Team: New York Knicks · Status: standard contract · Position: SG/SF/PF · Season age: 31 · Experience: entering 10th NBA season · Role: starting connector · As of: 2026-07-18
2026-27 median projection
| GP | MPG | FG% | FT% | 3PM | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 68 | 26.0 | .505 | .730 | 1.2 | 10.4 | 6.6 | 4.1 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 1.6 |
Correction 2026-07-18: MPG trimmed from 28.0 to 26.0. ESPN's offseason grades identify the specific lineup that takes the minutes — a five-out group with Landry Shamet in Hart's place that outscored opponents by 54 points in 34 playoff minutes — and Shamet's four-year re-signing makes that group a season-long option rather than a playoff wrinkle. The counting-stat effect is small; the rebounds and assists remain Hart's fantasy case.
Approximate volume: 4.2 makes on 8.3 shots and 1.3 makes on 1.8 free throws. Nine-cat: top 90-130 per game, build-dependent. Points: B-, top 70-100 where rebounds and assists are rewarded. Dynasty: 5.7/10.
Role and evidence
Hart averaged 12.0 points, 7.4 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 1.5 threes, 1.1 steals, and 1.9 turnovers in 30.2 minutes across 66 games, shooting .508 from the field and .720 at the line (Hashtag Basketball). The projection trims minutes, not his distinctive rebound-and-connective rates.
He remains the nominal starting four, but Towns-Anunoby frontcourts let Brown close with a reserve guard instead. That creates more nightly volatility than his starter label implies. His low free-throw volume softens rather than eliminates the .730 liability.
Market and source disagreement
ESPN ranked Hart 95th in early points leagues; Barutha left him outside a rough top 100. Hashtag placed him 129th in analyst dynasty and 118th on the keeper crowd board. Points systems and punt-FT category builds are much friendlier than neutral nine-category ranks.
Range
- Ceiling: 31-32 minutes, eight rebounds, five assists, and top-70 build-specific value.
- Median: useful late-round glue with stronger points and roster-build value than raw nine-cat rank.
- Floor: a 25-minute role and sub-.700 FT produce waiver-level standard-league value.
Confidence
Starting status: high. Exact minutes and closing role: medium. Rebounds/assists: high. Games played: medium after knee-management flags in 2025-26.
Career record
Pre-NBA: Villanova, four seasons (2013-14 through 2016-17), a full four-year arc from bench freshman to national player of the year candidate. 7.8 points and 4.4 rebounds in 21.4 minutes on .500 FG as a freshman; 10.1 and 4.5 in 25.5 minutes on .515/.464 as a sophomore, winning Big East Sixth Man of the Year; 15.5 and 6.8 in 31.4 minutes on .513/.357 as a junior on the 2016 national title team; 18.7 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 33.1 minutes on .510/.404/.747 as a senior. Consensus first-team All-American, Big East Player of the Year and co-Defensive Player of the Year in 2017; twice Big East tournament Most Outstanding Player; jersey retired by Villanova in 2022. Draft: 2017, first round, 30th overall, Utah Jazz — traded on draft night to the Los Angeles Lakers with Thomas Bryant for the 28th pick (Tony Bradley).
