In case you’ve been living under a rock, the Knicks aren’t as good of a perimeter defense as in seasons past.
Under Tom Thibodeau, here are the yearly opponent 3pt% rankings:
2020-21: 1st (33.7%)
2021-22: 6th (34.2%)
2022-23: T-11th (35.7%)
2023-24: T-16th (36.5%)
2024-25: T-27th (37.7%)
Ouch.
Some of this can be blamed on how the Knicks have increasingly sacrificed defense for offense in the past five seasons. In 2020-21, the worst defenders on the team were Derrick Rose and Julius Randle. In 2021-22, the new backcourt of Evan Fournier and Kemba Walker were ghastly defensively.