Mike Brown Introductory Knicks Press Conference

Mike Brown Introductory Knicks Press Conference

so he’s has no weaknesses. All right, let us now listen in to Mike Brown, new head coach. Thank everybody for coming. Uh first of all, I’d like to start by thanking uh Leon uh Mr. Dolan Leon Rose for this incredible opportunity. I’d also like to acknowledge uh my fiance Ro for her continued support and for for being here. I look forward to working with Leon, forming a great partnership with our shared common goal of winning a championship. I’m honored and excited to be the new head coach of the New York Knicks. You talk about a historic franchise, Madison Square Garden. It’s iconic. Our fans, they’re the most knowledgeable and passionate probably in all of sports. There’s a lot of work to be done. We have a outstanding roster. What they did in the playoffs shows their potential. I’ve had great conversations with all of our players and I’m looking forward to growing positive, strong relationships with all of them over time. Our goal starting with Mr. Dolan to Leon to the players all the way down to the fans is to build a sustainable a sustainable winning culture that produces championships. That’s why I’m here. I’m fortunate to know what it takes to create that success, a lot of hard work, a high level of commitment, and a focus on today. Now, a lot of you guys going to say this sounds cliche, and it is, but we can’t we can’t skip any steps. It’s about one day, one practice, one shoot around at a time. The soul of our identity with when it comes to culture, it’s going to be based on a trust. A trust that’s centered around sacrifice, a connectivity, a competitive spirit, and an overall belief in the process and each other. I’m looking forward to getting to know you all, but there’s a lot of work to do and I’m ready to get started. Okay, now we’re going to open up for the questions. Coach, just your your style of play, the way you want to play and just that kind of points and kind of run your team. I the first thing is, you know, everybody knows I like to play fast and like I said, we have an outstanding roster. Um, I’m excited about that. And to have a guy like Jaylen out there gives you the versatility to play all different types of ways, which is what it’s going to take throughout a course of a ball game. my Steve Popper that um I know you had expectations in other jobs you’ve taken stepped in behind pedal and stuff. Just kind of what is it for you coming in coming into a team that’s reached the conference finals the expectations you’re stepping into? Well, you know, there’s nobody has any bigger expectations first of all than I do. Uh I mean my expectations are high. Um, but I mean this is the mix. I talked about Madison Square Garden be being iconic. I talked about our fans. I I love and embrace the expectations that come along with it. So, I’m looking forward to it. When you know when obviously the conference finals, there’s going to be questions about why did they fire the last guy and what is the new guy bringing in to elevate it above what the Scott did. So, in what ways do you plan to kind of just elevate this team in ways that Tom did? Well, first of all, I you know, Tom is a tremendous coach, you know, and and he is a friend of mine. Uh but I don’t want to get into the past. Uh I’m just excited about the roster. I’m excited about the things that we’re going to put in place here and where we can go with the guys that we have. guys going Christian open. Thank you. Um in terms of championship caliber, good basketball, how do you define that? What what is your vision of good basketball particularly with the pieces you have on both sides of the court? Well, it’s a a twofold question. uh you know I what I’ve experienced and I said it in my opening statement you know I’ I’ve been to six finals with three different teams and the commonality that they all had is they all sacrifice for one another. They’re all connected. The connectivity it’s at the highest and it starts with ownership on down. uh they all have a competitive spirit and there’s a high level of belief not just in the process but each other. So those four things are common amongst all the teams that I’ve been with that have participated in the finals. James Edwards. My pleasure. Obviously when you’re going into a job search you want to sell yourself to the team. when you go into those, what do you want to hear from the team in terms of what they want to do to help enhance you and set you up for success, too? Well, first thing, the only person I really had to sell myself to was was Ro, and obviously it worked. That’s why she’s sitting right there. But, uh, you know, I respect Leon’s process. Um, I feel like I’m a detailed guy. I feel like I’m thorough with anything and everything that I try to do. Um, so it’s no different here. Uh, I’m just I was just myself throughout the process. Had great conversations uh with Mr. Dolan, obviously with Leon and his group because, you know, my whole thing is I want to form a partnership with him to do this together. It’s impossible to do on your own. And obviously the outcome is exciting for me because I’m sitting in the seat that I wanted to be in. Mike, how are you? Chris Herring from ESPN. Nice to meet you. My pleasure. Um, one of the things that stands out a lot from from the job you did in Sacramento and just generally is I think you’re seen as a coach who holds these guys account. Um, and obviously you you coached under um what does that look like with for you with Spar players and your willingness to kind of hold them to account? What does that look like given that so many of the the players had tight relationships with the last coach and a group of them played in the same program in college? Like what does that look like to you to ask for accountability? What does it look like this group? Well, well, in general, I think that is a part of my job. Um, it’s one of my values is accountability, but not just for players and even for myself. I expect people to hold me accountable. Uh but at the end of the day, it’s about relationships. It’s about the trust that I trust that I talked about. Um and once you grow those relationships, then you can you’re going to talk openly about anything uh that you need to in the direction that you need to go. And so I’m going to be open and honest with them. And I’m sure they’re going to be open and honest with me. And like I said, I’m no different. Hey Mike, Ian Bley SM. Nice to meet you. My pleasure. Um, I know you said there’s a lot of work to do. Yeah, I’m sure a lot of that is looking at this team and what they can and can’t do and what you may or may not change. I’m just wondering the the starting five, particularly late in the year, they had a tough time defensively. Did you see areas where they can improve on defense or things that let me do this and we can get some more stuff? Do you see that at all? Well, again, I I thought, you know, what they what the the group did this past year in the playoffs, it just it just shows their potential and uh not just defensively, but offensively, too. And so, I’m looking forward to putting a plan in place and working with those guys on both ends of the floor. I love their length. I love their versatility. uh and so implementing something or uh my vision is very exciting for me and hopefully it is for everybody else because I think the ceiling is high on both ends for the group from the good to see you. Um I was curious the beginning couple months of the year the Knicks were right there at the top position kind of after January 1st or so they they were around middle of the pack and offensive reading. What what did you see from watching them in the second half of course versus the first half of the year of kind of stuff that you know a little bit and more schematically how you feel like the offense could hit that level where it was best last year? You know, like I said, you know, I I thought Tom did a great job and the guys did a fantastic job last year, but I’m looking forward. We got, you know, we just added two new additions to the team that are going to bring a a lot of versatility to how we’re going to play. Um, I’m I just can’t wait to get on the court and and start implementing things that we want to do offensively to help us grow and take it to another level. But, uh, uh, you know, we still got some time before we do that. Um, it seemed like over the course of this year there were quite a few culture changes really starting with you went on to Memphis and Denver and finally here that surprised people. They the team had done very well. The guy had a great run there, took him to places they hadn’t gone in a long time. Um, is it getting harder as a coach to sort of understand what the organization wants or why do you want to keep doing this? Jump right back in and keep going as a coach? I I mean, I’m passionate about coaching. Uh I I want to win and um you know, you want to be in a a great place uh that has like thinking and so I know for me, especially speaking with Mr. Dolan. Uh, speaking with Leon and I have a history with Lyon, knowing who he is as a person, knowing that I’d love to partner with him and then looking at the roster and the reality of it is, uh, Rose said, “We better move to New York cuz I’m a foodie.” So, so when you when you combine all those things, uh, it was a no-brainer for me. You know, the league is the league and uh there’s always going to be es and flows in terms of how the hiring and firing process goes and you just embrace it and you keep moving forward. Sharon Taylor, congratulations on your um in your first year ending the playoff drought. What did you bring from that experience here in your first year? I, you know, I I learned a lot, not just in Sacramento, but throughout my entire career. I’m I’m a firm believer that if you don’t evolve, no matter what profession you’re in, I I’m sure you guys feel it, too. Especially some of some of you guys that have been around for a long time. Okay, I’m not I’m not going to say any names. I’m just pointing out that way. I’m not saying any names. But for some of you guys that’s been around a long time that you feel the Young Bucks, I’m not pointing it or saying it. You feel the Young Bucks clawing at the back of your heels. And so, you know, learning, growing, evolving throughout the course of your time of where you’re at is something that I’m a firm believer in. And and I can’t just pinpoint one