"Knicks captain Jalen Brunson called a players-only meeting after New York was blown out at home by the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night, sources told ESPN.

Brunson's message to teammates after their ninth loss in 11 games, according to multiple sources, was that the Knicks needed to find answers for their poor play in January among themselves, rather than look to the coaching staff for solutions.

After a strong 23-9 start to the season, including winning the NBA Cup, the Knicks have fallen to 25-18 as their offense has sputtered to the bottom five in the league in January.

After fans at Madison Square Garden roundly booed the home team as it trailed 75-45 at halftime, Brunson told reporters, "As a team we know what we have to do. It's either we do it, we care enough to do it, or we don't."

Afterward, he was concerned enough about the situation to call the meeting and make clear to his teammates that the answers for their recent struggles were to be found within the walls of the locker room.

"We all need to do some soul-searching," Knicks forward Josh Hart said after the game. "Right now we're playing embarrassing basketball. We're not executing on the offensive end. Defensively, we've been abysmal. We've been terrible defensively all year.""

Source: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/47674001/jalen-brunson-calls-players-only-meeting-amid-knicks-struggles-sources-say

27 comments

  2. We’re so back

    (Ignore the fact this dumbass team had a players only meeting 2 weeks ago)

  7. lol if the messaging is not look at coaching for solutions then that’s a ringing endorsement of Mike brown.

  14. Why did they get rid of Thibs? I thought they were so bought in as a team to Thibs message and coaching.

    Especially after reaching the highs they reached, and looking to get even further especially after more time gel-ing together, firing Thibs was the last thing I thought they’d do. And if you’re gonna fire someone that brought an entire CULTURE CHANGE for your team, the replacement should be someone with more potential to unlock the team, not Mike Brown

    It’s criminal what the fucking Knicks front office did. I guarantee 100000% that they’d be doing MUCH MUCH better with Thibs right now, it’s frustrating to see as a neutral watcher for them

  15. He just wants to say bye to some of those bums before they get traded. Mamba mentality.

  16. Everyone hates on Thibs but he continues to prove that he can get the most out of his teams.

  17. I haven’t watched much Knicks basketball this season. Was firing Thibs a mistake?

  18. I think that honestly this was kinda foreseeable. KAT signaled prior to the season that he didn’t actually understand how he was going to be used and it was waaaaay too close to the season opener to be indicating that level of disorganisation, and looking at the way Brown is coaching he just doesn’t seem to be in charge at all. It was a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad coaching hire at the time and it’s played out roughly how I would expect.

  20. It’s sad that they’re struggling in a season where the East looks open and the biggest contenders from previous seasons are either struggling or injured. This season may be their best chance to win a ring.

  27. Brunson: As I have mentioned last time. The In season tournament is actually not the championship.

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