{"id":715900,"date":"2026-04-22T13:57:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T13:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/715900\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T13:57:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T13:57:30","slug":"knicks-are-getting-burned-by-a-problem-they-never-solved-at-the-worst-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/715900\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks are getting burned by a problem they never solved at the worst time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Brown\u2019s attempt to increase the amount of time Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns spend together on the floor is, in many ways, admirable. And it\u2019s definitely a harbinger of hope for <\/a>the duo\u2019s partnership. The problem is, the New York Knicks aren\u2019t built for no-star stretches\u2014not consistently anyway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s coming back to haunt them in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

The Knicks knew all this entering this season. Tyler Kolek had a few shining moments, but wasn\u2019t ready. Deuce McBride and Jordan Clarkson are not hard-wired to run the offense without another primary ball-handler on the floor. Malcolm Brogdon was at one point favored to make the roster largely to help fill this void, and ended up retiring. That left New York with nothing and no one to meaningfully, consistently facilitate zero-star stretches.<\/p>\n

Nothing changed ahead of the trade deadline. Yet, for all the talk about how the Knicks needed a backup floor general, they acquired Jose Alvarado\u2014an undersized defensive pest who\u2019s easy to love, and who might even need more playing time<\/a> against the Atlanta Hawks, but who\u2019s not an offensive organizer capable of regularly directing the offense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s on Brown to react accordingly. Whether he will is a separate matter.<\/p>\n

Mike Brown needs to walk back the Brunson-KAT minutes<\/p>\n

Following a Game 2 loss in which the Knicks melted away down the stretch, Brown sounded like someone slightly disconnected from reality, suggesting that the team didn\u2019t crumble<\/a> because of those no-star minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is to some extent accurate. New York had other opportunities to win the game, and a timeout mishap<\/a> for which Brown is responsible now looms large. But his assertion about the no-JB-or-KAT lineups isn\u2019t true.<\/p>\n

Though the Knicks were a plus-one during those stretches in Game 1, they lost the no-star minutes by seven points in Game 2\u2014a huge deal when we\u2019re talking about a one-point margin overall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, this isn\u2019t an anomaly. It\u2019s standard fare. Across both the regular season and playoffs, New York has lost the 492 total minutes<\/a> it\u2019s played without both KAT and JB by 37 points.<\/p>\n

Not at all shockingly, the offense is to blame. The Knicks are posting under 1.07 points per possession during these stretches\u2014the equivalent of the NBA\u2019s worst attack. As much as Brown may believe his two best players are most dialed into one another when they log more time together, New York doesn\u2019t have the personnel to avoid staggering them.<\/p>\n

The Knicks should have swung bigger at the trade deadline<\/p>\n

Granted, it didn\u2019t have to be this way. The Knicks could have tried acquiring someone to help them scrape by during these no-Brunson-no-Towns stretches to start the second and fourth quarters.<\/p>\n

Alvarado was never going to be the answer. If the front office felt differently, they need a big ol\u2019 reality check. The offense has actually gotten worse<\/a> when Alvarado is on the court without JB or KAT.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t to say, explicitly, acquiring the Brooklyn native was a disaster. The Knicks didn\u2019t give up too much to land him, and the order of operations to get him<\/a> included wiping away the Guerschon Yabusele mistake from over the offseason.<\/p>\n

Still, if the goal was to maximize Brunson and Towns\u2019 time together, they needed to be prowling the market for more of a playmaker. Limited assets and all, they could have rivaled what Minnesota gave up for Ayo Dosunmu. Pushing harder for Mike Conley off the buyout market might\u2019ve done more for the offense than we\u2019re watching now. Ditto for signing the now-retired Chris Paul.<\/p>\n

No, a perfect and realistic solution wasn\u2019t in plain sight. A better one than the Knicks have now might\u2019ve been. We\u2019ll never know. In the absence of one, though, they must abandon attempts to tread water without KAT or JB on the court. Their playoff fate just might depend on it.<\/p>\n

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