thing, but I know I appreciate my time in Sacramento. I appreciate the fans there and I appreciate the opportunity uh that the vet gave me to run his team. I want to kind of piggyback on that evolving. I mean, basketball has obviously evolved from when you first started as a coach to now. Just how are your views on on basketball changed considering how the game is evolving considering your experience? You’re on the bench and Golden State, you guys won a bunch of titles. How has your view on basketball changing with the game? Oh, it’s it it’s changed in a lot of different ways. I mean, I can I can go far back. My first bench job was with the Washington Bullets. They were still called the Bullets back then. Uh, and we were playing at the Cap Center still in Landover, Maryland. And, uh, you know, we had Chris Weber and Tran Howard and Tracy Murray and all those guys, Tim Leggler, and uh, you know, you learn a lot from not just your experience as a coach with the other coaches there, but also from the players. You know, when I was in San Antonio with David and Tim, it was about playing inside out. And now, uh, fast forward to my time with Steve, uh, it’s about pace and space. And that’s where the game is. And like I said, if you can’t evolve, you’re going to get left behind. And so, I feel like I’m trying to do that. And, and hopefully, uh, we’ll be able to bring some of that here. Mike Roen from News Day. Pleasure. Um, a question about the the Eastern Conference landscape. Um, some of the high achieving uh teams have suffered crippling injuries uh that could affect them in the coming season. How do you see the Knicks as they stack up in the conference landscape? Well, first of all, you know, you don’t ever want to see anybody um get hurt, you know, especially like um uh the way those guys did. That’s excuse me, that that’s that’s unfortunate, you know, throw basketball out the window. That’s just unfortunate for them as individuals and on top of that for their families and organizations, all that other stuff. But, you know, the there are a lot of good teams out there. Um it it doesn’t matter if those guys are injured or not. At the end of the day, um teams are going to find ways to win. And so we don’t feel like it’s going to be easier any easier just because of the injuries uh going forward. We’re going to have to focus on this thing um one day at a time. uh one practice at a time, one shoot around one shoot around at a time and try to get better each and every day. So when it comes time uh to make our run in the playoffs, we’re ready. Good. And um you know, you obviously took Sacramento in a short amount of time to places that hadn’t been in a very long time. Yeah. So, from this this coach, very unclear why they fired you. Did you ever get a clear idea of what happened there? I you know, I I don’t even want to get into it cuz that’s that’s behind me. I’m just I’m I’m excited about being here in New York and uh like I said earlier, taking her to a couple of restaurants because it probably won’t happen come September, October uh at least for the next 6 months. But I I I’m again thankful for the opportunity out in Sacramento. Sorry. Coaching guys like LeBron, coaching guys like Steph, Kevin Durant, Tim Duncan. What does that experience help you with from job to job? You know, it’s part of my evolution. Uh, I I learned a lot from all those guys, from Tim Duncan to LeBron to Steph to KD to Draymond, uh, to Foxy. I mean, you you go down the line cuz they’re all different. Uh, that’s what makes, uh, my my experience, my background, uh, in my opinion, helped me be different or unique, just being around those guys. Uh even a guy like Andre Godala who I I I love to death. Uh you know just all those guys help me grow in some way shape or form and they they all whether they want to admit it or not or whatever they they all have a little bit uh little bit to do of why I’m standing right here. Mike from your post congratulations. Thank you. Um I’m curious how closely you followed watching these games last year. Obviously in the moment you didn’t realize standing right just watching assuming you’re watching it as a guy who likes basketball and knows basketball is interesting. What were your impressions then not realizing coach watching as a basketball person? Well again watching them as a fan which I I did not just here but with every team in the league you know you’re you’re excited. Uh, I said that they have an, you know, we have an outstanding roster. I, you know, what they did in the playoffs shows their potential and, you know, I’m looking forward to to getting to work with these guys. All right, we’ll do a couple more. James, Mike, where are the first few days of getting a new job? Like, how soon are you talking to players? How soon are you trying to finalize your staff? Can you just take us through that process of from the moment you you knew you would come here to to today? I guess yeah, you know, it’s it’s a lot of that. You want to reach out to um to all your players. Uh you want to start that line of communication going because at the end at the end of the day, again, I go back to this is what you guys do. It’s it’s about relationships and those relationships are some of the most important relationships that I’m going to have going forward. And uh so so touching base with them, getting that process going. And then, you know, I I want to be collaborative. I want to form that partnership with Leon. Again, I’m I’m excited to do that with him. And so he and I uh we just started, you know, sitting down and talking about uh different ways to formulate a staff. So that’s going to be a process that’s ongoing. and uh who knows how long it will take. Uh but those are a couple of things that you really start to dive into as as well as trying to figure out the landscape and all that other stuff when you get a job. Hey Mike, um just your thoughts based on what you saw of Carl Town and Mitchell and the idea of those two guys sharing together. uh you know once once I get my staff together and we dive more into it uh we’ll figure out uh you know all those types of things. I’m I’m excited uh that they’re both on the team obviously cuz they’re two different players. You know uh Mitchell is a vertical threat. Cat as you know is a space threat and so to have the versatility that those two guys bring to the table uh is going to be a lot of fun. Last question. in all your stops, is there is there a a Mike Brown way to play or is do you adapt to roster and opportunity each time you go? Yeah. No, that’s a great question. I you know I I think you you have a philosophy on both ends of the floor, but you have to make sure that it fits with your personnel. So, uh, it’s ever evolving and, uh, it will be here. Once our roster is final, uh, our staff is final, we’ll lay the groundwork or the foundation for what we’re going to do going forward as a unit. Thank you, everybody. What’s good everybody? We just heard from Mike Brown, his introductory press conference. You’re watching a live edition of New York Got Game. I’m Dexter Henry. Some very interesting things that we heard from Mike Brown. We are going to discuss and react to it in his first press conference as Knicks head coach. Mike Brown named the 32nd head coach in Knicks history. Joining me on this live stream is my guy. He does a lot of these lives with me. It is Brian Fana who will join us now. B, what’s going on man? That was interesting actually. That was real interesting what we saw and heard. Yeah. You know, sometimes I think depending on the franchise situation, press conferences can be me, you know, whatever. I’m not saying that Mike Brown said a whole bunch of things that were super exciting. Um, I was intrigued to I don’t know what you I’m going to get into what you were looking for in this press conference before we get into what he actually said. But, you know, I think I was looking at his temperament, uh, how he handled the media. I mean, introductory press conferences are usually not tough. Not like a lot of people are going to be grilling you here in the media. That’s just not going to be the vibe. But I thought if you were shaky on Mike Brown, right, in terms of a hire, I thought I thought you could see by the way he answered questions, his approach, I thought you could see, okay, this is why this is right for this team. This is this is why somebody can feel confident leading this team where they’re at with all the pressure that’s on them, right? We talked about the finals are bust. We talked about that. And Stephan Bondi, our beat reporter, will be joining us uh to talk about as well, too. But Brian, what were you what were your expectations for this press conference? What were you looking forward to hear or see from Mike Brown in this? I mean, introductory press conferences, we’ve covered a bunch of these. They’re usually boring. I did find some interesting things in this, though. He kept talking about versatility. He kept talking about offense. He kept talking about the talent on this roster. He kept talking up the ways that he can potentially use them without giving up too much detail because he would defer to his staff and be like, “Hey, we need to actually like, you know, figure out the coaching staff or whatever.” Like he needs to finalize all his guys there, so to speak. But the offense was a big part of this. Yep. And he sounds like he wants to play with pace, which you and I talked about the possibility of that last week in he’s been hired. We’ll see if that’s the case. I will mention that as far as pace goes, the Knicks were with Tom Thibido 30th, 29th, 25th, 30th, and 26th in the NBA with with Mike Brown. The Kings were at the top of the league um in that one year specifically where they were the best offense um you know, in the league a few years back before that went south. That’s what’s going to be an emphasis there. And I think in order to do that, there seems to be an understanding that he’ll have to open up the rotation, which is why I think you go away from tips to begin with. So I think if you’re a Nick fan, that’s probably music to your ears. Now, it’s just words at the end of the day, so I wouldn’t go too crazy about it. But I find it interesting that this was the emphasis. And I feel like he kind of knew he had to come in and win the press conference, so to speak, like tell Knicks fans, tell people like this is what the vision is for the time being. And, you know, we’ll we’ll see what actually