{"id":257785,"date":"2025-08-29T23:06:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T23:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/257785\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T23:06:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T23:06:09","slug":"knicks-notes-robinson-brunson-mcbride-thibodeau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/257785\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks Notes: Robinson, Brunson, McBride, Thibodeau"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Knicks took care of a lot of business this summer, extending<\/a> Mikal Bridges<\/a>, hiring Mike Brown, and adding Guerschon Yabusele<\/a> and Jordan Clarkson<\/a> in free agency. But one area that wasn\u2019t addressed is the upcoming free agency of center Mitchell Robinson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a mailbag for The Athletic, James Edwards III discusses<\/a> the Robinson conundrum for the Knicks, which revolves around both the immense value he has displayed for the team in back-to-back playoff runs, as well as the injury concerns that have limited him to just 48 games over the last two regular seasons.<\/p>\n

Edwards writes that his sense is that the Knicks would be interested in a team-friendly extension, but if Robinson wants to bet on himself, that could complicate extension talks. He also notes that should the center stay healthy during the first half of the season, the Knicks could consider trading him for value rather than risk losing him in free agency.<\/p>\n

We have more from the Knicks:<\/p>\n

The addition of Brown is expected to bring more balance and structure to players\u2019 roles, Bondy writes, and to increase the pace with which the team plays. One area where that could present itself is in the approach of star Jalen Brunson<\/a>. Bondy notes that Brunson held the ball longer than any player in the NBA last season, with an average of 6.06 seconds per touch. He compares that to Tyrese Haliburton<\/a>, who averaged just 3.65 seconds per touch. While Brunson is undeniably elite with the ball in his hand, encouraging him to make quicker decisions, especially when it comes to finding Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> along the perimeter, could help energize the offense and introduce more unpredictability.
\nOne player who could see an uptick in responsibility this season is Miles McBride<\/a>, writes Stefan Bondy of the New York Post<\/a>. Bondy notes that Bridges struggled in his role as the primary point-of-attack defender last season, as he found himself less able to stay in front of high-level ball-handlers, a role McBride is perfectly suited to. Having McBride take primary guard matchups would allow Bridges to slot in as a tertiary defender while not forcing Jalen Brunson into defensive matchups he would struggle with. Bondy notes that former head coach Tom Thibodeau was reluctant to play McBride with Brunson, likely due to size concerns, but that Brown might be more open to the idea.
\nAt least one prominent coach is still grappling with the Knicks\u2019 firing of Thibodeau, Bondy writes<\/a>, citing recent comments by Clippers head coach Ty Lue. \u201cShould he have been fired? Hell no,\u201d Lue said on the Club Shay Shay podcast. \u201cThe players did a hell of a job. And Thibs did a hell of a job. And to take a team to their first [conference finals] in 25 years and then get fired, like, it just doesn\u2019t make sense.\u201d\u00a0Lue also believes that the circumstances around Thibodeau\u2019s firing and the expectations conveyed by the front office make for a difficult situation for Brown. \u201cThat\u2019s a tough spot to be in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Knicks took care of a lot of business this summer, extending Mikal Bridges, hiring Mike Brown, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,288,304,3357,2715,1247,6,1136,191,3810,3806,1416],"class_list":{"0":"post-257785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-jalen-brunson","10":"tag-knicks","11":"tag-mike-brown","12":"tag-miles-mcbride","13":"tag-mitchell-robinson","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-knicks","17":"tag-newyork","18":"tag-newyorkknicks","19":"tag-tom-thibodeau"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115114566394338411","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}