Win to start the season? Check!
Beat the supposed East’s Best? Double check!!
Humongous dose of quotes today? Triple check!!!
Mike Brown
On building a two-way Knicks team:
“Do we think we can be a great defensive team? Yes. Do I think we can be a great offensive team? Yes. And we have staples on each side of the ball. There are things we believe in offensively that will help shape our identity just like there are things we believe in defensively that will help shape our identity on that side as well.”
On establishing an identity:
“We’d like to establish or have an identity, but it’s not just strictly, ‘Hey, we’re a defensive team,’ or, ‘Hey, we’re an offensive team.’ In my opinion, you have to do a lot of things in order to win. You can’t just be a good defensive team because if you look at the NBA champions in the past, everyone that’s won a championship wasn’t a Top-3 defensive team. Everyone that’s won a championship wasn’t just a Top-3 offensive team. So you have to have belief in what you think this team can do and grow from that.”
On trusting players:
“They’ve earned that right for me to have that trust. I don’t have all the answers. I’ll be the first to admit it. Imma be wrong sometimes and just like when I’m wrong, hopefully somebody holds me accountable and I’ll learn and grow from my mistake. But because they are who they are: They’re competitive, they’re a veteran team, they’ve won at a pretty high level before. Sometimes they’ll teach me something, or they’ll teach us something and we’ve gotta believe in them, just like we’re asking them to believe in us. It’s a two-way street.”
On injuries and roster depth:
“As a head coach you want all your guys all the time. You want to be greedy in that regard. Also it’s a part of the game, that’s why you have in our case, I think 17 guys right now, 18 guys. And we, starting with me, I’m a big next man up, next player up. It doesn’t matter how many people are out. You’re hoping it’s not a ton, but that’s what all these guys get paid to do. They get paid to be ready to play whenever their number is called. They got to go out and perform and not do anything outside the box but perform at the highest level, starting with having that competitive spirit. And we still expect to win no matter who’s in uniform. That’s our goal.”
On Mitchell Robinson’s load management:
“There may be a stretch of five games where we may sit him. There may be a stretch of two preseason games where we may sit him. There’s no definition of what load management is. You just go along or myself and the medical team and the front office will go along as we see fit and we’ll decide if we want to sit him during practice or we want to sit him in a game. It’s as simple as that.”
On injuries and medical decisions:
“To be honest I don’t think about that stuff. I allow our medical team to handle it and I’ll take the lead after they give me word because that’s what their job is, and for me to get into that, I’m not an expert at it.”
On standards and accountability:
“I want them to continue to believe no matter what happens, as long as we’re doing those things, because it’s our standard. I want them to continue to believe in the process and each other as we go along, and if somebody goes a little too far left or a little too far right, including me, we expect everybody to hold each other accountable. That’s our standard. That’s what I want to see, and if we do that while we’re learning with the understanding that this is gonna be a process, then I’m OK with it.”
On team expectations:
“Our expectations are extremely high. We’re not going to get ahead of ourselves. Whether we won or lost, it’s one game. We won the game. We had some good moments. But we don’t feel like we’re anywhere near what we’re capable of, and that’s what makes it exciting.”
On NBA Finals-or-bust expectations:
“We’re good with that. We embrace that.”
On depth and combinations:
“I truly believe this is a deep team. Give Leon Rose and his group a lot of credit. It’s my job to keep trying to find combinations out on the floor that work. Just like they’ve got a lot of room to grow, I’ve got a lot of room to grow, too. I’m still learning. The good part about is there are a lot of different ways I can go with it and I can learn on the fly because we have guys that can play.”
On first impressions after the season opener:
“We feel like, as the season goes along, we’re going to get better. We won the game and we had some good moments, but we don’t feel like we’re anywhere near what we’re capable of. And that’s what makes it exciting. Everybody has expectations. I don’t know if their expectations are higher than anybody in our locker room. So we’re good with that. We embrace that.”
On OG Anunoby’s performance:
“OG was a monster. He was our defensive player of the game. I think he had six or seven deflections. He guarded a lot of different people, so he saw a lot of different types of players tonight. He did a heck of a job.”
On home-court energy:
“Knowing this is our home court every night is quite a feeling. They hit us in the mouth. But we did a lot better job as the game went along, especially the fourth quarter.”
On early impressions of the team:
“I said it before, I think the group is deep. And they have all the attributes that I talked about earlier that are standard. Because of that, it doesn’t matter who is in front of us, we’re going to have an opportunity to win the game. If we play within ourselves, and that’s what we did.”
On rebounding performance:
“We needed every single one of those rebounds those guys got.”
Jalen Brunson
On Deuce McBride’s game:
“I think the best thing about him is, when he wasn’t playing that much, he was still in the gym every day, he was doing everything he had to do.”
On whether or not he got a hug from Spike Lee before his first game, like Mike Brown did:
“I did not get that, but Spike got my mom a nice one of those Brunson puff jackets, so we’re even.”
Karl-Anthony Towns
On preparing for the season:
“Just getting right for the season. That’s really all I’m thinking.”
On playing through injury:
“Oh yeah. I’ve been banged up and haven’t really got a chance to practice or play those last two preseason games, but I don’t wanna disappoint the fans. Dealing with a Grade 2 quad strain is not something easy to deal with. But we made it happen tonight. I’m glad the fans respected the effort I put in to play tonight and my teammates really did, too. So shoutouts to them supporting me and understanding the situation I was in.”
