander concepts -- adding speed to the offense, securing bench depth during the offseason, running different types of actions -- will help them win games. But the tiniest details could be the difference between losing earlier than the franchise hopes or winning on the final day of the season.
After a preseason of discussing pace, the Knicks did speed up their offense over five exhibitions, when they took an average of 5.4 seconds to get into the first actions of possessions, the fourth-fastest pace in the league, according to Second Spectrum. For reference, New York finished 28th in that stat last regular season. One of the traits that led to the team's demise during the conference finals was its inability to create early offense. Too often, the Knicks would allow nine ticks to run off the clock before even acknowledging the start of a possession, not leaving them much time for success.
Today, the emphasis is on adding purposeful haste.
It's on concepts, not longer, drawn-out plays. In fact, Brown went most of the preseason without making a play call from the bench at all. He wants the players to grow comfortable making these quick decisions in the moment and plans to add more set plays as the season develops.
But, as is to be expected in mid-October, even during the greatest highlights are teaching moments. The Knicks are still learning the nuances of a revamped system, one they're hoping can spell the difference between occasional flashes and consistent dominance.