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The Knicks are finally trying to do things the right way

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With all the excitement surrounding the 8-7 New York Knicks, it's easy to forget the team had the exact same record after 15 games in each of the last two seasons, before bumbling and stumbling to 50-loss campaigns.

A respectable start to the year is nothing new, then, but spend a day around the 2017-18 Knicks, and it's obvious something is different. The locker room, an overrated pressure cooker in recent years, is loose - the difference between a bad team that believed it had a right to be good, and an exciting young team that genuinely wants to be good.

"We're trying to build an identity here, and a culture. That's the big difference," Tim Hardaway Jr. told theScore when asked what's changed since his first two seasons in New York (Hardaway signed a four-year, $71-million contract with the Knicks this summer after spending the last two years in Atlanta).

And how would Hardaway describe that culture shift?

"The way we play, the mindset we bring to each and every game, every practice. Off the court, making the right decisions. Being great role models for the youth and the city that we play for."

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On the court, the Knicks look revitalized, particularly on the offensive end, where Carmelo Anthony's ball-stopping, Derrick Rose's low-efficiency game, and Phil Jackson's dated (triangular) system are a thing of the past, and Jeff Hornacek's offense is winning over players like Kristaps Porzingis.

"It's a free offense where we can run, we have (player) movement, and we're moving the ball," Porzingis told theScore.

According to NBA Player Tracking data, the Knicks are actually completing less passes per game and per possession than they did last year, and Porzingis' 34.4 percent usage rate is much higher than Anthony's (29.0) or Rose's (25.6) was last season, but there are other numbers to support Porzingis' claims.

For example, last year's Knicks spent 9.7 percent of their offensive plays in isolation - the fourth-highest mark. That number's dropped to 7.3 percent this year, which ranks 16th. In addition, the team's distance covered and average speed on offense have increased.

"We have more guys involved than we did last year," Hornacek told reporters before Friday's loss in Toronto. "Carmelo and Derrick were great one-on-one players who could score and get shots any time they wanted. We're trying to not be focused on just one or two guys. Obviously, KP is our guy, but we want everybody to contribute and put pressure on the other (opposing) positions."

Of course, much of the Knicks' offensive improvement can be tied to Porzingis himself, who's averaging 27.8 points per game on 48-41-82 shooting - an almost unprecedented level of efficiency for someone using so many possessions.

"The game's starting to slow down for him," Hornacek said. "The experience he got in the summer (representing Latvia at Eurobasket) was great for him - being a main guy. He's gotten bigger and stronger. All that stuff helps. It might be little things every year, but now you put that together."

The next step in Porzingis' offensive evolution will have to be his playmaking, as the big man has yet to average even two assists per game, but Hornacek sees the 22-year-old already elevating the play of his teammates simply by the way he prepares.

"He's set a great example. A star guy coming to practice every day, practicing hard, not just being out there at practice, but actually putting the effort out. That's where you get better. Teams get better when they go hard in practice. That's when they get some experience. Coaches can really coach and teach things."

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In the shadow of New York's unicorn-led attack, no one wants to talk much about the Knicks' 25th-ranked defense, but there are even signs of promise on that end of the court.

The majority of the team's defensive issues stem from their inability to guard the 3-point line, as 40.4 percent of opponents' field-goal attempts come from behind the arc - more than any other team - and 38 percent of those attempts are splashing. Some of those makes are simply bad luck for the Knicks, but they're giving up way too many long-range attempts in their efforts to guard the paint and the middle of the floor.

Having said that, only the Heat hold opponents to a lower 2-point percentage than the Knicks do (47.3), and the team's two biggest building blocks - Porzingis and rookie guard Frank Ntilikina - are bursting with defensive potential.

Of the 42 big men who've defended at least four attempts at the rim per game, Porzingis leads all with an absurd defensive field-goal percentage of 36.5, while Ntilikina boasts a league-leading steal rate of 4.7 percent. To put that in perspective, the only players who've posted qualified seasons in the 21st century with a steal rate of at least 4.0 percent are Tony Allen, Ricky Rubio, and Ron Artest.

Even the team's more defensively limited players are at least putting in an honest day's work on the less glamorous end of the court.

"Guys are doing a great job of trying to go as hard as they can. They're battling," Hornacek explained. "Some nights our lineup is relatively small with Courtney (Lee) and Tim at the 2 and 3, so they really have to battle and be physical."

Hornacek also praised the defensive improvement of Enes Kanter, acquired from Oklahoma City in the blockbuster that sent Anthony to OKC. Kanter's defensive reputation bounced between nonexistent and punchline through his first six years as a pro, but the Turkish big man has looked at least somewhat competent after dropping weight in the offseason.

"I lost over 30 pounds," Kanter told theScore, after admitting he was aware of his defensive critics. "My body feels so much better, and I feel so much quicker. I'm more comfortable on the court. I can read defense better, just because I'm moving faster."

No one will mistake Kanter for an impact defender anytime soon, but after years of watching the team load up on fading stars who wanted to rest on their laurels, a player acknowledging and addressing his weaknesses has to be a breath of fresh air for Knicks fans.

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Playing the right way in a more cooperative offense and trying harder on defense sound like basic tenets you'd expect of an elementary team, not exactly goals you'd set for an NBA team, but these are necessary baby steps for a franchise that too often thinks it can run with the big boys before crawling or walking.

These are still the Knicks, and James Dolan's inability to stay out of his own way can never be discounted, but for now, it seems they finally get it, and with Porzingis (and Ntilikina) leading the charge, the MSG faithful are buying in.

"I don't think I've heard the Garden this loud since my dad was playing for the Heat, and they had those playoff battles (against the Knicks) in the late '90s," says Hardaway Jr. "It's loud in there now. It wasn't like that my first go-around (with the team)."

If the Knicks remain focused on surrounding Porzingis, Ntilikina, and Co. with a culture that players like Hardaway are buying into, the Garden may get another taste of those playoff battles a lot sooner than any of us anticipated.

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