No more preseason play for the New York Knicks after they capped their exhibition tour with a 4-1 record.
The next time you watch your Knickerbockers play basketball will be Wednesday, when they take on the Cleveland Wannabe-Knicks.
Here’s the latest we’ve heard from Coach Brown and a couple players.
On Mitchell Robinson and preseason injuries:
“Mitch (was) out, load management, and then the other three guys we’re just being a little cautious with.”
On not having the full roster available during preseason:
”I would love to have everyone together, especially trying to play the way we’re playing with it being new to everybody, but it is what it is and we’ve still gotta go and win games.
Whether we had everyone or we didn’t [it’s important] for us to understand, ‘Hey this thing is going to be a marathon. It’s not a sprint.’ It’s not being at our peak on opening night. You’re always hoping and wishing you are, but they’re fighting their tail off. They’re learning quickly. They’re actually a little ahead of where I thought we’d be at this point.”
On final roster decisions:
”The door’s always open for a guy to gain an opportunity.
But the whole time, myself and [team president] Leon [Rose] and his group, we’ve been having discussions. Our minds change, just like everyone else’s minds change from time to time. But we’ll get through tonight and then take a little bit more time and then make the decision.”
On building rhythm entering the regular season:
”I’d love to have everyone together, especially trying to play the way we’re playing — it’s new to everybody.
But it is what it is. Whether we had everyone or not, this is a marathon, not a sprint. You hope to be sharp by opening night, but the goal is to keep moving forward.”
On injuries impact on his plans and the team progression:
”They’re learning quickly — actually a little ahead of where I thought we’d be.
But the guys who’ve been out, they’re the key pieces to what we’re trying to do. They haven’t gotten the reps, and for us to jell from top to bottom is gonna take more time than I thought, probably because of the injuries.
We’ve got capable guys ready to play when their numbers are called, and that’s what I’m looking forward to seeing.”
”I’ve said this before: any time you’re missing guys, it’s next man up.
Knock on wood, we could be missing guys during the season. So this is just another opportunity for players to step up and get a chance to play. We’ll go out and play with who’s available.”
On Mitchell Robinson’s availability:
“If it was a regular-season game — or a playoff game — to my understanding, Mitch was going to play.”
On what he saw from the team in the final preseason game:
”I thought we did some pretty good things tonight, especially starting two young guys in [Mohamed Diawara] and [Trey Jemison], but we played in spurts too many times.
We just gotta be a little more consistent with what we’re doing. And if we do, we’re gonna have a chance to be pretty good.”
On Jalen Brunson’s leadership:
”Great, great person. On top of that, his work ethic, I’ve been around some great ones, and his work ethic is right up there with them, if not exceeding some of them. That in itself gives him an opportunity to lead by example.
Now you factor in the fact that he’s not afraid to speak up, because if you’re in a leadership role, not everybody’s gonna like you all the time, and you have to be conscious of it.
But at times you gotta be direct because you don’t have time to beat around the bush and people have to feel that when you say something, not only do you believe in it, but you want them to believe in it as well. Definitely not afraid to use his voice. And I love him.”
On system execution and Jalen Brunson’s role:
”It’s gonna take some time for us to really, really click.
But you could see there are signs of it when we play with pace, not just in the full court, but naturally in the half court when the floor is spaced in the right way and we can get some easy shots, based on the talent that we have on this team if we keep the game simple and it starts with Jalen having a good feel, which he does, and just playing basketball from there.”
On Mikal Bridges’ impact:
”Mikal, he was really good.
He had six deflections in his minutes and a couple steals; both those guys got 50/50 balls, we won the battle in that area.”
On Mikal Bridges’ defensive intangibles:
”Mikal’s next play speed is unbelievable.
If a turnover happens or an offensive rebound happens, he does not hesitate, take an extra step in the opposite direction of the ball, right away, his change of direction and the flip of a switch from offense to defense is amazing. Probably one of the best I’ve been around.
And for him to get a couple of blocks the way he did, that’s just a testament to what he can do defensively, and I hope everybody is watching those small things that don’t always show up in the stat sheet because he’s a first-team all-defender. It’s evident.
There’s no question in my mind what he does out on the floor. And it’s a lot of the little things that he does that I hope don’t go unnoticed.”
On hoping for a close game to assess rotations:
”Don’t tell the players you said this, there was a part of me that hoped the game was a little close.
If it was a blowout, if we were getting our behind kicked or we were kicking their behind, then I would’ve been in a dilemma. I wanted Jalen and Mikal to play 34 minutes regardless. So it was a good enough game on our part and Charlotte’s part for it to happen.”
On how many players he planned to play:
”I went in wanting to play 10 guys, to take a look at 10 guys.
I have a minutes sheet I did, and I wanted to try to play the guys that I wanted to just take a look at.”
”I think for us, as long as we’re moving forward every step of the way and getting better every single day, that’s where we want to be.
We don’t want to be plateaued, we don’t want to be one spot. We want to continue to get better every day. And there are going to be days where we don’t get better and we play bad and we take steps back, but it’s all about how we progress and move forward. So I mean, we’re not where we want to be, but we’re going to work to get there and continue to get better.”
On playing regular-season minutes in the preseason finale:
“It felt good. Got my rest last game, and I was scheduled to play tonight and played.”
On why preseason reps matter:
”This is the best type of experience you can get.
You could do all the stuff in practice you want, or whatever, as much as you try to simulate it, it’s not game reps.”
On where the team stands:
”We have a lot to do to be where we want to be.
It’s all gonna come down to how hard we work, how much we’re willing to sacrifice, and just staying together through the ups and downs.”
On his love for DK Metcalf:
“Russell Wilson threw an interception at the goal line. If you watch DK Metcalf, it was bam, right now. He went from possibly catching the ball or scoring a touchdown, then an interception happened. He didn’t hesitate, didn’t step toward the sideline — it was right now.
Every time I watch it, I get goosebumps. I’ve watched it probably 100 times.”
On the state of the team heading into the regular season:
”We’re still learning each other.
Still learning the system. Obviously, we still got a lot of guys out. So, I think it’ll be better once we get our full team back, and get our full rhythm.”
On the identity the team is trying to build:
”We’re still trying to figure out who we are.
Obviously we’re missing some key guys, but I think we’re starting to get a little bit of a rhythm. But it’s going to take time, and we just gotta keep working at it.”
On playing through defensive lapses:
”We can’t let our offense affect our defense.
We gotta find ways to be solid on defense even if shots aren’t falling.”