00:00Two of the biggest and baddest teams in the East are going head-to-head to kick off the Knicks season.
00:04New York basketball is back, but what's this offense going to look like in tonight's matchup against the Cavs?
00:11Your guess is as good as mine, y'all, so let's talk some Knicks basketball with Alex Chotero, some Knicks fan TV.
00:18Alex, it is here. Basketball back at the Garden. What's going on, my man?
00:24Brandon, what's going on, my man? Basketball is back. New York is up and excited.
00:30I mean, hopefully this team, you know, Yankees disappointed, Mets disappointed, Jets and Giants are over the place,
00:36but we got hope for the New York Knicks, my man. We got hope for the New York Knicks.
00:39And Jackson Dart kind of threw y'all a oop with the excitement, so y'all can kind of catch that, lob city that, and run with it.
00:46Speaking of dunks, lob city, and scoring points, Carl Anthony Towns said on Monday he's kind of unsure of his role in Mike Brown's new offense.
00:54You think he's just saying that to keep things under wraps and in-house until it's time?
00:59Because Mike Brown didn't really show much during the preseason, so what changes do you think we're going to see in this new Knicks offense this year?
01:07I think he's being somewhat honest, man. I think there's always a little bit of gazemanship to, you know, say,
01:12hey, we're not, you know, we don't want to give you too much information, so that way you can game plan for us.
01:18But I think he's also, you know, slightly uncertain. Not fully uncertain, but slightly uncertain.
01:23Look, when you've got a new head coach, he's going to talk about his principles, his new theories that he wants to implement for this offense
01:29and just for the entire team overall.
01:31But when you think about Carl Anthony Towns and how he plays, a slow, methodical way and really getting to his spots on the floor,
01:38whether that be in the post, whether that's just being a trailer and knocking down threes,
01:42he's not really an up-tempo type of guy, which we've seen Mike Brown wanting to run when he was out in Sacramento, right?
01:49We see that you have De'Aaron Fox. We see that you have DeMontis Sabonis, guys that are constantly making quick decisions.
01:55Sabonis, who's a quick decision maker with the ball and knows how to pass very well, one of the top passing centers in the league.
02:01And I think for Towns, that's not really who he is. We always know him as a scorer, right?
02:06So I think understanding what Mike Brown wants him to do and how he wants him to contribute to this offense,
02:12I think there's a little bit of truth to that because is he going to have to be more of a passer,
02:16like work from the high post like Sabonis?
02:17Is he going to have to put up more threes, something that he didn't really do much last year?
02:20Is he going to have to be running down the court and getting down to the corner
02:23or just flying up and playing a high-tempo offense, which really hasn't been his style in Minnesota or in New York?
02:30So I think he's a little like ā I think he's still trying to figure out where it's going to fall in.
02:34And look, man, that's just for the entire team in general, right, where new system, new schematics,
02:39everyone's just going to be trying to figure out their own role, even with someone like Jalen Brunson.
02:42All right. We'll put a question mark in the asterisk by that
02:46because, you know, the Knicks fans, they don't have patience for all that.
02:49And you talk about the entire team overall.
02:52The added depth to the roster was pretty much what everyone was talking about the most this offseason.
02:58So which guys do you think is going to benefit from this new Mike Brown offense
03:03with all the question marks using a deeper bench and rotation?
03:07I think Mikael Bridges is someone who's going to benefit a lot more.
03:12We saw last year he had a heavy workload of being the primary, you know, defender
03:18when it came to the point of attack on defense.
03:20The guy was also really like a third, fourth option, just kind of tucked away by Tom Thibodeau,
03:27not really utilized as an initiator as we saw out in Brooklyn,
03:30and was more utilized as that 3-and-D type player that we saw out in Phoenix.
03:35And I think, you know, being out in summer league
03:38and seeing him being next to Mike Brown consistently,
03:41there's certainly, you can see that there's a level of trust,
03:44even by the comments that you see Bridges is making right now,
03:48that there's a level of comfort that I think we haven't seen from Bridges last season.
03:52And just even through the preseason games,
03:54we see that he's given a little bit more responsibilities to, you know,
03:57bring the rock up, facilitate the offense,
04:00get into a more smooth, just transition of his game.
04:04And I think he's going to be the one that takes the biggest step forward in this as well.
04:08And, you know what, I'll also throw in there Deuce McBride, man.
04:12I feel like we're going to see a little bit of him get more love as well this season,
04:15just because I think that we're playing next to Jordan Clarkson
04:19and the up-tempo pace and having somebody who can create
04:22is going to create even more shot opportunities for him.
04:25You mentioned a potential superstar,
04:27and you mentioned a potential candidate for sixth man of the year.
04:31So Mike Brown is walking into, I guess, what we can all agree upon
04:36as a finished product when it comes to the roster.