ends up happening as as time progresses, if we get to the actual season, which is going to start in three plus months. Yeah. We’ll we’ll we’ll see how that goes. Uh right now we do have our Knicks Beat reporter for the New York Post, the great Stephan Bondi, who was just there at the press conference, asked a couple of questions there. Steph, what’s going on, man? Hey, what’s up? What’s going on? How you doing, man? Um first of all, let’s just get quickly. What were your thoughts on the press conference? How did you feel Mike Brown presented to the media and the questions he answered and everything? How do you think he did? Yeah, I mean, I think he’s a very polished person. He was um you know, pretty much what we expected. He’s a veteran coach. He’s a veteran in front of a microphone and um you know he said um he didn’t reveal much but um you know he said what what he what he needed to say basically. Yeah he did he did say what he what he needed to say. I don’t think there was anything like too earthshattering. Um what what did you make of because he was asked a question I can’t remember who asked the question. He was asked a question about his style of play. He talked a lot about evolution in this press conference. Uh Steph, we went through this the last time we talked to you about his journeys and and his stops. Um do you expect the Knicks to be a more balanced team under Mike Brown or do do you think that’s something we can see? Yeah, I mean I think that that’s that’s the goal. I think that um when you’re selling Mike Brown, you’re selling the idea that he came in as a defensive-minded guy and um he kind of when in his last stop, I think he learned a lot first of all when he was an assistant in Golden State. Um he learned about collaboration. He learned about um you know offensively how to um you know create a dynamic offense and and then he applied that to Sacramento. So I think when you’re selling Mike Brown, you’re selling that evolution and um he talked about that a lot. That’s part of his resume. That’s a huge part of his resume. Bonnie, do you think that was part of the plan for Mike Brown today? Because it felt like an emphasis. it felt like he wanted to go in and really talk up evolving the offense, so to speak, and pushing pace and things of that nature. It sounds like like this was what he wanted to be the message today more than anything else. Yeah. Um yeah, the when he brought up the word evolution, I believe I’m going to have to listen back again. I believe that was unprompted um the first time and then he was asked about it. Um and offensively, you’re right. I think he I I can’t remember what the question was, but he brought up the pay stuff himself. So, when somebody comes in with the idea of, hey, this is what I want to talk about and they um you know, they they discussed that with a question and that’s certainly something that they wanted to emphasize. I think that was part of his agenda today. for people who may overreact to this so to speak one way or the other like what what could you say to them in terms of like how much should people actually take away from this given that it’s an introductory press conference and you know it could be a word salary or it could be things that matter like how how much would you take away from this? I don’t think I take away much. I I’m trying to think back on something that he said where I’m like wow that was that was a real revelation and I can’t come up with something right now. So, um I I don’t I think overreacting to anything he said in is would be a mistake, but um it was kind of it was kind of what we expected. I think he he didn’t want to talk about Tibido. Um and following up on Tibido, he didn’t want to talk about I asked him a question like what, you know, what happened in Sacramento? Why why did they decide to move on from me? He didn’t want to talk about that. So, you know, sure he had his talking points and um you know, that’s how press conferences go a lot of the time. He didn’t, it wasn’t like he came in and was like, you know, banging the the the podium and saying, “I’m going to win a championship.” That wasn’t on the agenda. And he’s, you know, he he had a perfect perfectly professional press conference. It was perfectly professional. Do you I don’t know. I’m curious to see your takeaway, Steph. Do you get the sense that he understands the pressure that is here and what we talked about? You know, we talked about finals for bus last week when you were on with us. Do you get the sense that he understands what he’s facing here? Yeah. I mean, he he we I think we talked about this before, but somebody who he’s somebody who understands pressure about as well as anybody because when you’re coaching LeBron James when he’s threatening to leave the city of Cleveland, that was about as pressure packed as you can have in terms of a situation as a head coach. So, he’s used to it. um he you know it’s some he’s been around winning organizations. He’s won championships as an assistant coach. He he understands what pressure is. Um so he’s not that’s that’s part of the reason why they tried to um they wanted to hire an experienced coach, somebody who’s used to this. So um I think he understands um and I think um you know that that was a big reason why they hired him. Yeah, that that feels like a a huge part of why that went down with him and he has been in a lot of pressure situations as you’ve mentioned here. Bonnie, what can you also tell us about the staff? You had a article that came out today that people should check out uh about the rest of the coach staff and filling it out and that Rick Brunson will have a role on this coaching staff. Not as high as associate head coach as some people might have thought, but what can you tell us about Brown filling out the rest of the staff? Yeah. So, in in my article, I I detailed how Rick will um Rick was the lead assistant last season. He will not be the lead assistant anymore. And um you know, as I wrote in the story, he he was on board with that decision. Um there were a lot of distractions throughout the season, uh that related to him and it was kind of you, you know, organizationally like it’s just be best to kind of push those aside and take a step back and and let um Mike Brown hire his associate head coach or lead assistant. I don’t know. I don’t to be clear, I don’t know if the lead assistant will get a um the associate head coach title, but I believe he will. And um they all will be bringing back a few assistants from last season from what I heard um or expected to. It’s Darren Man um Mo Cheeks and um and Bryant the center the big man coach. So um you know he t Mike Brown talked today about filling out his staff and getting these guys in. So, he’ll be making some hires as well. And um you know, then then it’s off to Summer League. Is James Barego in play at all for associate head coach? I believe that he he is in play, but I there’s some skepticism that um New Orleans will let him out of his contract because he is an associate head coach um in New Orleans. though it would be a lateral move, you know, and and a lot of times those don’t the permission doesn’t get granted in those situations. Understood. Should people read into the Rick Brunson piece and him being demoted? I guess to use the term um reading it read into it how like does it does it does it ultimately matter that he’s a holdover? Cuz some people are like, “Oh, is is Jaylen going to be happy about him being demoted? Is is are are is there going to be, you know, him being a holdover? Is that going to be something that causes friction because he doesn’t have as high of a position as last year? I I don’t think so. But is that something that, you know, we might be hearing about later in the year, so to speak? Uh, I don’t think so. I think, like I said, I Rick was um from what I heard, Rick was on board with this. Um, so, you know, I think it, you know, he became the lead assistant last year after Johnny Bryan left. And, uh, he wasn’t the lead assistant the two seasons prior. So, um, he’s kind of taking a demotion back to what he was before. So, um, you know, I don’t think it’s going to be that big of a deal. He he’s already kind of served in that role as an assistant in years prior where it was fine with Jaylen. So, I don’t see it being an issue. Is there a timeline that Mike Brown or the Knicks want their coaching staff to be finalized by? I don’t know. Okay. We will see how we’ll see how that plays out. A couple more things before before we let you go, Steph, because we know summer league is up next for you. We did learn um and you you were the one on this this past weekend that Gershan Yaposelli took a little bit less in the full TMLE uh here. So, the Knicks do have an opportunity where they could sign another veteran player. Do you expect the Knicks to do that the this rest of this off season? Um how do you see things shaking out? Do you expect them to sign another veteran player? I do expect them to sign another veteran player and I expect it to be a ball handler. Okay. Expected to be a ball handler. Interesting. Would any names that you would could be comfortable sharing? Could Malcolm Brogden, one of those guys uh in the mix for that? Are we talking Ben Singman? Is does he count too? Um I I could I’m thinking about what I can say. Um sorry, Steph, that your reaction was similar when somebody asked me that the other day. All right. So, like I’m not to be honest, I’m not going to rule out Ben Simmons. And I think Malcolm Brogden is somebody to put on the list. Okay. Would you would you rule out Russell Westbrook? Yes. Okay. Yeah. From the first NBA, once you get to Ben Simmons, you’re like a half step away from Russell Westbrook. Yeah, I know. Um I I was there’s there was it’s true that they um lobbyed interest in Ben Simmons. I you know, I don’t know how high the level of interest is, but it’s true that they they talked to um talked to his uh representation. Well, you know what? On on that note, Steph, if they do add B Simmons, that is a third nonshooter on the roster. Is is does that fit into the way Mike Brown would want to play or are they looking at him as sort of a defensive specialist to come and grab some boards, also add a little bit of playm? I’m wondering if that fits into how he wants to play. What do you think about that? Um I I don’t know. I I I don’t know how. My guess, this is just a guess. My guess is that Mike Brown would not want Ben Simmons on his