The wait is over, and the Knicks will finally play JV basketball today when they face the Nets.
New York has defeated Brooklyn four consecutive times, all of them last season, following the trade for Mikal Bridges. The overall streak? _NYK W10_. Uh, oh.
Here’s the latest we heard at the practices held at Tarrytown on Friday and Saturday.
**_On using practice time effectively:_**
“You usually don’t have practice time like this so you try to take advantage of it as best as possible. There’s a lot that we still need to clean up and get better at, and we’re trying to introduce things slowly. A lot of it I didn’t do during the preseason. We just played out of our foundation so that they could start understanding how to play the game of basketball on both sides of the floor and not rely on any tricks or anything like that.”
**_On bringing joy and fun into the season:_**
“It’s extremely important. One of our values is joy. One of our principles or rules is to have fun. If you’re gonna preach something or say something, you gotta be about it. We try to find different ways to find that joy or to try to help our players have fun, because the season can be long and it can be monotonous. Sometimes when it’s that way, it can get boring.”
**_On recognizing defensive contributions:_**
“You’re gonna recognize who scored 30 or who had 15 assists or 15 rebounds. Sometimes, it’s about ‘OK, who came in and changed the game defensively? Who guarded the ball well? Who got a ton of deflections that you guys might not be charting? Who challenged shots better than anyone else or who took two charges that game?’ We wanna give those guys some recognition because we want people to understand it’s not just about the guy that scored 30 or had 15 assists. There are other guys contributing in other ways that we all need to take a look at. So we just try to shine a light a little extra brighter to help everyone understand it’s a team game.”
**_On learning player communication by mentors Kerr and Popovich:_**
“(Steve Kerr and Gregg Popovich) were the best communicators I’ve been around. It just seems really natural for them, and I don’t think they ever felt that you can over-communicate. So I try to take that from both of them. And I’m human, I’m gonna make mistakes and forget about this or forget about that or don’t do this or don’t do that, but I try to communicate as best I can with guys whether it’s in practice, shootaround or even over the course of a game. Because guys have questions. Everybody has questions all the time and sometimes they may not want to ask because they may not feel it’s appropriate, so I try to be proactive in just letting them know what’s going on to erase any doubt that they have in their mind.”
**_On his leadership philosophy:_**
“Basically what it is, is as a leader, you’ve gotta give hope while defining reality. So it doesn’t matter who it is, you’ve gotta keep it real with them. If somebody goes left or right or off, you’ve gotta tell them the truth, and there’s different ways of telling the truth. Sometimes you may have to yell. Sometimes you may just have to talk. Sometimes you may ask them, ‘Should you have done this or that?’ But you’ve got to define reality and keep it real with everybody so that guys know we’re all in this together.”
**_On developing chemistry with OG Anunoby:_**
“I think we have a synergy. It’s just trying to play the right way and doing what we do defensively and trying to make the right play and be aggressive. When it comes down to me and OG, we started to get that synergy. It’s starting to happen. Especially in this defense where we’re shifting and stuff like that. With OG, we’re starting to randomly figure each other out. It sometimes just takes time. No matter how close we are off the court, it takes time defensively. You just need reps. I think it’s starting to come to fruition for me and him. I think it’s just understanding each other.”
**_On Mike Brown’s accountability style:_**
“He holds guys accountable, but he doesn’t really yell. He gets on you, but it’s all love and it’s all things you know you should be doing. You kind of know what you should be doing better. He’s just talking to you. For anybody, you can be the best player or the youngest player on the team. He’s going to set you straight every single guy, don’t let nobody off the hook. I think it just shows a lot.”
**_On Mike Brown’s teaching style and reminders:_**
“Sometimes even if you didn’t do anything wrong, Mike does a great job of that. For example, in the game, I think he was taking me out and telling me what the minutes were going to be. He kind of let me know, ‘I’m taking you out right now not because you did anything wrong — it’s just that we’re putting you back at this moment.’ It’s just communication. Sometimes you can be playing hard and you don’t know if you messed up on a couple of things. If you get taken out, you’re kind of looking around, and it’s like, ‘Did I do something wrong?’ Verbalizing that gives you confidence. You’re not wondering.”
**_On establishing a new Knicks tradition with the postgame defensive award:_**
“It’s dope, man. I think sometimes because it’s a defensive thing, and you can be upset with yourself on the offensive end, but you play a helluva job on defense and your coaches are going to reward you with that. I think it’s a thing that helps with the mental. We all want to contribute on both ends. To have that for coaches to showcase and put the light on you — there’s games where things might not be going your way offensively but at least you are doing all the right things defensively.”
**_On starting strong at home, where the Knicks are 5-0:_**
“It means everything. That’s why you fight for home-court advantage in the playoffs. You want to be the best in front of your fans and you want to protect home at all costs. So for us to start 5–0 is great, but we’ve got a lot more work to do. There’s 82 games in a season, so we’re not satisfied with the five wins.”
**_On Mike Brown’s unique approach:_**
“The experiences are always different, but Mike is different from any coach I’ve ever dealt with, and his system is different than I’ve ever dealt with. But every coach has their different quirks that make them who they are.”
**_On using this week’s time off to reset:_**
“We just get some rest, see family, recharge, just get your priorities and everything straight and take care of your family. People have kids and lives outside of basketball, obviously, so just get to regroup a little bit.”
**_On Mike Brown’s accountability style:_**
“We have not provoked him enough to make him yell at us yet. He definitely holds people accountable, right then and there. We appreciate that. That’s gonna help us get better.”
**_On Mike Brown’s demeanor:_**
“Nah, he’s not really a screamer. I think he’ll do a good job of holding you accountable.”