Knicks believe early season struggles are fixable: ‘We’re not quite there yet’

Why are the Knicks 0-3?

From head coach Mike Brown‘s perspective, it’s mostly a combination of the following:

1. Missing quality shot attempts

2. Not enough physicality/pace on either side of the ball

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3. A lethal combination of careless turnovers and poor transition defense.

There are many other reasons why the defending champs are 0-3. But those three are the most glaring – and fixable – issues Brown sees at the moment.

During shootaround on Sunday morning, Brown talked to his players about each of the three issues listed above. He hit on them again before Sunday night’s game against Orlando.

“We’re not quite there yet,” Brown said late Sunday night, shortly after New York fell to 0-3 in a loss to Orlando.

The good news for the Knicks? They believe the issues at hand are fixable. (Also, they won the NBA title last year and will have a well-earned grace period with fans/media. Imagine if the Knicks started 0-3 last year? It would have been total chaos.)

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Jalen Brunson says the lack of crisp cuts/actions on offense is on him.

“Organization on my part and making sure we’re in the right place to execute what we need to do; everything falls on my shoulders,” Brunson said late Sunday. “I just got to be a better leader in making sure our guys are ready to go and are in the right spots. There are a lot of little things but that’s the main thing. Organization on my part.”

Turnovers (16 against Orlando, 49 over the first three games) and poor transition defense (Orlando, missing Paolo Banchero to injury, had 23 points off turnovers on Sunday) hurt New York against the Magic. The Knicks, by Brown’s count, also lost five of six 50-50 balls (loose balls where the ball can be corralled by either team) in the fourth quarter.

“That’s hard to overcome,” the coach said.

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Of course, the Knicks aren’t going to go 0-82 this season. They will win plenty of games. But losing to a Magic team missing Banchero is not ideal — no matter what time of year it is.

Brunson has said several times this season that the first two weeks or so of the year will reveal a lot about this Knicks team. Every opponent will…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/knicks-believe-early-season-struggles-051159665.html

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Publish date : 2026-10-26 05:11:00

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