team. That’s just a total guess. Um I mean to me like you there there’s the shooting element that you mentioned, the fact that he’s kind of he’s kind of scared to play offense offense to and um there’s the idea that he also decided to that he was going to sit out the whole season um and not play basketball. So listen, I I I don’t know what’s going on in Mike Brown’s head. I can’t I can’t tell you that he likes or dislikes Ben Simmons, but that would be my guess. He’s also elite at driving the ball past half court and then passing it to somebody else once he gets to the three-point line. Yeah. And if you want to if you want to increase the pace, you know, from, you know, up until the three-point line, Ben Simmons is your guy. Yeah. And he also like I’ve watched enough Nets games where he would like drive to the paint and then just turn around and like not even look at the basket um because he wanted no part of that. But listen, he um he he’s obviously has is a top-notch defender. He’s obviously has top level size and athleticism and speed and in transition, he’s um he’s a guy you want. Um and as Jared Dudley once said, this is when Ben Simmons was at his peak, which was hilarious. Um he’s he’s an allstar in transition, but in the half court, he’s just average. And I would say he’s less than average in the half court. Yo, that is uh that is quite accurate. I can’t even I can’t even deny that. One of last thing for me, Bondie, um a lot of things that Mike Brown talked about, I know we had the buzzword um that we had from him a couple of times through this evolution, but he talked about the process, he talked about communication, other buzzwords we kind of hear a lot a lot from coaches. um how much how much do you think he is going to be able to communicate his message through his own evolution through this team and and how soon does it start? He said he’s already started reaching out to players, but how do you think he’s going to be effective in his communication style with this team that maybe might differ from Tom Tibido? Yeah, I think that’s a strength of his. I think um you know, in a lot of ways he’s tipsy in the like he’s hard on guys. He’s willing to hold guys accountable. I think he does that even more so than Tibs. Um, but you know, I think that he understands the importance of communication and relationships and he did talk about a lot a lot about working with the front office today. I thought that was another uh point of emphasis. So, um I think there’ll be a kind of um collaboration on that part. So, um I think that’s something else to take away from this press conference. Gotcha. Uh Steph, before we let you go, what are you looking forward to in summer league? Uh a couple young players playing there. What are you looking forward to when you head out to Vegas? Um yeah, I mean they got a lot of young guys that were second round picks last year last year and they had the two the the second round pick this year and um the guy that they they acquired for Carl Anthony Towns, James Naji, is that how you pronounce his name? Correct. Yeah. Naji. Yep. So I’ve never seen him play. I’m interested in seeing him play. I’m interested in seeing uh the development of Pome Dier. um the development of Ariel Hook Porty who hasn’t played really since undergoing the surgery um for the torn meniscus. So, I’m interested to see where he’s at. Um Kevin McCuller, like you know, he’s a guy that we didn’t get to see much of because of that knee issue. He’s a guy that I’m looking forward to. Tyler K. So, they got a lot of intriguing guys. Um, I don’t think many of them will be actually in the rotation next season, but there is the opportunity for at least one or two of them to crack the regular rotation in the NBA. Yeah, that’s that’s something Nick’s fans have wanted to see. Steph, we appreciate the time. Sadly, I will not be with you out in Vegas this year, but uh stay cool. We’ll talk soon. We’ll talk from Vegas soon. Thank you, my friend. All right, man. Flatter. That’s Stephan Bondi, beat reporter for the New York Post covering the Knicks. He was up there in Terry Town with us live following the introductory press conference for Mike Brown. By the way, Naji, that was an interesting uh little little addition there. I saw him at Barcelona a little bit. He didn’t play that much, but you know, maybe he could compete for a spot. He was I think he was drafted in the second round. Yeah, second round. First in the second round a couple years ago, so he’s got some talent. He’s just raw. But he’s a big body. We’ll see. Yeah. Um you also have Dink Pate who’s on the roster. That’s really interesting. I I’m intrigued. I like Bondi. I mean, I I think he’s Well, Bondi knows even better than me. There are two guys I think I think two of the three rookies that were drafted last year have a chance to play some rotational minutes. I think Dier has probably the best chance. And then I might go split. Yeah, it could. Well, if they’re getting another ball handler, it might not be K. No, no, no, no, no. I’m hot is the one to me. I think. Yeah, cuz Mitch is not going to play 82 games. Yeah, probably. Yeah, probably not. But I I think Doier, I know they’re high on him. I I’m very intrigued to see he showed you some good defensive flashes at times. Can he be the three guy that they want to see? That’s really interesting. And then Horty, you’re right. I think because you’re right, because of the position he’s at, he might have the best chance for minutes. I think you’re right about that, Brian. Now I think about it, I’m like, no, that makes that makes a whole lot of sense. Um I think you are are right about that. Um, if you have any questions in the chat, we see a lot of you on YouTube, people watching on Twitter, uh, as well as Facebook. A lot of people locked in for the stream. We appreciate you rocking with us. We’re going to talk a little bit more. Mike Brown. We’ll take some of your comments, your questions. We’ll bring it in. Is Mike Brown it? I saw somebody say Mike Brown ain’t it? Which I’m intrigued to be like, who who was it? And who else was there out there that you like? Just just like to know. There we go. Daniel Howlet says Mike Brown ain’t it, bro? All right, Daniel. Who was it? He’s not alone. I saw some other people. Yeah, I’m not I’m not even trying to shame you, Daniel. I’m just curious as to who you thought was it. That that’s all. For the people who say that he isn’t it, who’d you like? Um let let us know. We appreciate all your comments in the chat. Nostalgic Nick who always reps with us. Shout out to you. Um you do it. It’s funny. NYC Bball08 comes in and says, “Who would have been your preferred coaching candidate?” Yeah, that’s all I want to know. If you’re gonna say someone’s not it, you gotta give me who you think was better or who was your preferred coaching candidate. That that that’s that’s all we want. Uh New York State of Mine has a question. He says, “Anything about Precious Sichua?” Precious Chua is not coming back. Yeah. That that that that’s he’s not he’s not coming back. I think I think the runway needs to be there for Yabuselli and Hawk Party uh to be backups. uh more so Yaboselli act obviously but let’s also mention though Hawk party kind of like Jericho Sims last year on the last year of a short-term contract but young you think he has upside and Mitchell Robinson has a short-term deal also so like if you’re looking at Hulk party basically playing for like a Duce McBride type of contract you want to see him get minutes and see if he can solidify a backup center job which will make Mitchell Robinson expendable or you can keep hold of them and just sort of figure out how to work them. But I I think the Knicks are going to have somewhat of a of an investment in Hawk Pertie getting some minutes this year. I think so, too. I think they want to see how he develops. Daniel didn’t respond to us. Daniel said uh Taylor Jenkins was who he went to, who, you know, I believe was the other finalist uh for this job, and the Knicks were impressed with him. They went with Mike Brown instead. I mean, surprised he doesn’t have a job, admittedly. Yeah. I mean, if you told me you want Taylor Jenkins over Mike Brown, I don’t. That’s not crazy. I mean, it’s fine. You know, you know, you know, I I think it was fine. Uh, how’s everybody feeling in the chat about Mike Brown? Uh, and this hire, Daniel, let it let it be known how he is felt. Um, look, I I think this is fine. Uh, shout out to my guy Ron. Still Knicks fans, uh, friend of friend of the program, uh, multiple time guests. Mike Brown is going to be fine as the next coach. I hope the players buy into his free flow style of offense. I I think Ron to that point and Brian and I talked about this last week. I think that’s the thing I’m most intrigued about. I think Steph said the same thing too when he was on with us last week. That’s the thing I think a lot of us are intrigued about fans, media is how does Mike Brown’s offense, how does he maximize this roster offensively? Because the Knicks looked good. They were top three offense for most of the year. They’re top five till January and then the offense kind of created. They were never really the same after that. Now, there’s a lot of things you could get into that. Was it minutes? Was it not going nine or 10 deep? Was that part of it? There’s a lot of reasons you get into that. Was it just the way I look at it, a lot of it is, let’s be real, Tomo’s offense was not dynamic. Okay. It it it it looked a little archaic at times. And I do think Mike Brown based on his we’re going to use the I’m going use the word he said a lot today, Brian. Evolution. Right. based on his evolution, his coaching time under Steve Kerr, I think he grew offensively and I think that combined with him being known as a defensive coach is the really interesting thing here and how he can maximize this offense and I do expect it to be better. I do think things will look better with Jaylen Brunson playing more off ball. I think that’s something I know you would like to see too, Brian. In theory, yes, in theory. But but that’s the thing like people like all of these dudes have played in offenses in the past where the ball kind of sticks you know to whomever like even going back to OG’s Toronto days like there were times where Kawhi Leonard would hold the ball a lot would have to get cooking also while he’s a beast in transition there were times where he would isolate Kyle Lowry would move the ball but like