A pair of Timberland boots. A building helmet. An orange vest. And, in fact, a walk-out tune.
That’s how Mike Brown’s teaching workers celebrates the Knicks’ defensive participant of the sport after every win this season.
New York entered Sunday’s 6 p.m. matchup towards the Brooklyn Nets (1-8) at 5-3, that means 5 gamers have already worn the complete “lockdown” outfit: OG Anunoby has earned the consideration twice, whereas Josh Hart, Miles McBride and Jordan Clarkson have every claimed it as soon as.
“It’s extremely important. One of our values is joy. One of our principles or rules is to have fun,” Brown stated after observe on the crew’s Tarrytown facility on Saturday. “For those who’re gonna preach one thing or say one thing, 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.”
Mikal Bridges hasn’t but earned the defensive award, however he says the custom retains morale excessive — particularly for gamers whose defensive effort doesn’t at all times present up within the field rating.
“It’s dope, man,” Bridges stated Saturday. “I believe generally as a result of it’s a defensive factor, and you’ll be upset with your self on the offensive finish, however you play a helluva job on protection 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.”
Right here’s the way it works: after every win, Brown calls a reputation and an assistant hits the participant’s walk-out tune. Mitchell Robinson will get nation. Anunoby will get Afrobeats. If Brown have been to win the consideration, his walk-out would both be nation or old-school rap. The chosen participant then throws on the vest and laborious hat, drapes the Timbs round his neck like a sequence, and poses with teammates for a crew photograph posted to social media.
“They’re human, they’re not superhuman,” Brown stated. “Even though we all think they should be because of the money they get paid and we put them on a pedestal. But they wanna have fun — it’s a kids’ game. Any way we can help bring that out of them, we try to do it. That’s one of the ways we thought of.”
The thought additionally shines a lightweight on the gamers who influence successful with out filling up the standard stat sheet.
“You’re gonna recognize who scored 30 or who had 15 assists or 15 rebounds,” Brown stated. “Typically, 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.”
PROTECTING HOME COURT
The Knicks are 5-0 at Madison Sq. Backyard — tied with Denver and Chicago for essentially the most house wins amongst groups nonetheless undefeated in their very own constructing.
For All-Star heart Karl-Anthony Cities, that stat means one thing.
“It means everything. That’s why you fight for home-court advantage in the playoffs,” Cities stated. “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.”
RARE CHANCE TO RECHARGE
The Knicks are additionally benefitting from a uncommon break in an in any other case jam-packed schedule: three full days off between video games, with back-to-back practices main as much as Sunday’s tip.
Cities stated the break day is as a lot about restoration as reflection.
“We just get some rest, see family, recharge, just get your priorities and everything straight and take care of your family,” he stated. “People have kids and lives outside of basketball, obviously, so just get to regroup a little bit.”
Brown stated his workers used the additional observe time to tighten execution and revisit fundamentals that slipped early within the season.
“You don’t get practice time like this, so you try to take advantage of it as best as possible,” he stated. “There’s rather a lot we nonetheless want to wash up and get higher at, and we’re attempting to introduce issues 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 on both sides of the floor — not rely on any tricks or anything like that.”
