I don’t know about you, but if it were up to me, I’d have the Knicks play all 82 regular-season games and 16 postseason outings in Abu Dhabi. Easiest 98-0 campaign ever.
New York will welcome back their superheroes for the last three exhibitions of the month before things get serious in a couple of weeks with the first official game against the supposedly scary Cavs.
Here’s a ton of what Coach Brown and many other Knickerbockers did and said before packing their bags on their way back to Manhattan.
Mike Brown
On Pacome Dadiet’s role in the rotation:
“In terms of Pac in the rotation, I wouldn’t take into account too much that Pac started in the last game.”
On what it takes to play fast:
“In my opinion, you just have to be mentally tough. Because anybody can run fast in this league in my opinion because these are the best athletes in the world. Now, there might be some guys that are faster than others. But if you have the mental toughness to consistently do it 10 out of 10 times you’ll be a guy who is faster three out of 10 times. And I love the toughness of our guys mentally, so to see that come to light is a fun thing to watch. We’re still learning, though. It’s hard. It’s not as easy as what a lot of people say. But all our guys I think will get there.”
On evolving his offensive system:
“Everybody grows, everybody evolves. My six years in Golden State, you can’t replicate what Steve Kerr and Draymond [Green] and Steph [Curry] and Klay [Thompson] and those guys do there or what they did during my time there. But try to take a lot from them and form my own system. I did it.
I experimented with it when I was with the Nigerian National team. And then I took it to Sacramento and have run it for years. We feel confident in it. We feel confident teaching it. And we feel if you play a little bit of defense, that you put just as much pressure on your opponent offensively, that you’ll have a chance to win ballgames.”
On the roots of his system and the creation of “Canada cuts”:
“The veterans there, they did a fantastic job of understanding how to play off one another. And so it was harder for our young guys to fit in because they had to have a certain feel that our veterans had.
And so I tried to put together some of the concepts that they used, make it almost like just a system so that it’s easily teachable, in my opinion, and to where all the concepts fit and flow, and out of two different looks.
And so I spent the six years doing that as an assistant coach while learning. And then when I coached the Nigerian national team, that was the first time I had a chance to experiment with it. I hired [current Nets coach] Jordi Fernandez and [former NBA assistant and current Florida State head coach] Luke Loucks to come with me to the Nigerian Nation team.
So I taught them that. They added some wrinkles to it, and then we brought it to Sacramento, where we hired Jay Triano. He added some cuts, and there were two main cuts that he added within the concepts of what we were going, and I was like, ‘Wow, these cuts are interesting and they’re nice.
We want to add these cuts. What should we call these cuts?’ Jay being from Canada, he dubbed them Canada cuts. So we have two different types of cuts that are mainstays within the concepts that we do.”
On Jordan Clarkson’s role and rotation experimentation:
“Trying to see different guys we’ve signed with different combinations. And putting them in at different — I may throw a guy in for three minutes. And if I throw him in for three minutes, part of that is I may use him that way in the regular season or I may use him that way if he makes the team in the regular season. So how does he respond? So I’m experimenting right now.”
On Pacome Dadiet’s defensive potential:
“He could be a monster defensively. He’s just got to play with a sense of urgency defensively and awareness every single possession. Every once in a while he just relaxes. And when he relaxes, he’s not using his length, his athleticism and all the other attributes that he has that makes him a great defender.”
On OG Anunoby’s performance in preseason:
“We could all play better. But OG was great (Saturday). He ran the floor a couple times and got to the corner. And when you get to the corner like that, when you’re trying to push the basketball it puts pressure on the opponent’s defense, you’re going to get some easy catch-and-shoot shots.”
On Jalen Brunson adjusting to the new system:
“He’s starting to adjust. You could see it. I think this is going to be good for him. Because you could see how much space when he has the ball. If you want to pressure a guy like Jalen when he has the space, there’s a pretty good chance he’ll make you pay for it. So, I like that aspect of it. And then him just getting used to — run, run, run, run, run — and still be effective, whether you’re on the ball or off the ball, it was great to see. You could see he’s starting to get his feet under him, understand how to play at that frantic pace and still be effective and know where his shots are going to be and come from.”
Jordan Clarkson
On fitting any and every system in the universe:
“I’ll be able to fit anywhere. Put me anywhere in the world and I’ll be good. I think that’s just me. No matter where you put me, I’ll accept it for what it is. I enjoy the experience.”
On wanting to return to the playoffs:
“That’s something you chase. That’s a different high, man, if you want to put it like that. The level of detail, every play matters. I really want to get back there and I want for sure to take every step day to day, but coming here, one of the reasons why is I wanted to compete in the playoffs and be on a winning team that’s playing for something.”
On choosing the Knicks despite uncertainty:
“It wasn’t like they were shipping out the whole team and starting over. So being familiar with the guys [on the Knicks], that kind of made the decision for me. I always look at the brighter side of it.”
Mikal Bridges
On the Knicks’ performance against the Sixers:
“I thought we played good. We could be better out there. We were fouling a lot. But we just got to keep learning. It’s preseason. We’re stacking days. I think we did alright.”
On adapting to the new offense:
“Just new system and learning it and learning our players, our concepts and trying to make the right read. Not thinking just playing basketball.”
Jalen Brunson
On the benefits of playing with pace:
“Yeah, I mean, could get us more open looks, easier baskets at the rim, when we run the floor after stops. But I think the most important thing is when we get stops we’ve just got to run. So it starts on the defensive end and us getting out and pushing, making plays for each other. I’m excited for this change.”
On his comfort in the new system:
“Yeah, I mean pace doesn’t necessarily mean fast. Obviously, we want to get the ball across half court in a certain time frame. But it’s about playing smart, seeing what the defense does and just reading that. We weren’t really trying to leak out but we were trying to sprint to corners and we were getting behind the defense and we were able to get layups. So as long as we come away with a stop that allows us to run.
I’m comfortable. We’re still adjusting. That’s the process of this entire season. You’re not just going to be who you are in training camp. You’re going to continue to get better throughout the season. I think the longer we’re going through this and understanding what is needed of us and asked of us the better we’re going to be.”
On who the Knicks are watching in the East:
“Everybody. Don’t look past anybody.”
OG Anunoby
On adapting to the new system in preseason:
“Just playing the right way, you know. The ball comes, be ready to shoot and if it’s not there be ready to pass it. Just playing the right way which is pretty easy.
I think me personally, I mean, that’s what the preseason is for, to prepare and get ready. Training camp go through stuff, learn a new system. We have a new coach so every day we’re learning and building and each day it’s getting better and better. So I feel like it’s getting better each day. I feel ready and when the season starts I think we’ll all be ready to go.”
On which teams to watch out for in the East:
“Everyone.”
Josh Hart (via Knicks representative)
On his injury status and absence from Game 2:
“It’s preseason and we’re going to err on the side of caution. We’ll see where he is when [we get home].”
Nick Nurse (76ers Head Coach)
On the Knicks’ increased pace:
“We got hurt in the first half especially [Saturday night] in transition. They’re very different from two nights ago. We talked about it a little bit, we thought they were going to try to run a little bit more because we did slow them down a bit with our pressure.
But they did a couple of things. They started leaking out on shots because they’re very confident in their size and rebounding. So they got some throw-aheads on some of those. … So there was some decent pace for them, especially in the first half.”
