Josh Hart has been a triple-double terror for the Knicks lately, with six over an eight-week stretch beginning with the first of his career on Jan. 30.
His latest stat-sheet smorgasbord came in Monday’s blowout win over the Pistons, with 11 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists in 39 minutes.
Still, the indispensable wing has continued to misfire for much of the season from 3-point distance, including a 3-for-31 skid over his past eight appearances after missing two of three from long range Monday night.
And one of Hart’s former NBA teammates is vowing to help fix his outside shot during the offseason.
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“We’re gonna work on the shot this summer. We’ve already committed to each other,” JJ Redick, a teammate of Hart’s in New Orleans from 2019-21, said on this week’s “Old Man and the Three” podcast.
“Obviously me and JJ are close. We talk all the time,” Hart said after the game. “At some point in the summer I’ll pull up to the Hamptons. Shoot, get in the gym with him. Drink wine with him. He can bring all the wine. Because he’s rich. And just enjoy.”
Hart connected on an amazing 51.9 percent from long range in 25 appearances with the Knicks last season following a February trade with the Trail Blazers.
But his efficiency has dropped by more than 20 points this year to 30.4 percent (72-for-237) through his first 70 this season.
Still, Tom Thibodeau often lauds the 29-year-old Hart as one of the team’s most valuable players.
The seven-year NBA veteran was averaging 12.0 points, 11.0 rebounds and 40.9 minutes over 24 consecutive starts — Monday was his 25th in a row — since Julius Randle and OG Anunoby first left the lineup in late January.
Redick, who posted a career shooting percentage of .415 over 15 NBA seasons, also marveled at his 6-foot-4 former teammate’s uncanny rebounding acumen.
“Josh Hart, at this size — and he’s an athlete, but not an uber-athlete, and he’s strong and he’s quick, but not uber-strong or uber-quick — but he rebounds outside of his area as well as any guard I’ve seen,” said Redick, who now serves as an ESPN/ABC game and studio analyst. “He pursues the basketball, he gets rebounds in traffic, long rebounds. He ends up with basketballs that he has no business ending up with.
“And I think what’s important here is the Knicks have taken on this identity. They have embraced this gritty culture — and of course it starts with Thibs and JB [Jalen Brunson] — but they have a group now with a real identity. And I don’t think there’s anybody on this team that has embodied it more than Josh Hart.”
Redick also worked with since-traded guard Quentin Grimes on his outside shot last summer.
But Grimes, who did not play Monday due to a knee injury, has shot a career-worst .338 from 3-point land over 51 games with the Knicks and the Pistons this season.
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