All of the early buzz round new Knicks head coach Mike Brown has centered round his offense — the tempo, the spacing, the West Coast taste imported from Golden State and Sacramento.
However Brown’s ambitions for the Knicks aren’t one-dimensional. He believes he’s laying the blueprint for New York to be dwelling to an elite on crew on each offense and protection in Yr 1.
“Do we think we can be a great defensive team? Yes. Do I think we can be a great offensive team? Yes,” Brown mentioned after apply Tuesday in Tarrytown. “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.”
Brown calls them his staples. On offense: tempo, spacing, paint touches, spray-outs, and ball reversals. On protection: strain—extra exercise on the level of assault, much less sitting again in a shell.
The brand new Knicks coach is constructing a system designed to maintain opponents consistently reacting, one able to pushing New York into the higher echelon on each ends of the courtroom.
“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,’” Brown mentioned. “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.”
The numbers show Brown’s level.
Oklahoma Metropolis ranked third in offense and first in protection on the best way to final 12 months’s championship. The Boston Celtics, who gained all of it in 2024, completed first and second in these classes. Nikola Jokić’s 2023 Nuggets have been the lone exception this decade — fifth in offense, fifteenth in protection. Earlier than them got here the Warriors (first in offense, second in protection) and Bucks (fifth and ninth), each wired to dominate from both finish.
And whereas the Knicks completed with the league’s fifth-ranked offense in Tom Thibodeau’s remaining season, their protection slipped to thirteenth—a quantity skewed by Mitchell Robinson lacking 65 video games with ankle accidents. The 12 months earlier than, they have been one in every of only some groups to crack the highest 10 in each, rating seventh in offense and ninth in protection, earlier than doubling down that summer time with blockbuster trades for Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Cities.
Brown doesn’t count on issues to look excellent straight away.
The Knicks open towards a gauntlet of Japanese Convention heavyweights — the 64-win Cleveland Cavaliers on opening evening, then the Boston Celtics, adopted by a street swing by way of Miami, Milwaukee, and Chicago. It’s an early stress take a look at for a crew nonetheless studying its identification below a brand new coach.
Brown is aware of the offense will want time to click on, however he’ll lean on one thing he inherited: continuity.
Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Miles McBride, and Mitchell Robinson are getting into their fourth season collectively. OG Anunoby joins them for Yr 3, whereas Cities and Bridges start Yr 2 in New York.
And naturally, Brunson, Bridges, and Hart share a good deeper bond — the 2018 Villanova nationwide championship that constructed their basketball chemistry lengthy earlier than MSG.
The Knicks should still be getting snug with Brown’s system, however one benefit is already in place: they know one another.
“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,” Bridges mentioned after apply Wednesday. “I do know the issues KAT likes to do, I do know the issues OG likes to do, I do know the issues Lil Tyler [Kolek] likes to do, Landry [Shamet], Josh, Mitch — I may go on and on, particularly in Yr 2.
“It’s gonna take time with the new guys, but having a year under the belt is really helpful.”
That familiarity, Brown believes, will assist bridge the hole as gamers be taught his playbook in actual time. That is largely the identical crew that’s gained 50 video games in back-to-back seasons and simply punched a ticket to the Japanese Convention Finals.
Brown going to belief his gamers’ instincts could make up for the inevitable early miscues the Knicks have 82 video games to work by way of earlier than each the stakes and temperature elevate in New York Metropolis.
“They’ve earned that right for me to have that trust,” Brown mentioned on Tuesday. “I don’t have all of the solutions. I’ll be the primary to confess it. Imma be unsuitable typically and similar to after I’m unsuitable, hopefully any individual holds me accountable and I’ll be taught and develop 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.”
