Knicks' Three-Point Shooting 'Doomed' 2023 Playoff Run
The New York Knicks were good in the 2022-23 season, but they weren't great.
Something that they could improve in order to be great? Their three-point shooting.
During the regular season, the Knicks were tied for 19th in three-point shooting with a 35.4 percent success rate. However, that number dipped in the playoffs and was a big reason behind their second-round elimination at the hands of the Miami Heat. That's why Bleacher Report identified three-point shooting as the team's biggest need going into the offseason.
"The Knicks, not the Miami Heat, looked like they could be the Cinderella story of this year's playoffs," Greg Swartz of Bleacher Report writes. "New York's inability to hit anything from outside the arc ultimately doomed this storybook ending, however. A 29.2 percent from three this postseason was a black eye on an otherwise successful season, one the Knicks can build on with some added shooting."
Outside of Jalen Brunson and Quentin Grimes, there are no players under contract for next season that shoot better than 35 percent from beyond the three-point line. That makes re-signing Immanuel Quickley and Josh Hart that much more important.
Evan Fournier, who signed a four-year, $73 million contract in 2021, was expected to be the team's primary three-point threat when he signed. While he shot over 38 percent in his first season in New York, that number dipped to just over 30 percent, which earned him a spot in Tom Thibodeau's doghouse, to the point where he was exiled from the rotation entirely.
If the Knicks can find a new home for Fournier that could open up the opportunity for a new shooter to come in, New York can improve its three-point clip, which can result in a longer postseason run next year.
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