OG Anubi was like a fourth fifth option male Bridges wasn’t somebody who like was playing in like always playing in a free flowing offense either you know Chris Paul would have the ball a lot and things of that nature. So like it it’s in in in theory, yes, I want to see how it actually looks. There’s a world where it looks great, but you know, Jaylen B Jaylen Brunson’s used to making things happen with the ball in his hands. So it’s just a matter of like it might be uncomfortable and it might be an offensive start where the Knicks are like the first month or two like, “Oh, what is this? Like this isn’t working.” And then they hit it into gear later on in the year. I mean, some of that was happening last year either. last year also, you know what I mean? Where they started off and it was like what’s happening? Then they had that month where they just beat on bad teams and that was the narrative against them all season and then we were in the Eastern Conference Finals before we knew it. So yeah, no, I I I could see that. I could see it being a process. Thank Thank you for the question, Ron. Appreciate it. Shout out to Ron with Still Knicks fans. Does a great job there. Uh let’s see see who else we uh have in here with with with some stuff. Just looking through some questions here. Uh, Namar Sea, I hope I said your name right. Do you think Mike Brown hires Darvin Ham and do do you think they bring Dante Dvenenzo back? You got to yell Dante Dvenenzo. You got to say, do you think they bring Dante Dven? Yeah, all caps. I got to get mad. Uh, would they bring Micah Norris’s assistant coach? A lot of questions there. Uh, I think Darbanham is an interesting possibility. I would not rule that out. Um, Dante Devincenzo, I do not think it’s Look, Nicks fans, give it up. I know you love Dante. Give it up. And And here’s the thing, Dante to I understand where Nicks fans are with this. This is not me clowning or saying anything like this. What I’m saying is Dante Danchenzo had something that was really good for this team two seasons ago, and that is he could get up a lot of threes. He hunted threes. Something the Knicks lacked last year. somebody who could take a high volume and also make them. Um, they lack that and you’re hoping they get some more of that this year with Jordan Clarkson with Gershan Yuselli coming off the bench. That should help them in a bit, but I don’t think Dante’s coming back. I know everybody wants the Nova Four back together. It’s a heartwarming story. It’s that it’s not it’s not happening, guys. Now, Mori is an assistant from the Timberwolves who uh also got looks for this job. I don’t think so. for the reasons Steph mentioned with James Rego. I think it’s actually more likely James Rego gets bought out or but I don’t see it because like Steph said, a lot of that stuff is a lateral move. Maybe if you’re going to give some compensation, people don’t really give up compensation for elite assistants or associate head coaches. That generally doesn’t happen. So, I think it’s a long shot on that. Darvin Ham, I think maybe a little bit more likely. Would I like James Rego on the staff? Absolutely. Absolutely. Now, maybe if James Rego badly wants to leave New Orleans to come to New York, maybe I I but it’s going to it’s probably going to take some compensation. And Nory like was in play for the head coaching job. So, how open is he going to be to being a lead assistant off of that? Like, you know, he he has a valuable position in Minnesota, you know, where we’ve seen him actually like be important on that staff. Actually, I wanted to ask you that before we get to the next question. Yeah. How do you I don’t want to like overindex on this, but like how much do you care about what the final coaching staff looks like? Cuz I feel like it’s something that people get fixated on when things don’t go well, but they kind of ignore it when it is going well. You know what I mean? Like are we are we a little hyper not on the lead assistant job specifically? Because that’s important. I think Bargo actually would be like that’s an interesting forwardinking sort of hire. But beyond that, how much do you how much value are you putting in like the entire staff from top to bottom? Look, I I I think when you what I’ll say to that is I think when you hire your head coach and you believe in that guy, you got to trust he’s going to get the right people around him and allow him to get some of those right people around him. Now, I think some of the guys the Knicks are keeping before I answer your question, I think like Mark Bryant who did really good work with Cary Towns. I mean, when I was at games, I mean, not I’ve heard this from what he did with him in practice, but when I was at games, uh, 30 or so games I went to last year, Mark Bryan was always working with him before, especially in the post. Something I know fans would like to see a little bit more from from Cat. Uh, Mark Bryan is a good big man coach. I think MoS former head coach adds value down the bench. Um, I I I think that matters, too. I think who Brown picks to be his lead assistant is going to be very interesting. is probably gonna be somebody who either is very reflective of him or sometimes people like the lead assistants that are opposite, right, Brian? Yeah. That can, you know, maybe they have a strength that you’re not in. So, if you’re a big offensive coach, although I think Mike Brown is a very good balance coach based on his career, maybe he wants somebody who’s going to orchestrate the defense or add a little bit more wrinkles to the offense, right? Because he’s the one emphasizing defense. No, no, no. He’s emphasizing the versatility, the talent, and the pace of how they can play offense different from what they were used to. Not shading Tom Thibido, but like him wanting to implement his not style, I would say philosophy because I think the style, at least according to what he said, he wants to sort of like let the players like play to their strengths, so to speak. like he wants to incorporate more of a philosophy than a style and let the style be because the Kings the way he coached them was really like trying to get the most out of the talent that they had. It wasn’t a style that he had prior. That wasn’t how he coached in Cleveland, for example. Cleveland, everything revolved around LeBron James as it should have been. And his focus was defense, defense, defense. He was an assistant on the Warriors for a while. He goes to Sacramento and he’s a little more laid-back as Zach Low mentioned and also the offense was very free flowing because you have De’aran Fox and Deont Sabonis. Two of the better offensive players like in the league and you’re able to make just magic with that with shooters and the corners. We talked about how they were able to get out in transition and really push the pace. The Aaron Fox is one of the fastest guards in the league from coast to coast. Like this is a different style team. So I do wonder how are they going to sort of strike that balance. And I do wonder if the lead assistant is going to be somebody who’s like, “Okay, here’s how Jaylen Brunson can get off the ball. Here’s how you can use Carl Anthony Towns in a myriad of different ways. Here’s how you can get the most out of an OG Anubie who probably wants to do more offensively. Here’s how you could get Male Bridges to go back to attacking the basket like he was in Brooklyn.” Like, I wonder if that’s going to be the case, Dex, with the offense. Yeah, I wonder about it, too. I as you were saying all this and the question you asked, which I think is a good one, it made me think like sometimes is the lead assistant like the backup quarterback in football, you know what I’m saying? So something goes wrong, somebody’s like, “Oh, we got this guy right here on the bench that we like. We might want to bring him forward, right?” And here’s the thing, we we acknowledge this and we talked about this last week. This is a pressure situation for Mike Brown. I I don’t think this can be understated and I’m very very I’m very excited for this next season upcoming in the fall. Not that we need to rush there, but I’m excited to see how all the fans the fans who are here. We we we appreciate you are going to react, especially when we start doing our live weekly shows again that Brian and I do every week on the Knicks. It’s going to be interesting to see the fans go through the wave of the season and are are they jumping off the Mike Brown bandwagon or calling for whomever will be the lead assistant coach when they have their first two threeame losing streak and it’s like oh man we want James Rego told you sometimes I think with that I don’t I think it matters to answer your question it matters but I think it’s just like anything else any staff any other place you work with you got to be in lock step with who you’re working with right? You’re only as good as the people that support you and and you know do this. We’re not as good as our producers and people who help us and make it do you know do what we have to do. So I think it’s just finding the right marriage and you have to trust the process of Mike Brown for it to to for him to do that. And I think he’s been around the block uh a couple of times that he’ll get the right fit for somebody that needs to work next to him. You know what I mean? I I’m not I’m not worried about it. whoever he chooses. I mean like if you’re put it like this, let’s say he chooses coach X. I’m not going to say a name. And you wanted coach Y. I mean really, you really going to like complain about that? Like that’s really going to like people people will affect, you know what I’m saying? It’s going to affect you. It’ll be after the first loss. My two cents. Shout out to my shout out to my two cents. Uh not even a streak who I who I always see my two cents on a lot when I’m on with uh CP and the guys on Nick Fan TV. Shout out to my two cents. He said me after the first loss. Yo, I have to say I think you’re right. I think you’re right. I don’t think Yo, if it’s a if it’s like if it’s like a home loss to like Atlanta and people are going to be like, “Oh my Trey Young, Trey Young again, Porzingis hits six threes or whatever it is. If Forzingus is even healthy enough to play this game, you know, you know the overreacting. This is going to be the season overreacting because this but but but the but the Knicks did that. I keep saying this. I’m going to say you’re right. I agree with you though. In the press