All of a sudden, the Knicks look scary.
Who would have thought after they won the championship four months ago lost three in a row!?
Here’s the latest as the guys rest up for their NBA Cup title-defending debut on Friday.
Mike Brown
On why Mo Diawara and Pacome Dadiet haven’t played this season:
“It’s tough because going into the season early on, one of [the] things I wanted to experiment with is playing 10 or 10 ½ guys [as my rotation]. And Mo is in that mix. Mo and Pac. Give them different opportunities at different times. And we experimented with different stuff and our players not getting it done caused us to start off a little slow.
“So to get us on track, we’re going to hold the fort down with a veteran group of guys. Hopefully we get to the point sooner than later that I can start throwing those [young] guys out there.”
On continuing to experiment with the Knicks’ bench rotation:
“Our starting five is what it is. But everybody else after that, until we find something that’s working consistently, I’m going to try to give different guys opportunities.”
On Jalen Brunson overcoming his shooting struggles against Chicago:
“I wasn’t worried about that. He just seems like he always finds a way. And tonight we needed every single one of those. It definitely wasn’t a concern of mine.”
On the Knicks looking sluggish after arriving in Chicago at 2:30 a.m.:
“It was just a late game [Tuesday night]. I acknowledged that to our guys. It’s not an excuse. It’s the life of the NBA. So we have to find a way in situations like this, and our guys found a way. But you could tell we looked really, really sluggish.”
On Brunson’s determination, toughness and MVP-caliber ability:
“His will is unbelievable. His determination, man, it’s second to none. You look at this guy and he’s not 6-7, he’s not athletic, he’s not quick. I mean, you can go down the line in natural physical tools that a lot of guys have, but his determination, his spirit, his competitive spirit, his will, his toughness, especially his mental toughness, but his physical toughness, too, added with his skill set, it makes him an unbelievable basketball player. An MVP-caliber basketball player. I hope he gets recognition for that this year because his will is off the charts.”
On benching Mikal Bridges and using Tyler Kolek alongside Brunson on Wednesday:
“We just found a combination we went with. One of the things [assistant coach] Rick Brunson suggested was throwing Kolek in the game with Jalen. Just to give them a different look and get Jalen off the ball and put Tyler on the floor.
“Doing that, playing Jordan Clarkson extended minutes, Landry was playing well. Now there’s not much room. And the combination we had out there, we kept playing well. It was harder to go back to what we started with.”
On Karl-Anthony Towns continuing to shoot after injuring his left hand and wrist:
“He was still shooting that thang from 30 feet. So the wrist looked good to me.”
On whether the Knicks are generating good shots despite their early shooting struggles:
“The biggest thing is: are we getting good shots from the right people? Watching the film and watching the game, I think we are. We’ve had some pretty good looks from the right people at the right time that normally go in so I want them to keep shooting.”
On what Tyler Kolek needs to improve as the Knicks’ backup point guard:
“He’s gotta run the team. What I mean by that is, when you watch our games, when he goes on the floor, people get up into his chest when he’s trying to run our offense. He can’t get off the ball too early, if it’s just one guy. He’s gotta be able to go by that guy and get the guy off-balance and bring it back out and set our offense up and/or get by and make a play in the paint. He can’t let pressure bother him or disrupt our offense at all.
“And then defensively, he’s gotta be a pest. He’s gotta be nasty, not anything illegal or anything like that, just a guy that people wanna say ‘get off me, get off me,’ because he’s more than capable of doing that. He’s gotta play with some sort of force, particularly for his size.”
On the Knicks’ bench contributions in their comeback victory over Chicago:
“We got a lot of contributions from all across the board. I thought our bench was fantastic. Landry came off the bench and had 14 points, 4-for-7 from the three-point line was huge. Andre Drummond came off the bench and had 11 rebounds in 15 minutes. That was huge. Tyler hit three big threes, nine assists in 18 minutes. Zero turnovers; he’s just a ball mover. That was huge.
“And obviously our defensive player of the game, Jordan Clarkson. He was big for us. He had been on the shelf for a while. Not only was he big for us offensively, but he had two big steals for us during our run. Our bench was very good for us tonight.”
Jalen Brunson
On overcoming his shooting slump and rediscovering his rhythm against the Bulls:
“I was happy to be able to kind of finally get over that hump. I feel like I was putting a lot of unnecessary commentary in my head. But seeing the ball go in the way it did, it put me out of my mental state and put me in a good flow state.”
On how he broke out of the slump:
“I switched a couple of things up.”
On his relationship with Derrick Rose and Rose’s son, P.J.:
“It’s crazy to see how old he is now. I’m thankful for the relationship I have with him and his family. I feel like the feeling is mutual. I’m happy to have (Derrick) as a mentor and someone I can talk to, and someone I look up to, as well.”
On his memories of growing up around Chicago basketball and attending Bulls games:
“So many memories. I remember the Eastern Conference finals with Derrick, when they lost to LeBron, and going to all of those games. I met Kobe here. I met countless players here. Just how loud the United Center was — it’s always going to be loud no matter the situation. So many memories. I remember exactly where I used to sit and everything. It was perfect.”
On remembering the late Stacey King and his support during Brunson’s high school years:
“I just want to say RIP to Stacey King, who we lost recently. He’s a person I knew when I was in high school out here. He supported our team a lot. His kids went to Stevenson.”
Karl-Anthony Towns
On the source of Josh Hart’s seemingly endless energy:
“Sugar.”
Jordan Clarkson
On the Knicks’ confidence in Jalen Brunson during clutch situations:
“We have a lot of confidence. What we’ve built as a team, Jalen (Brunson) at the end of games, knowing that he’s going to make shots. Then, everybody else doing the small things. We’re just competing to win.”
Caleb Wilson
On Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby after facing the Knicks:
“Jalen Brunson cold. Then KAT is just––he’s huge, he’s huge, he just makes the right decision, can shoot, trail threes, just plays the basketball really well. Honestly, they’re just a good team. OG’s really good too, really physical, hard to go against, hard to score against, they just have a really well-rounded team.”
On Jordan Clarkson’s performance:
“Even Jordan Clarkson came the bench and finished it. He played really well.”
On facing the Knicks again in a few days:
“We get to play them again next week at their place. We’ll learn from this and hopefully we can go out there and get a win.”
Stephen A. Smith
On reports that James Dolan is unhappy with Knicks players over a potential White House visit:
“People have been a little bit stressed because the owner, James Dolan, has an attitude with players because they don’t want to go to the White House.”
On his opinion of Dolan and the reported disagreement:
“I don’t know whether this is true or not, but I’ll believe anything when it comes to James Dolan because he is a walking embodiment of petulance. This man is as petty as they come.”
