Will Josh Hart’s 3-Point Struggles Limit the Knicks’ Playoff Hopes?

Josh Hart is the ultimate NBA glue guy. He plays big minutes and does all the little things that help a team win, from being a team leader to shutting down the opposing team’s best scorer and everything in between. Hart is averaging career highs in both assists and rebounds this year, but his shooting struggles from outside are threatening to torpedo a promising season for his New York Knicks.

Hart has been a passable three-point shooter throughout his career, as he’s averaged a 34.2 percent clip from beyond the arc. Since the beginning of the year though, he hasn’t been able to throw it in the ocean. As SNY recently pointed out, his 23.5 percent success rate from downtown has hurt the Knicks’ ability to keep up from the three-point line.

It also allowed opposing defenses to devote more attention to stopping Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns without fear of getting burned by someone else. To put how cold he’s been into perspective, Hart has only made more than one three in a game once since January 10th.

Last year’s Knicks went on a run that was largely spurred on by Donte DiVincenzo’s incredible outside shooting. DiVincenzo is now gone, having been traded away to Minnesota in the KAT-Julius Randle deal, and his presence is sorely missed. Hart contributes in so many areas, but he hasn’t been able to fill his fellow former Villanova Wildcat’s shoes from three.

Hart’s shooting woes have created a crisis of confidence in which he’s passing up open looks. Twice in his last seven games, he hasn’t even attempted a three. Prior to that, he’d only done that once all season. There are only 19 games to go until the playoffs, so Tom Thibodeau needs him to figure this out, and quickly.

Can the Knicks compete without Josh Hart knocking down outside shots?

The Knicks are one of the better teams in the NBA, but they’ve been clearly below the NBA’s elite tier all season long. New York is a combined 0-9 against the top two seeds in each conference — the Cavs, Celtics, Thunder, and Lakers. This suggests a hard ceiling of the Eastern conference semis for this team unless some upsets happen to clear a path.

For the Knicks to reach a higher level, they need Hart to start hitting. Opposing teams have been putting their center on him and sagging off him to help elsewhere, which is not ideal from a spacing perspective. At the very least, he needs to be able to keep defenses honest.

Hart does so many things to impact the game, but in the modern NBA, the three-pointer is king. If the Knicks are forced to rely on a steady diet of Brunson and Towns one-on-one opportunities, eventually, they’ll face a team with a deeper bag of tricks. If there’s any hope of bringing New York its first title in 52 years, Hart is going to have to start hitting.