release where they fired Tom Thibido, they said we think this is a championship roster. So that means but I like that though. But I like it. That means you guys you guys the fan base are going you’re going to be very uneasy this season because this the emotional swings are going to be heavy because this is a a according to them a championship or bus season. I think getting to the finals even would be acceptable. I’m not sure everyone in that building would agree and I’m not saying they have to. But even betting wise they’re like the favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference. They’ve been neck andneck with Cleveland uh for the duration of the off. Here’s the thing. I have no problem. I have no problem with the fact that the Knicks said that. I like setting standards. I like knowing what you’re going for. I think there’s nothing wrong with it. Now, does that put a little pressure on yourself? But yeah, I said this last week, pressure is what you would have wanted. To all the Knicks fans here, tell me you didn’t want this five years ago. You were dying for this day. You were dying for the days we’d be talking about, man, to my two cents said they lose one game and you’re mad. That’s some privilege right there. That’s some NBA privilege right there that we’re talking about. You were mad about this. Now you’re at the point you want this. Is it is it as fun as it was two seasons ago? No. No. Because y’all that was House Money. Yeah. Cuz it’s like cuz you know when you’re playing with house money, it’s a lot more fun. And I get it. But you also want to see your team have the expectations and then see if they can rise and and get over it. The standard is fine. There’s nothing wrong with having setting a standard. And listen, the Knicks haven’t had a good standard in, you know, was it two plus decades? They didn’t really have much of it. Now they’re having a standard and it’s like I’m fine with that. Now is there pressure with that? Yeah. But at some point if you’re a championship team, you got to rise to the pressure. OKC had pressure this year. Cleveland had pressure this year. Boston Yeah. Look at Look at the markets you’re naming other than Boston. It’s different in New York, right? It’s different. It’s different here because Boston got theirs in 2008. But if you do it here, if you do it here, as we’ve seen other teams and other sports do it here, right, Brian? If you do it here, it it’s fine. I don’t know. And I I I’m forgetting who said this and I don’t Yeah, but it’s different for this specific franchise because if you’re a Yankee fan and you’re There’s only one other franchise I think it could be worse for and and I would argue and it’s probably the Jets. The Jets? Yeah, cuz they’re the Jets. Yeah, but you know what? The Jets are one of two teams in their sport in this area. Like the All the Nets. Look at Look at you throwing shade. Look at you throwing shade. Listen, the the Net the Nets are from Long Island and then New Jersey and like there’s still I I get it. They haven’t been adopted. Like they just haven’t. And they they tried to, but we even joked like, yo, if they want a title even with Kevin Durant, like you know, like are are people that parade? Like it’s not there yet. The culture is not there yet and it looks like it’s going to be a while. But for the Knicks, like this is the team for this sport. We’re a basketball town and a baseball town, football, too. But you get what I’m saying. Like this is what this city does and this is the team where a lot of people who moved to this city in the 60s and 70s and even before that like this is their squad. People in my family and your family and people watching in this chat like they moved to this city as immigrants and we’re like yo the Knicks are our squads like Wall Fraser is my guy so to speak. You know what I mean? Like I agree. like that that this is the team and they haven’t won a title in over 50 years. So like this is why people feel angst and pressure and all these different things because they know how important this is. They know how much it means and they know that they’ve gotten close on multiple occasions and now specifically with this CBA and in this era, you know that these windows are tight. The window might be this year. It it like it it might have to be right now. It might be legitimately because look at Boston. Boston thought they were going to be on a run and now look, same thing with Denver. They had to reset. They might be back this year. We’ll see. But they also have Nicole Joic who could erase a lot of different things which which helps a lot. And look, you don’t know how long these windows are. You’re 100% right. But at the end of the day, you would like this a lot. You dream for days like this. You dream for days like this. Well, we could talk about, oh man, the window might be a year. That is privilege, folks. and you dreamed for days like this. You do not want the alternative. You’ve been there. You know what that is. And now we could talk about who they should sign with the final vet. Should they sign Ben Simmons? We we actually talked about Ben Simmons. Anyway, getting back to that couple brought that too. Couple people brought up in the comments that I thought was interesting. Some people brought up Marcus Smart. Now, for people who do not know Brian Fonka here, Brian Fonka is a Marcus Smart guy, less so than before. Yes. Because he’s he might be he might be not capital Wash, but he might be lowercase lowercase washed right now. And uh friend of both of us and the show, our guy Greg uh Greg Filmstuff says Marcus Smart will be perfect. Um you what do you say? You’re saying low-key washed. What what are we saying in the chat? Because I saw some of you guys agree with Greg and say you like Marcus Smart here. He’s doesn’t really fit that ball handler that you want that Steph was talking about. Kind of. You just don’t want him to handle the ball that much. The thing with Marcus Smart was like there’s a couple issues. One, he played 34 games last year and 20 the year before. So, health, you know, but on a veteran minimum for someone who’s going to be the ninth, 10th man, maybe like he can play next to Jordan Clarkson, but the problem is you also have deuce and like it can it can complicate things because then you’re small like in terms of your your guard rotation off the bench. Um, I might try to look for a ball handler who’s a little bit bigger. Not not Ben Simmons, but look at like they don’t have a lot to play with. I thought Gershan Yabelli was a home run. We talked about Yabuselli weeks ago and I was like, “Yeah, we were on that weeks ago. We love that. We love that.” I posted a clip about it. Like I thought Yabuselli was perfect. I thought Jordan Clarkson was perfect. I thought they could have traded for Jordan Clarkson in February and they decided to wait and I’m like, “Oh, um, someone, I’m forgetting who compared him to J.R. Smith.” To which I was like, “That’s an interesting comparison.” What I would tell you is is different from that is this. The 54 wins from over 10 years ago. J.R. Smith was their second best scorer. Yes. Jordan Clarkson walks in the door as your fifth option. Fourth option. He’s going to be your talent between those two teams. Yeah. like you still have Brunson, Towns, Bridges, I would say Clarkson, you know, like per 36, he’ll probably shoot more than OG Anobi, but like you you get the point. Um, and with Marcus Smart, like I I kind of think you need somebody a little bit bigger, but then you could look at me and be like, Brian, that’s what Pakome Doier is for. And it’s like, maybe that’s the end. May maybe he’s the guy that we should be talking more about. Um, and some people would mention Cole. I don’t I could be wrong. I don’t know if Kohak is going to be like the for sure ninth tenth like I don’t know if he’s a shoe in to be in the rotation. I feel better about Dier but I could be wrong is a really good passer but we’ll see. I think so do I. I think if they felt better about Kak as a ball handler and maybe still maybe he’s got I think we’ll see. I I I’m sure I’ll talk to Steph more about this this weekend through summer league, but I think they’re going to want to see how he progresses defensively more than anything, Brian. I think that’s going to be the thing. That’s the big question. I don’t think you’re wrong in what you’re saying about Dier at all. And I’m sorry, we just saw a comment there. Somebody said, I think it was Nick Yak said smart hurts uh McBride and Kick. I agree. And I’m I’m not necessarily a huge fan of guys taking away minutes from these young guys who can develop because I think the key minutes you can get for whether it’s Hakorti Haporti Dier or Cole this year I do think what more minutes they get all of those guys play less than 300 minutes last year. I do think that’s important right like if you can get those guys significant rotation minutes through the year. Um we know Mike Brown is going to want to play nine to 10 deep. This is the emphasis of front office. talked about this multiple times with Bondi through the search from the time they fired Tips uh to to now. So, we we know that, but I think um I think you want to see those guys play and maybe it’s Dier. He’s a guy with size to me off the bench that if he can defend, shoot, a little bit of handling is huge for this team and also just has some young legs. I mean, he’s for me, man. like he’s the guy I really want to see and he’s the guy see my two cents said I need to see Dier show out at summer league I’m kind of with you now that’s the thing you like to see from secondyear guys whether they played or not cuz now didn’t really kill that much in the in the G-League as you’d like him to shoot didn’t shoot the ball that great but you wonder what he’s been working on his game since then they kind of have him on the deuce McBride program that he was on a couple years ago but Dier I think really needs to show out too I thought K played very long summer league last year. I was very impressed when I saw him him and Hopy I were very impressed with last year when I was out there in Vegas and I got to watch him a couple of games in person. I thought Kix’s command of the offense was good. His passing and the pick and roll with Hopy was good. We know what Col can do as passer. He’s an elite passer. Yes, I’m saying that. He’s an elite passer. What doesn’t get him on the floor are two things. His defense and then also consistent with the shooting. So, what