| Season | Age | Team | GP | MPG | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | 3PM | FG% | FT% | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-18 | 22 | LAL | 63 | 23.2 | 7.9 | 4.2 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 1.2 | .469 | .702 | 0.7 |
| 2018-19 | 23 | LAL | 67 | 25.6 | 7.8 | 3.7 | 1.4 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 1.4 | .407 | .688 | 0.9 |
| 2019-20 | 24 | NOP | 65 | 27.0 | 10.1 | 6.5 | 1.7 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 1.9 | .423 | .739 | 1.2 |
| 2020-21 | 25 | NOP | 47 | 28.7 | 9.2 | 8.0 | 2.3 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 1.3 | .439 | .775 | 1.0 |
| 2021-22 | 26 | NOP/POR | 54 | 33.2 | 14.9 | 7.2 | 4.1 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 1.4 | .504 | .758 | 2.1 |
| 2022-23 | 27 | POR/NYK | 76 | 32.3 | 9.8 | 7.8 | 3.8 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 0.8 | .529 | .750 | 1.5 |
| 2023-24 | 28 | NYK | 81 | 33.4 | 9.4 | 8.3 | 4.1 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 1.0 | .434 | .791 | 1.5 |
| 2024-25 | 29 | NYK | 77 | 37.6 | 13.6 | 9.6 | 5.9 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 1.1 | .525 | .776 | 2.1 |
| 2025-26 | 30 | NYK | 66 | 30.2 | 12.0 | 7.4 | 4.8 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 1.5 | .508 | .720 | 1.9 |
| Career | 596 | 30.1 | 10.9 | 7.1 | 3.6 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 1.3 | .478 | .747 | 1.5 |
Multi-team splits: 2021-22 was 41 games with New Orleans (13.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 4.1 assists in 33.5 minutes) and 13 with Portland after the February 8, 2022 CJ McCollum trade (19.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.4 threes in 32.1 minutes on .373 from deep). 2022-23 was 51 games with Portland (9.5/8.2/3.9) and 25 with New York after the February 2023 deadline deal (10.2/7.0/3.6 on .586 FG and .519 from three in a 25-game sample small enough to ignore).
Fantasy history: 2023-24 finished 77th in Basketball Monster total game value. 2024-25 was the outlier season — roughly 26th in per-game nine-category value and about 10th in total value on the strength of 77 games at a league-leading 37.6 minutes, with points leagues placing him near 40th. That gap between per-game and total value is the whole Hart fantasy story: he is a volume-of-minutes asset, not a rate asset. The 2025-26 season-end nine-category rank is not verifiable from a public source and should not be estimated; the raw line (12.0/7.4/4.8 with 1.5 threes and 1.1 steals in 66 games) is plainly a step down from 2024-25 but still rotation-relevant. Points-league shape is materially better than category shape in every season, because rebounds and assists are rewarded directly and his weak free-throw percentage carries no penalty.
Durability: 63, 67, 65, 47, 54, 76, 81, 77, 66. Two career-ending-to-the-season injuries early: a fractured left hand in February 2018 that cost him six weeks, and right knee patellar tendon trouble that ended 2018-19 on March 28, 2019. The 47-game 2020-21 was capped by a torn UCL in his right thumb suffered against Orlando on April 2, 2021, which required surgery and finished his season. 2021-22's 54 games span a trade and assorted absences whose causes are not cleanly documented publicly. The 2022-23 through 2024-25 stretch is the durable core — 234 of a possible 246. 2025-26's 16 missed games came from three sources: a right ring finger he had surgically repaired in June 2025, reaggravated in the preseason and played through in a splint all year; a right ankle sprain on Christmas Day against Cleveland after stepping on Dean Wade's foot; and recurring knee problems, first left knee soreness and later right knee patellofemoral syndrome. The knee item is the one that matters for 2026-27 — it is a chronic-load diagnosis in a 31-year-old who just led the league in minutes the year before.
Trajectory: Hart's curve is unusual because the leap came at 29, not 24, and it was almost entirely a minutes and role event. From 2017-18 through 2022-23 he was a 23-to-33 minute connector whose per-36 rebounding was always elite for a guard; what changed in 2024-25 was Tom Thibodeau playing him 37.6 minutes a night with the ball in his hands more, which converted a good per-minute profile into a top-10 total-value season. The 2025-26 regression to 30.2 minutes under Mike Brown gave back roughly the exact production the minutes gave — the per-36 line barely moved, which is the tell that 2024-25 was not skill growth. The one genuine improvement is the jump shot: .413 from three on 1.5 makes in 2025-26 against a career mark closer to .340, a small sample worth watching but not yet worth pricing in. At 31 with a documented patellofemoral issue and a deeper Knicks rotation, the honest read for 2026-27 is that the minutes ceiling has moved permanently down, and Hart is now a floor asset whose value depends on whether 28 minutes still buys seven rebounds and four-plus assists.
Career sources: ESPN career stats · StatMuse per-season · Wikipedia · ESPN on the reaggravated finger injury · ESPN on the 2021 thumb UCL tear · NBC Sports fantasy end-of-season roundtable
Open questions
- Does Hart always start, and how often does a reserve guard close over him?
- Can his free-throw shooting return near career norms without losing field-goal efficiency?