It’s likely not a coincidence that the more Josh Hart plays, the greater his impact has been on the Knicks’ success.
Early in the season, as he adjusted to a new role off the bench that brought with it fewer minutes, he struggled.
But injuries to OG Anunoby and Landry Shamet have forced coach Mike Brown to adjust his plans, resulting in Hart getting back to the heavy workloads he had been accustomed to previously in his Knicks tenure.
And during the Knicks’ four-game winning streak, he’s been at his best playing more minutes than anyone else on the team.
Brown originally thought shorter spurts would bring the best out of Hart.
But he’s since realized how many different ways Hart can affect winning, particularly when he’s on the court for longer periods of time.
“I’ve said this quite a bit, especially our first three losses, I’ll take the hit on that,” Brown said. “The tough part was, I’ll back it up further, he didn’t really play in the preseason. He didn’t even really practice in the preseason. For me, I was behind the eight ball trying to figure out how to incorporate him with what we were trying to do. It just took time.”
Hart logged 35 minutes during the Knicks’ 116-94 win over the Raptors on Sunday night at Madison Square Garden and recorded 20 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists and three steals.
Five of those rebounds were on the offensive glass.
“He’s a special player,” Brown said, “but he’s also a great human being to be around.”
Jalen Brunson joked about Hart, his good buddy, getting robbed of luxury watches.
“Did you get this one stolen?” Brunson said in the locker room while flashing his gold piece.
“Nope, I still got that,” Hart responded.
As The Post reported, Hart was thieved of roughly $185,000 worth of jewelry from the Dominick Hotel in Manhattan, where the forward was staying in early September for his live podcast show in Central Park.
According to police sources, Hart had left a case containing the watches in his hotel room and returned to find it stolen.
Hart has taken the incident in stride, joking that he wants to win the NBA Cup (with its prize money of over $500,000) so that he can recoup the watches.
The Knicks assigned Pacôme Dadiet to the G-League.
He scored 29 points with six rebounds and four assists in the Westchester Knicks loss to the Maine Celtics on Sunday.
A first-round pick last year, Dadiet has appeared in just eight NBA games this year, nearly exclusively in garbage time.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