I’m looking for with him in summer league is can he be more aggressive with his shot? Can he look to shoot in ways that we know he won’t in regular games? But yeah, man. I I think that’s it. Uh, shout out to the homie Shantel Shan who’s up in here. Uh, Shantel, shout out to you, our friend of the border. Uh, Shantel said Dean Melton could be a solid addition. Brogden is solid, but he’s made of glass and is always injured. That is my concern with Brogden. I’m with you. I’m with you, sister Shantel. That is my concern with Brogden. Now, Dean Melton, he’s getting a lot of interest from different places. Can shoot the ball. It’s coming off an injury. So, it’s like I don’t know. Let us know in the chat which what do you like Brian? I like the the Anthony Melton mention here, but what do you like between him and Brogden? No, I I I mean, ironically, because Melon is coming off the injury, but I like him more than Brogden at this stage because Brod Brogden came into the league with famously bad medicals, you know, like he came into the league with one of the worst like medicals according to some people who were in on that stuff um that they’ve seen and like right now I just don’t I I don’t know what you can expect out of him. Melton like he makes sense from a role playinging standpoint but we were just talking about the rotation and I think if if you’re looking at this right like how much do you need this other addition to play I think in a perfect world because if you want Mike Brown like one of the things we talked about primarily was development and if I’m looking at it if I’m expecting the starting five to be do we think Josh Hart is in the starting five to start the season? Well, look, that’s going to be one of the things we talk about a lot as we get closer to the season. I I’m kind of I’m going to give you the kind of Steph answer on this is like I don’t I don’t know. I have no idea. Now, if Chad, do y’all want to see Josh Hart in the starting five this year? And I and listen, here’s what I’ll say. A lot of data showed in certain samples, it wasn’t a large large sample size, wasn’t super super small either, that the Knicks were better on the court with the rest of the starting five minus Josh Hart and Deuce McBride in there. Interesting. A lot of data shows that. The problem, as Brian mentioned earlier, even with adding a Marcus Smart to the team, is that if you start Deuce McBride in the back court with Jaylen Brunson, you now are very small. Though Deuce is a great defender, you are smaller. Do you want to do that? Now, it should in theory, and we saw this in a small sample size, should make you better offensively, right? I don’t know. So, I I here’s what if you want to, but you want to know what I think when I think about all this is I’m just thinking it through. I actually don’t think Josh Hart’s going to be in the starting lineup next year. I think it’s going to be either Mitch goes in starting lineup or Deuce is in starting lineup. If it’s Mitch, if it’s Mitch, I think it’s more likely Mitch though. Okay. If it’s Mitch, then they need to know that Hawk Party can be the backup center. Like I know you’re going to stagger the two bigs anyway and you’re gonna have Yabooi there, but that means Hawk Party kind of has to be in the rotation. Otherwise, you’re going to be too small. So, and this is where some people would be like, well, if Tibs played him more, then we would know. I mean, nothing you can do about that now, though, right? You know, he got he got some minutes comparatively, but like yeah, he could have probably played more, but like that’s sort of the thing. And if we think Mike Brown goes in that direction and Josh Hart comes off the bench, then and we’re that means Deuce would not start most likely. So I think I don’t mean to cut you off. Sorry. But I think that I think that um Josh Hart is going to be better with the bench unit for this team. And I’ve always said this about Josh Hart who I who I love to watch. I know you he’s a Brian Fona all-star. We we know this. Love him. I think that Josh Hart is better as a 25 to 28 minute per game player in his effectiveness for the team and coming off the bench. Yes. I don’t really have a super preference over going with Mitch Aduce in the starting lineup. Doesn’t if you want to go with size, I think it’s going to be Mitch. I think they’re going to go with the double bigs. Interesting. I think you’re going to see that. But you know how I feel about this, Brian. People get way too caught up in who starts. But here’s the thing. Who’s closing? Here’s the thing. That’s what you and what versatility do you have with your closing lineups? That’s what I care about. And you’re you’re closing lineups matter infinitely more than starting lineups. But if you’re somebody who wants Mike Brown to play with pace, that is easier to do without the double big lineup to start. Agreed. You know what I mean? Agreed. And I think some of what you should um think about JJ says Josh Hart should be playing more than 20 minutes. Listen, let me just say this real quick before I get back to my point. I understand I understand that Josh Hart did not have a good Eastern Conference Finals. I understand. But some of y’all got to went too hard on him. Like he’s not a good player. He had he was rough. He was rough. He wasn’t good defensively. He was not good offensively. He was not a good ECF for him. Could we not forget what this man did the first two rounds of the playoffs? Let’s not act like he was the best player in the Detroit series. You know what he is? He he’s he’s a running back that you give like 50% of the carries to. You want him in a committee. You don’t want him to have like the bulk of the work. I like this because then the end of the season they’ll break down. Like you don’t want him to be like your lead running. He plays like a running back, which is why I’m making the analogy, but like you don’t want Josh Hart to be your lead running back. You want him to be in there with the committee, maybe some goal line touches, 10, 12, carries a game, 15 if he’s hot, that kind of thing. Like I Josh Hart as your as your as your seventh man, assuming Jordan Clarkson six, whatever. Like those are your first two like wings off the bench or I guess Joshu Jordan Clarkson would be like a point ball handler. Like that’s that’s what you sort of and and I think JJ is kind of he’s expounded on his point. He said he’s fine, but he gets exposed more on both ends of the floor the more he plays. I would agree particularly on the offensive end. I don’t disagree with your point, JJ. I understand your point. I don’t disagree. I think 20 minutes was a little bit harsh on him, but I don’t disagree with your point, right? Like, and I think it ties into what Brian says. Like, I I get what you’re saying. Um, what I was talking about before was with what you want to go and switch and with size and all that. You brought up the fact of how you want to play faster with pace and this is where Mitch probably does not help you in that regard if you start him. I agree with that. I think also the good point for you look that you’re looking at Brian is um when you look at what Mike Brown did in Sacramento particularly and how he tried to play with pace. one of the guards that he used and I also watched his guard play in summer league last year and and do what he should do as a in a second year player um was Keon Ellis who he used for defensive sparks was a little bit you know he’s a little bit bigger of a guard than Duce but I wonder if Duce could play in his role he sees Deuce more in that Keon Ellis role for this team and why he’d want to insert him in the starting lineup because he did insert uh he did insert Keon Ellis into the starting lineup for JJ I I promise. Yeah. I like your sense of humor. JJ’s like, “All right, 25 and a half 20 and a half minutes.” Also, JJ put a little over under in here. I like that. Can we I have a I have a I wrote down the Knicks rotation that I think I would probably like to see. But, uh, before that, the Knicks rotation you would like to see next year or you think that Mike Brown is going to play next year? If we’re expecting double bigs, I think this is what it would look like. Okay. If he plays double bigs, got it. Genius says, “Why is nobody talking about Chris Paul?” Dex, Chris Paul is one of your favorite players ever. You know, I you know, I like Chris Paul as well. And this is supposed to be his final year apparently. He told Jamal Hill that this is probably it. Are you interested at all? I don’t think a lot of Nick fans would be, so you know, we won’t have to spend too much time on this, but are you interested at all in all at all professional broadcaster in Chris Paul being on the team this year? Okay, I’m I’m gonna try to think this through because I It’s complicated, y’all. It shouldn’t be. Chris Paul is, as Brian said, Chris Paul is one of my favorite players, favorite point guards of all time. Here’s what Can I start with? Let me Okay, Chris Paul’s a ball handler. Can he still give you 15 minutes and be solid? You’re a little bit small with him. He’s going to hurt you a little bit on the defensive end. And this is where I’d start to get worried that Nick just adding too many small guards here, which is what worries me. Although Chris Paul is a professional. Here’s what Chris Paul doesn’t help you with. He is not going to help you with pace at all whatsoever. He is not going to help you with pace. This this is not what you want in terms of that. What he is is a professional ball handler. He can run the team. Um he can run the offense. It is going to be fine. And he’s going to have a high standard in terms of being like another coach on the floor. That’s what I love about Chris Paul, but I don’t think he helps necessarily in terms of how the Knicks want to play. Like, if they signed him, would I be mad about it? No. It’s Chris Paul and he can still play and he had a very good season. He played all 82 games last year for the Spurs, which is highly impressive at it at his age. Um I again it’s in theory I like him as a backup point guard but I think if you’re trying to play with more space and I think he’d be a great mentor for K. That’s some value I could see there too. But I think if you’re trying to play with more pace I’m going to say probably no, but I’m not going to be upset against this. Yeah, you had me work through this man. Like I am just working through this. I I don’t even I don’t even know. Uh, can