On the quad injury:
“It was hurting. For sure.”
On a difficult day to start the season:
“Oh I was hurting for sure. It’s been a day for me living in it, and for y’all trying to report it, so it’s been one hell of a day. But I’m glad at the end, God’s good. We got a win, New York’s happy, the fans are happy. Things are good.”
On team rotation and trust:
“Just allowing ourselves to change the energy of the game at any time. We’ve got a lot of guys in here who are pros and giving them a chance to affect the game and impact winning is a great testament to, one, the trust that us teammates have in each other here in this locker room, and two, the coaching staff trusting the players, so shout out to them.”
Mikal Bridges
On team chemistry:
“Playing 100 games with the playoffs and being in some tough battles, you learn a lot about each other, and knowing how each other plays in the toughest moments, so it really helps. I know the things KAT likes to do, I know the things OG likes to do, I know the things Lil Tyler likes to do, Landry, Josh, Mitch — I could go on and on, especially in Year 2. It’s gonna take time with the new guys, but having a year under the belt is really helpful.”
On Jalen Brunson’s versatility:
“(Brunson) can play anywhere on the court. Even with his size, he can post up guys, too. He can do just about anything but probably not roll. Everyone on our team is talented and can do a lot of things. I think all of us can dribble-drive and make the right read.”
On OG Anunoby:
“Playing with OG and knowing [he’s guarding the] ball-side corner, that he might take the ball from somebody, it’s crazy. He has that talent.”
OG Anunoby
On his performance:
“I just try to play hard. Do everything to help the team win.”
On the team’s depth:
“We have a deep team. Everyone who came in is capable of making an impact. That showed tonight.”
On adjusting offensively:
“The game will tell you what to do. Each game will be different, but as we get more and more comfortable, it’ll get better and better.”
On playing together:
“Always play together. That’s the key to what we do. Always play together.”
Miles McBride
On defensive pressure:
“We really want to get out into the open court and speed teams up. Us starting at 94 feet forces teams to get into their offense a lot slower, speeds guys up. We have a lot of length and guys who can defend, so we want to play to our advantage.”
Jordan Clarkson
On his style:
“I’ve always been into fashion, and my style sense has always been ‘no boundaries.’”
On joining the Knicks:
“I was super-shocked, but also ecstatic and excited. LA gave me the chance to play in one of the league’s biggest markets; in Cleveland I got to be teammates with LeBron James. Then going to Utah, it was a small market, but I was able to make noise and win games and help that organization really stand out.”
On his Knicks teammates:
“I’m cool with Josh, I’m cool with Jalen, KMac is also from San Antonio…. At the same time, I’m the oldest dude on the team.”
On New York:
“Seeing diverse cultures and all the people that are here in the city, it’s kind of amazing. It’s not kind of amazing, it is amazing. It’s electric.”
On food and home:
“Once I find some good chicken adobo and some lumpia, I’ll be straight.”
On tattoos and storytelling:
“I don’t really talk much, so I feel like when people see my tattoos, they’re reading my story on my body.”
On his daughter Cali:
“She’s my twin, but she is way less shy than me. Once I get comfortable with you, you’ll see the real me and I’m an open book. But in the beginning, I’m super-shy; I won’t say anything at all. She’s all, ‘Hi! What’s up? My name is Cali.’ She can start a conversation before I can. She loves to come to the games with me and be right next to me on the way in, and get photographed. You’ll continue to see us more.”
On his photoshoot:
“Today was amazing. Got to see a little bit of Brooklyn; good vibes.”
Kenny Atkinson
On selling a system:
“We’re the ultimate salesmen. That’s what NBA coaches do. If you’re going to get by, you have to sell it. I know the first couple of days I walked in and I was saying ‘do this and this differently on offense,’ there were a lot of raised eyebrows and questions. And it was like we’re going to be cutting all the time now. We’re going to the offensive boards every time? We’re all attacking the boards? That was a great mind shift. This works, when you have great leadership. It makes it so much easier. When your best players buy in, it trickles down and makes it so much easier.”
On the Knicks’ ceiling:
“Conference finalists. I mean, that’s what they were last year. That’s their history. The Cavs? We have a lot to prove. (We’re) 11–15 over the last three years in the playoffs. The Knicks have gotten to the conference finals. They’ve done it. We’ve got to get out of the second round first before we start talking all these expectations. We have a lot to prove.”
Jamal Crawford
On his Sixth Man of the Year prediction:
“I like Jordan Clarkson in New York. The formula is that you can be successful off the bench or in any role, but for an award, you need team success. I think the Knicks are primed to make a run in the East, with the injuries in Boston and Indiana. New York have a new coach and I think he’s going to utilize the bench a lot. I think Jordan Clarkson will have the green light to do what he does. I think he’ll be like a sixth starter. He’ll have the numbers and the wins, and he’s won it before. When you do well in that market, everything is amplified, so I’ve got Jordan Clarkson winning this year.”
Tom Thibodeau (via Source)
On his firing:
“In their world, the players were 51–0 and Tom was 0–31… He also had a sense of betrayal. When you find out that people you helped either weren’t with you in the end or didn’t fight for you like you fought for them, that stings.”