04:39They added some to that, and we know that there's always growing pains
04:43when it comes to a new coach coming in, stepping in, and implementing his culture.
04:48So how patient do you think Knicks fans are going to be with Brown,
04:52this offense, and this squad overall?
04:54Man, I love Knicks Nation, man.
05:00Say it with your chest, but say it with your chest.
05:01I love Knicks Nation, man.
05:02I love them.
05:03I love how, you know, there's always a fever when you're talking to the fan base, man.
05:08We love this team so much.
05:09We're waiting to just bask in the glory of this team potentially winning a championship.
05:14But look, if they're going to get out to a slow start, you know,
05:17I think we're going to see some fans who will be understanding, saying,
05:20hey, this is a new head coach.
05:21This is a new roster.
05:22There's a lot more players on this team that need to eat, right?
05:25Last year was just a very top-heavy team.
05:27Now you add Jordan Clarkson, another guy who needs to shoot.
05:29McBride, look, this is the second year of his three-year contract extension that he got,
05:33and he's looking ahead to his future.
05:34So he's got to make sure he's got his production numbers up.
05:37Gerson Yabaselli, that's another guy who's going to have to get his shots up as well.
05:40And so you just keep going down the list, and there's guys who,
05:43for a high-octane offense, were projected to have.
05:45A lot of guys got to be able to feast in.
05:47If you're talking about a 100-possession game,
05:48not necessarily a lot to go around unless you play to that up-tempo style that Mike Brown wants.
05:53So my point being, I can see it being a little slow because there's a lot of guys
05:59that you're now incorporating into this recipe.
06:04So for me, I'm okay with understanding that, hey, 25, 30 games,
06:09there's going to be some ups and downs, ebbs and flows for these guys getting into a rhythm
06:13just because of everything that's happened.
06:15New players, new system.
06:15I get all that.
06:17For the Knicks fans, man, you know it's going to be jumping off the building
06:19just being like, what is going on?
06:22We're not doing it, man.
06:23What's happening?
06:23That's just how it is, man.
06:25And that's New York for you in a microcosm.
06:28So I hope they're understanding, but I also know the reality is that
06:33if things start going a little sideways to start off,
06:37I don't know if there's going to be enough rational people out there in Knicks fandom.
06:43We're going to be doing a lot of these and responding to a lot of hot takes.
06:46And I guess the players on this team, they're going to have to realize
06:49everybody can't eat, but everybody can at least appetize.
06:52You got to get that sampler.
06:54You know, it's got a little bit of the quesadillas in there,
06:57the wings, bone in, bone out, mozzarella sticks.
07:00Everybody can appetize, but not everybody can eat.
07:0353 and a half wins is what I recently saw with the over-under.
07:08Are you taking the over or under in the wins?
07:13I'm taking the over, and I'm not taking it by much.
07:15It's probably like 55 wins I expect this team to get.
07:18You got the talent.
07:19You got the depth.
07:20You should be able to do that, you know, much different than last year.
07:24And we were able to meet that mark last year with a top-heavy roster.
07:27So I expect them to do that.
07:29I don't expect it to get much higher because I think this team is going to pace themselves.
07:32Let's look at even tonight's game where you don't have Josh Hart
07:34and Mitchell Robinson are playing tonight.
07:36You know, shout out to CP, creator, founder of Knicks Fan TV, said, you know,
07:41if this game was like a must-do game, we'd probably see them out there,
07:45but managing health for the long-term effect of these two players for the 82-game regular season.
07:51I think that's what we're going to see throughout this season, too,
07:53is that there's going to be a lot of managing because we're not trying to win the regular season.
07:59You know, if it was Tom Thibodeau, we're aiming for 82 wins, man.
08:02But with this roster, with the expectation for this season, with how Leon Rose wrote it saying
08:07championship is really the sole focus of this franchise, then I expect them to do enough to be top two.
08:14So that way they get home court advantage for at least the first two rounds of the playoffs.
08:18You know, but besides that, the biggest goal is to keep all these guys healthy.
08:22I mean, we saw how impactful Mitchell Robinson was last season defensively.
08:27You know, Jalen Brown's wondering how the Knicks won that second round,
08:30but then you go watch that film of Mitchell Robinson just circling and covering,
08:34you know, all five players in one minute and then getting the steal,
08:37you see how much of an impactful player he is, man.
08:39So knowing his injury history, seeing, you know, Josh Hart's thumb,
08:43and even if you think about OGN and OB's injury history, it's the long game.
08:49Let's make sure these guys are healthy.
08:50Postseason is the most important thing possible.
08:52Well, one of 82 kicks off tonight.
08:55Appreciate you hopping on with us early this morning, Alex.
08:57You know we're going to be coming back to you throughout the course of the season, man.
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