we put Anakin Flo’s comment? Not what did Anakin Flo say about? Yeah. No, no, no. Not this one. The one before that he had where to the N. I mean, I don’t think they need it. I don’t think Flo’s other comment about how he’d be like Jason Kid was on the Knicks 2013 roster. I see I see the comp that you’re making there. U except that’s Chris. I thought Jason Kidd made more of a better transition to being off the ball with that team that I’m not sure that Chris Paul makes with this team. I I’m not I don’t think they need it cuz cuz if I’m to I’m to ask me at the end of the show. I’m a little torn on this. I’m not sure. Like there’s positives. I I kind of lean no right now. I’m leaning no is what I would say. We’ll put we’ll put up some more comments before we get out of here. Y’all are bringing it today. We appreciate it. Now, shout out to the Knicks fans because you guys are are bringing in a conference. Uh the magician said, “Where’s the press conference, sir? It happened already. That is well over an hour ago.” Um but if you scroll back uh on this after this live stream is over, you can see the press conference because we had it here before we came on. So, just you can see this is the this is the post presser reaction, but if you want to check it out, definitely uh scroll earlier in the stream and you’ll be able to see it. So, we agree. And to people asking about Ben Simmons, um, and Marcus Smart, we did mention them earlier. Um, Stephan Bondi ruled out Ben Simmons entirely, like just just was a flat no. Uh, Marcus Smart, we didn’t talk to Bondi about. Um, but, you know, we’ll see. They are weighing options in terms of who they’re going to actually use to add on the veteran minimum. Um, on the roster, we agree that if if they’re going double big to start, which we don’t know if they are yet, Mike Brown sort of dodged this and said he wants to finalize his coaching staff first, which a head coach should do because you want to incorporate, you know, you want to like hear out your staff and be like, “All right, here’s what like what should we do? Leave it to the floor.” So in terms of the starting five, if it’s double big, we’re expecting it to be Brunson, male, OG, Caranthony Towns, Mr. Robinson. Yes. If it’s a double big. So then if you’re doing a 10-man rotation, that has to be Clarkson, Deuce, Josh Hart. No, no particular order from six through 10, but like I’m going rather from position, even though basketball’s more positionless now. We know that. Clarkson, Deuce, Josh Hart, Yabuselli, Hawkporty have to be the others. Like it has to be Hawk Party. So then whoever this sign is, whose spot are they taking? Like I know they I know that uh Bondi said it has to be a ball handler. And I’m looking at this and I’m like, are you sure you don’t want it to be a center? Do you trust Hawk Perty that much? I would, but I also don’t know. You see what I’m getting at here? And if Mitch and if Mitch gets hurt, I guess you just move Josh Hart back into the starting lineup or even deuce and you try to, you know, move it in that direction. But I almost think that the person you sign on the veteran minimum, you don’t want it to be someone you have to absolutely play that much, but that person has to then be comfortable with that role of not playing that much for signing for that veteran minimum and understanding they’re going to get the chance. And maybe this comes up to our homie Shantel Shan who has a comment here says Mitch has dealt with injuries every year. Um if he starts they have to be sure about Yabuselli for one. I think that’s another good point sure about two along with hot py to your point. Do you look for a big like Thomas Bryant who Nick Knicks fans are not happy after those three. What game was that? Was that game four? Game four or five when he hit them threes? It wasn’t six. Oh you know. Sorry. It was six. It was six. Yeah. I thought it was six. Yeah. I remember during the stream I was just like what? Sorry, we don’t need to go back to that. Anyway, um like Thomas Bryant as a backup tattoo. As a backup, Chris Bucher is another name we’re seeing here a lot in the chat. A lot of people Chris Buchchet is a name that a lot of people brought up to us during the stream last year when we were going up on the trade deadline. A lot of y’all like Chris Buchet a little bit more than I do personally. Yeah, I know why you don’t like him that much. Why do you think I don’t like him that much? Because he can go from having 23 and 10 one game to having like nothing in the next four straight. Maddingly inconsistent. Yes. Yes. Yes. Um Maddingly inconsistent. Um so that’s it. I think Shantel’s point about being concerned about Mitch’s Mitch is health and then your point about the trust off the bench and who you sign. I do think that’s a good one. um into and but a lot of this you’ll be told about what’s their confidence level in hot party. This is why whoever this signing is one I think this is coming after summer league although you never know campaign was signed in summer league in fact when campaign was signed in summer league last year I literally remember this I was walking through the Thomas and Max center and I walked past Bondi was just there posted up chilling watching the game wasn’t a nick game and I was like yo what do you think the campaign signing he was like they sign okay he didn’t even know he’s like it’s sign campaign so this signing could come random as hell it’s like 3:00 in the afternoon um Pacific time signing could come random as hell who knows you were you happy about that signing By the way, at the time I was okay. Shout out to my fellow Steelers fans campaign. Shout out to my fellow Steelers fan campaign. Um, somebody said DK said I’d rather bring back Precious than sign Buché. Can’t say I disagree. Although if I’m Precious, I want to play. If I’m Precious, I want to play. But Precious is going to want to play. And that’s why See, and that’s the thing. You got to be a vet. And this is where it goes into what Shantel was saying. Thomas Bryant kind of knows where his role is. Um, Joe Edwards, shout out to you, brings up a name I thought we looked at this guy when we talked about possible free agent signings with the TMLE, and I don’t believe he’s been signed yet. Amir Coffee, I do not believe Amir Coffee has been signed yet. Still a free agent? I think he still is. I believe so. Let’s we double check on that. Um, producer Jeff, if you can double check on that, we will. I think No, I think I think that’s right. Um, someone else says they have James Naji, who we did talk another project. You know what I mean? Um, I think with Thomas Bryant also, JJ with Thomas Bryant also Bush I want is Bobby Bobby with Thomas Bryant also amazing locker room guy and when he was on when he was on the Nuggets there were times he would play, there were times that he didn’t. When he was on the Heat, same thing. Although he played often and then he didn’t play and then he like he’s a guy you can toggle in and out of the lineup and his mood will be fine. You watch him in games, he is up. He’s encouraging everybody the entire time. He used to talk he would motivate like Jokic. He would do this with Bam. He would do this with whoever was on the Pacers at the time. Like he’s actually a great like he would be a great locker room guy. Thomas Bryant. No, I could see that. Uh NYC Ball always says Malcolm Brogden. We did talk about Malcolm Brogden. NYCB08. Uh he’s being considered. Uh Bondi said that he is a name to be considered for uh that spot. Um we got a c we got a couple more minutes to go uh before we we have to wrap because I have to get out of here. Uh so so so does uh Brian. Um look, let’s close on this. And I had somebody, I’m not going to say who, in the media text me and their reaction to the Mike Brown press conferences, and I just want to make sure I say this right in what they said. They said, “What a boore.” Really? And this person was there is what I’ll say. Oh. And look, not Bondi. It was not Bondi. It was not just in case. It was not Bondi. Open their third eye. It was not Bondi. That’s all I said. Let’s put that dispelling rumors. It absolutely was not Bondi. Um, as I said at the top, these introductory press conferences are never, you know, excite unless somebody comes in, like Bonnie said, bangs the table. I’m going to win, you know, we’re going to win a we’re going to win six championships. You knew he wasn’t getting there with Mike Brown. I think Mike Brown I I’ll repeat what I’ve said. Brian and I are sort of on the same page. I think it’s a fine hire. I think he gave you what you thought in the press conference. I don’t think he was going to give you a lot to work with. I do think a lot of people you talk to in other media markets, Sacramento, excuse me, other places, I think he’ll be fine and great with the media as he moves forward and is comfortable. I think he’s going to demand excellence of these players. You know, I think he understands what the time is. I’m with my two cents on this who just commented right here. I could care less if he’s a boore. It’s chip or bust. Let’s get the chip. That’s got to be the energy, right? That’s got to be the energy. It is what it is. The game is what it is. It is championship or bus time for the Knicks. Uh I think Mike Brown knows what’s ahead of him. I think it’s fine. I don’t think if you’re not excited about this, well, hopefully you can get excited about winning. Endgame is right here, too. We should prove it on the court, not about the press conference. Also with you, it’s it’s about what happens on the court. It’s a big season upcoming for the Knicks. We’re going to have you plugged in here on New York Got Game with the uh with the New York Post. We’ll have a lot of more shows. We’ll be talking summer league this weekend. more stuff on the Liberty, the Knicks. So stay plugged in with us. If something happens, they sign Ben Simmons, you know, we’re going to give you a live a live show as well, too. We will have that. He is Brian Fana. I’m Dexter Henley. We appreciate all of you guys in the chat for checking in. Shout out uh we give some love to our producers, Ryan Samson and Jeff Stansbury for doing their thing on this one. We’ll catch you next time on the next New York Got Game live show. Peace out.

Watch the Knicks introduce their new head coach Mike Brown followed by a NY Got Game live reaction show hosted by Dexter Henry and Bryan Fonseca.

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