The Knicks have the 11th-worst offensive rating (110.5) and second-lowest true shooting percentage (53.1%) in the NBA this season. Both of those marks this season are below the NBA league-average ORTG (112.9) and TS% (57.1%). Last season, the Knicks had the third-best ORTG (120.1) and eighth-highest TS% (59.1%) en route to having the third-best record in the East and later winning the NBA championship.

This season, they’ve still generated high-quality looks, ranking fifth in team shot quality (56.3%) this season. So what has been plaguing the offense through six games?

Jalen Brunson has 70 potential assists through six games—that’s tied for the 11th-most potential assists. However, he has just 31 actual assists (tied for 29th-most). He’s actually overperforming what the data expects from him as a facilitator, which credits him with 25.2 expected assists (15th-most in NBA this season).

In fact, the Knicks haven’t had issues with generating good shots without Brunson on the floor: They have two players in the top five in the NBA in expected assists per 36 minutes played this season. Tyler Kolek (9.1) leads all players and Jose Alvarado (7.7) is fourth.

When you dive deeper into the Knicks’ shot data, you’ll see some things that stick out.

The Knicks haven’t been hitting inside 14 feet

The Knicks see 41.7% of their jump shots as pull-up field goal attempts, which is around league average compared to the rest of the league. The problem there is that they’ve sported the second-lowest effective FG% (37.5%) on pull-up jumpers this season.

What does that tell us?

When you peel those numbers back further, you’ll see that the Knicks are shooting 38.6% on midrange field goal attempts—that’s the 11th-worst mark in the NBA this season. Last season, they shot 44.5% on such shot attempts, ranking fifth in the NBA.

The long midrange (41.7% FG%, 13th in NBA) hasn’t been crushing the Knicks as much as their lack of success in the short midrange (28.7%, last in NBA) has so far this season. Last season, they ended up as the second-best shot-making team in the long midrange (45.3% FG%) and the 12th-best shot-making team in the short midrange (45.0% FG%).

Two of their inside-the-arc maestros from last season, Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges, just haven’t gotten it going yet this season.

Jalen Brunson is shooting 42.7% on rim and midrange field goal attempts this season, generating 0.85 PPP on 14.8 such field goal attempts per game. He shot 52.2% on such shots last season, generating 1.04 PPP on 12.8 rim and midrange shot attempts.

Mikal Bridges is shooting 38.1% on rim and midrange field goal attempts this season, generating 0.76 PPP on only 3.5 such field goal attempts per game. He shot 58.2% on such shots last season, generating 1.16 PPP on 6.6 rim and midrange shot attempts.

The Knicks aren’t having the same three-point success

The Knicks are also struggling to create wide-open three-point field goal attempts, as only 38.7% of their three-point attempts have been wide open—that’s the fourth-lowest mark in the NBA this season. When they do get wide-open three-point shot attempts, they have at least been taking advantage of them, making 42.9% of them (fifth-highest in NBA).

They’re averaging one more corner three-point attempt per game this season, ranking second in the NBA just like they did last season. The difference is they’ve made just 35.9% of their corner three-point attempts this season, down from 41.6% last season.

That’s where OG Anunoby’s struggles start to come in. He’s shot just 27.8% from beyond the arc this season (-0.94 Shot Making Over Expected on 3PA), after shooting 38.6% from three last season. He’s only managed to generate 0.83 PPP on 6.6 three-point shots per 75 possessions this season, one year after generating 1.16 PPP on 6.8 three-point shots per 75 possessions last season.

Looking further, just 48.0% of his shot attempts have been three-point field goal attempts and 58.3% of those three-point attempts have been above-the-break tries. Last season, 50.6% of his shot attempts were three-point attempts and 51.4% of his three-point tries were above-the-break attempts. It’s important to note that Mike Brown has been trying to give Anunoby more of an offensive role this season, as he’s been more of a driver.

The Knicks haven’t converted close to the basket

Speaking of driving, the Knicks average 64.4 drives per 100 possessions, which is around the league average, ranking 14th. They don’t turn the ball over on drives, registering the second-lowest TOV% (4.3%) on drives this season, but they’ve only scored 0.42 points per drive this season—which is the third-fewest by any team in the NBA.

That brings us to our next struggle point for the Knicks: They have been unable to convert on shots less than 10 feet from the basket. They’ve shot 50.4% on shots less than 10 feet from the basket this season, as that’s the lowest FG% among all 30 NBA teams. During last season, they had the 10th-highest FG% (60.4%) on shots less than 10 feet from the hoop.

31.9% of the Knicks’ shot attempts have come at the rim, which is good enough for the fourth-highest frequency in the NBA. They’re only shooting 57.7% on rim attempts in the NBA—that’s the second-worst mark in the NBA—after shooting 66.6% last season.

Swapping out Mitchell Robinson—an elite shot-maker around the basket—for Andre Drummond plays into that, along with guys just not making shots in that area. Drummond has a 58.9% expected FG% on his missed shot attempts this season and that’s actually the ninth-highest among players with 10+ minutes per game this season. All in all, he has struggled to a 45.7% FG% in six games—his lowest FG% in any season of his NBA career.

Also, with OG Anunoby having a larger role on offense, his rim attempts aren’t as easy as they used to be. He’s gone from a 68.4% shooter (62nd percentile) on 4.7 rim attempts per game last season to 55.9% (33rd percentile) on 5.7 rim attempts per game this season.

Some other close-to-the-rim numbers for the Knicks...

They’re shooting 57.7% on restricted area field goal attempts, only better than the Nets (55.2%) this season, while taking the fifth-most restricted area shot attempts (29.2) per game this season. They weren’t great on such shots last season, sporting the 11th-worst FG% on restricted area attempts, but that number was 66.3% and not 57.7%. The Knicks have an NBA-worst 29.5% FG% on in-the-paint shot attempts outside the restricted area, compared to a 45.6% FG% on such shots last season.

To sum all of this up, the Knicks are just going to have to make their shots and hope that positive regression carries them at some point. Knowing the Knicks, I’ll bet on them rebounding to becoming a much better offensive team.