NBA News NBA News, Match Reports and Updates
If OG Anunoby’s rehab continues to progress well, it sounds like he’ll be back on the court before the end of the calendar year.
Anunoby will obviously return to the starting lineup whenever he’s ready to play.
Advertisement
Who will be the fifth starter when Anunoby comes back? That’s less clear. But Josh Hart continues to make a strong case to start.
He had 20 points on 12 shots, pulled down 12 rebounds (five offensive) and tallied seven assists in New York’s win over Toronto on Sunday. He’s shooting 65 percent on threes in his four games as a starter (20 attempts); he’s averaging of 11.8 rebounds and seven assists per game in that span.
Knicks coach Mike Brown seems very happy with Hart’s impact as a starter. He criticized himself for his usage of Hart early in the season – and credited the veteran with how he handled it.
“Especially our first three losses, I’ll take the hit on that,” Brown said of Hart’s early-season role. “…The tough part was even backing up further, [Hart] didn’t really play in the preseason, he didn’t even really practice in the preseason. So, for me, I was behind the eight ball and was really trying to figure out how to incorporate him with what we’re trying to do. It just took time and he was extremely patient with the process.
Advertisement
“We have a standard and that’s that contract that everybody signed (that hangs in the Knick locker room) and it’s about sacrifice, connectivity, competitive spirit, but then a belief in each other, but just as much as that, have a belief in the process. Josh was huge on two of those things. His sacrifice was unbelievable because when I took him out, he just sat. When I called his number, he went out and played, but more importantly, his belief in the process, even if he thought I was wrong, was awesome.
“When you’re a leader, you have to show that or embrace those types of things more than everybody else cause you got to set the example and if somebody steps out of the realm of what our standard is because you did it as a leader, now you can tell them, ‘Hey, come back over here because we all got to do this. I had to go…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/knicks-notes-josh-hart-making-045027383.html
Author :
Publish date : 2025-12-01 04:50:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
