For most of this season, Josh Hart’s 3-point shooting was a surprising weapon for the Knicks.
From the start of the season to the All-Star break, he was shooting 40.7 percent from deep — which would represent a career-best. But in six games since the break, he shot just 24 percent from behind the arc.
Was his first-half shooting sustainable? Is his recent form a sign of things to come? Or will he end up somewhere in the middle, as he has been most of his career?
Hart went just 1-for-6 in Sunday’s 114-89 win over the Spurs at Madison Square Garden. He seemed to grow hesitant with his shot, passing up open looks.
“The frustrating thing for me [is I’m] in a slump,” Hart said after the game. “The confidence is coming and going.”
Hart’s ability to at least be a competent 3-point shooter is vital to the Knicks starting lineup and coach Mike Brown’s 3-heavy offense. Felllow starters Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges are usually strong 3-point shooters. Hart tends to be the weakest among them in that regard — meaning opponents often match up their center on him defensively, allowing their big man to sag off of Hart and camp in the paint as a rim protector and help defender. It’s what the Spurs did Sunday, putting Victor Wembanyama on Hart. That also allows opponents to have a wing guard Towns, who usually operates outside the perimeter rather than as their center.
But for much of the season, Hart has made opponents pay for that decision. Given his current shooting struggles, though, he’s had to adjust.
“I ain’t make a damn thing, so I gotta do something else,” Hart said. “That’s all I’m thinking about. … I’m putting the work in; I gotta make sure I play my game, shoot my shots with confidence and those kinds of things. But if you can’t hit the side of a barn, you gotta do something different. Wemby’s in a deep drop against me, I gotta make sure I have the opportunity to get guys wide-open shots on some of those handoffs, pitch backs, stuff like that.”
Characteristically, Hart still has found ways to impact winning. When he’s not making his 3s and opponents sag off him, he uses that extra space to become even more aggressive as a screener, as a ball handler forcing the defense to collapse and in crashing the offensive glass. He finished with seven assists and 10 rebounds in Sunday’s win.
At one point during the third quarter, he set a screen to free up Brunson, who missed his shot. Hart then grabbed the rebound, kicked it out to Bridges and then got it back from Bridges, who cut toward him to initiate a dribble handoff. Hart handed it off to Bridges and subsequently set a screen for him to create space, and Bridges promptly drilled the 3.
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For good measure on the other end of the floor, he poked the ball away from De’Aaron Fox, leading to a breakaway for Anunoby (who missed the dunk).
“Shooting, it was probably, obviously, one of my worst games of the season, worst three- or four-game stint,” Hart said. “But I think, for me, I was extremely happy in terms of how I was able to get past that and affect the game in different ways. Obviously, don’t want to have an abysmal shooting night like that, but for me, I was able to help guys get shots, defensively bring it.”
There is a portion of the fan base that constantly calls for Hart to be removed from the starting lineup, especially when he struggles with his shot, in favor of Landry Shamet or, when healthy, Miles McBride. While each is a more consistent shooter, neither possesses nearly the playmaking or rebounding prowess of Hart. Both also are better in shorter stints rather than in heavy workloads that Hart regularly logs.
In terms of shooting, Hart was a positive for most of the year rather than a weakness. Whether he can return to that production will be a key X factor heading into the postseason.
Either way, Hart remains a winning player.
