Why Mike Brown can FIX New York Knicks defense ISSUES w/ Brunson & Karl-Anthony Towns | NBA Reaction

Why Mike Brown can FIX New York Knicks defense ISSUES w/ Brunson & Karl-Anthony Towns | NBA Reaction

What’s up, guys? Thanks as always for supporting the show. It would mean a lot to me if you would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss any more of our videos. Also, make sure you follow us all over social media so you don’t miss any of our content or show announcements. Jason, what can Mike Brown do to help the Knicks? So, as we heard yesterday, Mike Brown will be the new head coach of the New York Knicks. A wellrespected defensive coach who keeps getting opportunities in the NBA based on that respect. Now, it’s worth mentioning that Sacramento, for the most part, was not a very good defense underneath Mike Brown, but it’s complicated. They didn’t just lack talent defensively at the center position. Their entire front court was weak in defensive talent. Wasn’t just Sabonis. And by the way, I’d argue Sabonis is still a better defender than someone like Carl Anthony Towns, but he has some similarities in terms of some foot speed weaknesses and some verticality. uh like he just doesn’t have as much of a vertical deterrent as some other centers around the league. But it wasn’t just Sabonis. Like the the Kings just did not have a legit athlete at the forward position to cover Sabonis as a backline defender. The Knicks present similar roster issues at the center position, but they have legitimate size and athleticism and length at the forward position, which should give them a stronger foundation to work with. Essentially, when we talk about like ball screen coverages, there’s like a uh a bracket on the backside as well. We talk about the bracket in the form of the ball handle, the guy guarding the ball and the guy coming up to the level as the big. But on the back line, there’s a similar bracket. The more ground that this big can cover, the the less that the backline defender needs to do. The less ground that the big can cover, the more that the backline defender needs to do, right? So like if Carl Anthony Towns is at at the level big, it’s easier to build a backline with an OG and an adobe with the male Bridges as like athleticism on the off the ball. Josh Hart as well to help structure a more resilient defense. So I do think Mike has a little bit more to work with in New York in terms of defensive talent relative to what he had in Sacramento. But what I talked about after the season in terms of whether or not Mike Brown’s going to work out with the Knicks, it’s all about cleaning up their fundamentals. There are certain realities, right? Like Cat and Brunson have their defensive weaknesses and they will make mistakes and they will compromise their defense. There’s no way around that. But there are some pieces of lowhanging fruit, some fixable mistakes that can raise the level of this defense. Mainly getting rid of those easy transition opportunities that we saw in the Pacers series because of bad floor balance. Like doesn’t matter if you have bad defensive talent or if you have good defensive talent. If you have five dudes below the foul line when the shot goes up, you’re probably going to give up a transition opportunity the other way. So having basic floor spacing principles to where there’s always two guys above the break so that you’re set up for transition defense, that’ll go a long way. Some of the avoidable errors like Cat showing way too high on ball screens or committing to one side of a ball screen before the ball handler even has like he gets rejected more than any other big I’ve seen in the league where he’ll sprint up to the right side of the screen and the ball handler is like, “All right, I’m just going to go the other way.” and then when he crosses over there’s nobody there and he’ll go all the way downhill. Cleaning up some of the like basic fundamental stuff with cat and ball screens that is avoidable. Deepening the rotation so that you can keep your starters minutes down so that fatigue doesn’t cause laziness within that roster. Jordan Clarkson is an upgrade over campaign. Gorchan Yabuselli is a guy that will provide some front court depth. They’ve added some of those pieces. Mike Brown just needs to actually make use of them in a way that Tom Tibido did not. and then adding aggression for defense to transition. Couple things. One, I thought the Knicks were at their best last year when they were forcing turnovers and getting out in transition. We saw that a lot even in some of their big runs that they had in the in the Celtics series, if you guys remember, just like OG and male flying around in passing lanes, forcing turnovers, getting out in transition. The uh the second piece of it is that when you have weaker defensive players like Cat and and Jaylen Brunson, sometimes like just running traditional coverages that concede openings will just lead to really comfortable basketball for the opponent. So like if I know all I got to do is bring Brunson into the action, he’s going to hedge. So once he hedges, that effectively leaves two on the ball for a minute. I just pitch it over to his defender who’s or his offensive his assignment, excuse me, as he’s slipping out and then he’s going to have a fouron-ree and he’s going to drive. That’s really comfortable offense, right? But like if you attack the ball at least like it’s like we’re putting two on the ball anyway. We’re bringing cat in this high drop anyway. They’re already leaving all these openings. Why not attack the ball and try to force some more looping passes, some deflections, some of that kind of stuff to try to breed more of those transition opportunities, try to add a little bit more of a defense to transition element for this team. The Knicks just need to get more of the lowhanging fruit in basketball. And Mike Brown is certainly a capable coach to improve the team in that regard. What do you think of Luke Cornet to the Spurs to help Wemi? Is his contract too risky for a 30-year-old? 41 million at four years. So, I I didn’t think of it as that risky considering I view Cornet as like if you were looking at like different tiers of players around the league. There’s like your starting caliber players and then there’s like your backups, but then there’s always like a middle tier which is like this guy could start and if he started for us we’d be fine, but like ideally he’s not our like day one starter for 82 games, right? And to me, Luke Cornet fits into that mold. And when you really start to look at it from an expense standpoint and it’s like, okay, we have backup centers back like legitimate just backup centers going for like mid-level exception money or veteran minimum money. 10 million a year really isn’t that crazy for a guy that could spot start for you at times. And then also, if you look at the way that the salary cap is going to continue to go up in future years, like 10 million is just not that big of a number. I don’t view that as a problematic contract um at all for San Antonio. I look at it as kind of a hedge on WBY’s availability because Cornet can start for them at times. Uh an opportunity for them to explore Victor Wemanyama more as a forward alongside a like a too big type of look. I look at Luke Cornett as a really really useful player on a costcontrol deal. He’s 30 years old. That’s right in the heart of his prime. I think it was a good move. So, I think it’s a move that makes the Spurs a better basketball team, and I’m excited to watch him in that fit.

Jason reacts to the report that the New York Knicks are hiring Mike Brown as their next head coach after Tom Thibodeau and explains why he can help Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, and Karl-Anthony Towns reach a new level defensively.

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