Jonathan Macri reviews Mike Brown's first three games as the Knicks' head coach

New York Post

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00:00The Knicks, 2-1-1 to wrap up the first week of the season.

00:03It was all good at the Garden, but were some efficiency exposed in the road laws to Miami.

00:08Let's get a grade on the opening week with the dean of Knicks Film School

00:12and, of course, the host of the NBA Takedown, Jonathan Macri.

00:16J-Mac, what's going on, man? Let's take these people to school.

00:19Saw you on TV last night, Mr. Fancy Pants.

00:23Thanks for hanging with us, our small folk here.

00:26One week under their belt, and since hiring Mike Brown was obviously the big news in the offseason,

00:33let's start with his coaching grade three games into the season.

00:37Mike Brown gets a what?

00:40Well, I appreciate the kind words.

00:43I will pay it forward, and I will have some kind words for Mike Brown,

00:49even though they are coming off their first loss of the season.

00:51I'm going to give him an A, and maybe that is a little premature,

00:55but if we're judging Mike Brown by the things that he was brought in here to do,

01:00which is to essentially keep the Knicks with a lot of their good habits that they obviously had

01:05because they just made an Eastern Conference Finals,

01:08but instill some new habits and traits in them where they were maybe lacking last season

01:13or the last few seasons, I think he's kind of checking all the boxes.

01:17The offense looks good.

01:18You know, I know they didn't hit a lot of shots last night against the Miami Heat,

01:23but they were taking good shots, quality shots, good three-pointers.

01:26They're playing hard for him, and, you know, as I know we're going to get into in a bit,

01:32a lot of the habits that I think drove some fans a little up a wall with the last coach,

01:38he's showing progress on those, and, you know, the results haven't been perfect,

01:43but for the most part, I think these things are working.

01:46Yeah, I mean, a deeper rotation was promised,

01:49and a deeper rotation is what we've got early in the season.

01:53One thing that kind of stood out last night was when Jalen Brunson went to the bench,

01:58the Heat launched an 11-0 run, and the Knicks went four and a half minutes without scoring.

02:03So one week in, are you trusting this bench and the depth of this roster?

02:08If the bench is fully healthy or mostly healthy, I'll say, I trust it.

02:16And the guy that I'm kind of gearing my answer towards is Deuce McBride.

02:21So Deuce McBride was in the Knicks lineup for the first two games.

02:25He obviously started the second game, but he missed last night for personal reasons.

02:29I think they really felt his absence because he is kind of the glue

02:33that holds whatever lineup he's in together.

02:36Without him, there was a stretch there where they had to rely on essentially Tyler Kolek

02:43and Yabusele and Clarkson and guys like this to try to initiate offense

02:48when Brunson sat and Towns was in foul trouble.

02:51And I don't think the bench is quite good enough against a defense that like,

02:57look, Miami Heat, they're not a great defense at this point with their personnel,

03:02but they're a spoke coach team.

03:03They know what they're doing.

03:04They know how not to beat themselves, and they know how to put you in a position

03:08where you're going to have to overcome your greatest weaknesses.

03:12And the Knicks weren't able to do that because they didn't have any creation on the floor.

03:15And obviously, again, they were missing shots.

03:16So I would say I'm not concerned as of yet, but that's more of a TBD.

03:23I'm not going to give them any grade yet.

03:25So last night you think it was more of an execution thing then?

03:29It was, and, you know, look, it was a Sunday, 6 p.m. start after a Saturday night out in South Beach.

03:37Am I shocked that the Knicks missed a whole bunch of open threes

03:41and maybe weren't the quickest getting back out in transition defense,

03:46you know, which led to 31 transition points for the Miami Heat?

03:50No, I was not shocked to see that.

03:53I don't think we're going to have a repeat of that too many times.

03:58You know, that said, and I know I think we're going to get into it now,

04:01I think this team is still getting adjusted to how Mike Brown wants them to play,

04:06and I wonder how long that adjustment is going to take.

04:08I mean, what were you inferring to with these guys not getting their rest in South Beach?

04:12I played with the Dolphins.

04:14I always got my eight hours of sleep down there, kind of, sort of, maybe.

04:19You were, I mean, that's because the Dolphins were your team.

04:23You were not tempted by the fruits of what, you know, lies out there on South Beach.

04:28If you're a visiting player, maybe it's a different story.

04:30All right.

04:31Let's talk about this buy-in, though, because overall,

04:34does it look like this team has kind of bought in?

04:36Again, small sample size.

04:38And is there any concerns coming out of this first week that you feel like

04:42may be surrounding this team,

04:44or are they where you think they should be three games into the season?

04:49Yeah, I mean, look, two and one after three games,

04:51they've played three quality opponents.

04:53I think that's fine.

04:54I think their record is going to be fine over the long haul.

04:59You know, they shot 54 threes last night.

05:01To me, and a lot of people I know are concerned about that, you know,

05:06should they be taking that many threes?

05:08To me, that's the best sign that there is buy-in because we talked about it

05:13all last year.

05:14This team is filled with guys who can shoot the three pretty well,

05:18but that's not necessarily what they want to do.

05:22A lot of these guys like dribbling inside the arc.

05:25They like shooting, you know, from the short mid-range.

05:28So the fact that they went out there and for three games, really,

05:31they have, for the most part, been taking every open three available to them.

05:35I think that's a sign of buy-in.

05:37And it's also, I think you look at the results,

05:39they are one of the bottom five three-point shooting teams in the league

05:41by percentage.

05:43That's a sign that maybe, again,

05:44we need to give them a little bit more time to adjust to that.

05:48The one guy that I do have my eye on,

05:50and I have been accused of being overly critical of this player in the past,

05:54so I'll put that out there,

05:56is Carl Anthony Towns because he has been a guy who, you know,

06:00I always say he doesn't want to, you know,

06:03he says he's the greatest shooting big man of all time,

06:05but he wants to play like Kevin Durant.

06:07And Kevin Durant, not a great shooter, can shoot the three,

06:10but Kevin Durant likes to operate inside the arc.

06:12I think Carl likes to do the same.

06:14And I wonder in this offense,

06:17where again, if you're open behind the three-point line,

06:20you got to shoot it,

06:21and teams are kind of always going to, you know,

06:24play him to take away that drive.

06:27How long is it going to take him to get comfortable?

06:30Is he okay with what they're asking him to do?

06:33You know, he was having a long conversation with Mike Brown on the sideline last night.

06:36That was interesting to me,

06:38and it's definitely going to be something I'm going to be keeping an eye on moving forward.

06:41All right, J-Mac, we're going to be keeping an eye up on you, Mr. TV star.

06:45You appreciate you hopping on with this, man.

06:48I'll see you soon.

06:50Appreciate you, Brandon.

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