It’s Opening Week!
The Knicks will get into the Tarrytown lab today and tomorrow as they gear up for the season-opening matchup against Cleveland inside MSG on Wednesday evening.
Here’s what we’ve heard from Coach Brown and a few dudes in the last few hours.
Mike Brown
On preseason injuries and building team chemistry:
“The guys that have been out, they’re the key pieces to what we’re trying to do. They haven’t gotten the reps and for us to jell together from top to bottom is gonna take a little more time than I thought.”
On building relationships over basketball:
“We’re going to have plenty of time to talk about basketball to a point where they’re going to be tired of me talking about basketball. I want to get to know them for who they are because this relationship is about trust. It doesn’t start talking about basketball. It starts with him getting to know me and me getting to know him. What better way to do that than talk about your family, what you like to do, where you live and where you like to spend your offseason? Now, I can really get to know him for who he is.”
On believeing in the Towns-Robinson pairing:
“First thing is skillsets are a lot better or people are at least recognizing it with bigger guys. And because of the attention to detail that everybody gives to spacing, you want more length. You want more length to make the court look smaller defensively. Long shots lead to long rebounds, so you want more length out there to get rebounds and stuff like that. And then everybody switches a lot. If a guy messes up on a switch or they switch a small guy on a big, that’s something that, again, with people paying attention to spacing with player movement, you can take advantage of not only in post-up situations, where a guy can turn and just shoot over a guy, but offensive rebounds are a big emphasis now.”
On learning from Steve Kerr:
“It doesn’t matter who you are. If he thinks you can help, he’s going to throw you out there.”
On player readiness and accountability:
“If a guy hadn’t played in a few games, [Steve Kerr] may not tell you — he’ll just call your number. It sends a message: stay ready. Not just physically, but mentally. Because you might go in that game, and whether it’s 30 seconds or 10 minutes, you’ve got to bring something — not points, but effort and energy.”
On his rotation philosophy:
“If you look at what I’ve done, it’s usually nine-and-a-half to 10 guys. I try to play as many as I can. Even in Sac, when we had an injury, I started a two-way guy in Keon Ellis. So I’m going to play whoever helps us win and try to get guys an opportunity. With how deep our roster is, everybody should get one at some point.”
On player development and Pacome Dadiet’s outlook:
“I think the G League is fantastic for anybody. So whether [Pacome’s] getting minutes there or with us, just getting minutes is great for him. He’s got a chance to be really, really good — especially at his size. You can do a lot with it.”
On expecting competition for minutes:
“Whoever goes and grabs it. We feel like we have a deep roster. A lot of guys will have an opportunity to grab whatever minutes might’ve been there or might not have been there. We’ll figure it out at the end who’s gonna get them.”
Jalen Brunson
On building trust with Mike Brown:
“It was a point of his to make sure that I was comfortable with him and getting to know him. The relationship piece is very important to him as it is to me.”
Mikal Bridges
On Mike Brown’s system:
“I like it a lot. The biggest thing that helps is that a lot of us were here last year, and I feel like you can learn plays a little bit faster than concepts. With concepts, you have to start from the beginning and really grow them out and work on them every single day. With plays, you draw up some plays and learn them, but I think we’ll learn them pretty fast.”
Mitchell Robinson
On Brown’s defensive system:
“It’s a different style. It’s sort of like a zone but not quite. We’ve never really did that. We’ve always played man-to-man defense. The adjustments we have to make, the communication, different calls that we didn’t have last year. It’s a totally different ball game.”
Pacome Dadiet
On his preparation and mindset:
“Honestly, I just go back in the gym. That’s the only thing I can do. I put a lot of work in this summer. I just trust it.”
On Mike Brown’s track record with youth:
“Obviously the past few years, we’ve seen Mike put young players on the floor — players who didn’t really get opportunities. He’s well known for this. So it’s good for me.”
Matt Barnes
On Mike Brown’s lack of leadership chops:
“The one thing about Mike Brown is that the first year is always good. Mike is a great person. He’s just, to me, not a leader of men. I couldn’t imagine it now because these kids are making so much money. You have to have their respect.”
On Brown’s dealing with player defiance in Los Angeles:
“I tell you, and rest in peace to my dog Kobe, he and Ron Artest, they walked all over that motherf—ker. They used to sub themselves in and out of games. I’m just like, ‘Oh, s—t.’”
On Brown’s strengths and weaknesses:
“I think Mike is a great assistant coach. I wish him the best, but I’ve seen it firsthand. In Sacramento, his first year, he came in, brought the Golden State system, they made the playoffs for the first time, and then he lost the respect of the team quickly. So now you’re going to a New York media market that’s gonna try to eat you up for every mistake. Mike is a good guy; I just don’t think the situation is going to work, because he’s too nice for his own good.”
Mark Daigneault
On Tom Thibodeau’s humility:
“He was mainly with our coaching staff and front office. He asked to come in. He’s obviously sitting the year out and is traveling around. I give him a lot of credit. He was going to colleges in September. It takes a lot of humility for someone who’s had the success that he’s had and has done it as long as he has to put himself in that position. He’s always been very good to me. We’ve always had a nice cordial relationship, but that’s the most time I’ve ever spent with him, which was cool.”