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The reigning champion Knicks fell to 0-3 on the new season, pointing to either violent regression or a debilitating hangover, depending on who you ask. While fans and media have their theories, head coach Mike Brown points to three on-court causes.
Brown blames missing quality shot attempts, lacking physicality/pace, and the combination of careless turnovers and poor defense in transition, per SNY NBA Insider Ian Begley. Everybody has their piece of the picture, but zoom out and the problem may be a short-term sacrifice that bears fruit in the long run, like one the Knicks dealt with last year.
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Brown was brought in partly to, and partly won a championship off, the willingness to use the regular season to experiment over trying to maximize wins. He installed a brand new offensive system, shortened starters’ minutes to save them for the rigors of the postseason, and constantly tried new players and lineups.
This strategy paid off in spades. Karl-Anthony Towns as a passing hub saved their season in the first round, third-stringers stepped up all year round and Jalen Brunson–Jose Alvarado lineups closed the greatest comeback in playoff history.
Coming into 2026-27, Brown has much cooler expectations, being the coach that accomplished the impossible versus the one that’d better or leave town. He’s also watched eight consecutive new NBA teams win and fail to make it back to the NBA Finals, and knows the Knicks can’t afford to be stagnant if they want to repeat.
Given he has more leash and political capital than any New York coach in recent history, and both the incentives and blueprint for innovating, it’s only natural he’d go even further in using the regular season, conceptually, to prioritize spring wins over winter ones. We’ve seen it in numerous ways these first three games, perhaps contributing to the early malaise by throwing new questions at a team trying to cheat off a test from last year.
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Despite losing three games by single digits, all of which went down to the wire, the Knicks starters are playing about the same average minutes as they did last year. Brown has held firm with losing…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/why-knicks-may-not-best-165702984.html
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Publish date : 2026-10-27 16:57:00
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