Knicks Lead New NBA Rosters in Unique Stat

The New York Knicks embracing of the familiar could play to their advantage as they seek to build on their most successful season in a decade.

It's said familiarity breeds contempt. The New York Knicks apparently hope it yields a championship instead. 

With some of the biggest shifts of the NBA offseason having played out, the Knicks have the lead in important roster metrics: as rosters currently stand, the Knicks have retained 90 percent of minutes from a roster that posted 47 wins and the franchise's first playoff series victory since 2013. 

At 18,054 minutes from returnees, the Knicks outpace the silver medalists from Oklahoma City by 644 according to figures from NBA.com. The Indiana Pacers are in fifth place in the East at 16,849 while Sacramento and New Orleans round out the top four.

En route to their season of accolades, Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau primarily employed a nine-man rotation headlined by $104 million man Jalen Brunson and All-Star Julius Randle. As it stands, the Knicks have lost only one player from that group in the form of Obi Toppin, who was traded to the aforementioned Pacers after averaging just over 15 minutes a game. 

As small as it sounds, the sense of familiarity and united chemistry could be big for a Knicks team looking to build on their brightest and most undeniable glimmer of light yet. Even the newest Knicks acquired, such as Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo, have worked with the team's star attractions: each played with Brunson at Villanova University while Hart worked with Randle as part of the Los Angeles Lakers' 2017-18 campaign.

Constant turnover has been an uncomfortably recurring theme in New York: the shifts are best personified by a quick look at the 2020-21 roster that ended a seven-season playoff drought, as only four players from that ledger (Randle, RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, Mitchell Robinson) are still employed by the Knicks. 

Speaking of the Lakers, they're currently last in retained minutes at 41 percent after losing Troy Brown Jr., Dennis Schröder, and Lonnie Walker IV.  

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Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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