At this stage of the season, winning is no longer the Knicks’ only objective.
The championship mindset is about how the victories are achieved.
“Obviously, we want to play well, we want to win, but we also want to continue to grow as a team and try not to plateau,” Jalen Brunson said after practice Monday. “I think the way we do that is to continue to try to see how we can win games differently.”
That mindset traces back to head coach Mike Brown, whose philosophy has long centered on constant experimentation. It feels like there is a surprise in the box score every game.
His players believe that brings out the best in them.
“It’s kind of a freeing thing, playing that way, knowing that you don’t have to really be looking over your shoulder or thinking that one thing is gonna ruin whatever,” Landry Shamet said Monday. “And I think that he knows that we have that makeup as a group, too, that we’re all on the same page in wanting the best for each other — the next man up kind of mentality. It’s from top to bottom, and it’s a good environment to have.”
Brown used an 11-man rotation in Saturday’s 109-97 win over Cleveland. That was not the result of garbage-time minutes; all 11 players saw the court in the first half. It was clear Brown wanted to get players such as Mohamed Diakhatou and Dalton Knecht involved who are usually out of the rotation.
It marks one of the biggest differences between Brown and his predecessor, Tom Thibodeau, who established a rotation and stuck strictly to it unless forced to change. Thibodeau prioritized maximizing chances of winning every night. Brown looks at the regular season more like a canvas to try new lineups, rotations and systems, so that by the end of the year he has more available in his toolkit.
That process might be ugly at times, but it is designed to deliver long-term results.
Brown credits it as a big reason for the championship last season. Players like Shamet and Jordan Clarkson spent time in and out of the rotation all year but stepped up in the postseason when their number was called. The shift to an offense built around Karl-Anthony Towns as a hub was only possible because they experimented during the regular season.
“It builds trust,” Brown said Monday, “because it’s like, ‘Hey, they trust me to go out there and play right now, even though I might not have played in two or three games.’ It helps with connectivity because guys feel more part of it, because they’re getting an opportunity. It helps with everybody’s readiness because the reality of it is, if a guy is sitting on the bench and he’s been there game after game after game, which happens sometimes — I’m not saying that will never happen because it’s gonna happen sometimes — then he may lose a little interest and relax a little bit because it’s like, ‘Hey, I’m not going in.’ But then, if you call their number every once in a while, throw them in a game, now they know, ‘Oh, I gotta be ready.’”
Even Jaden Akins, signed to a two-way deal like Knecht, has seen a little action beyond garbage time.
“If he can go in the game during some real moments,” Brown said, “anybody can.”
That is different from Thibodeau’s final season, when he inserted Shamet and Delon Wright into the rotation out of desperation during the Eastern Conference final, having hardly used them previously.
Under Brown, there is a track record on which to fall back for everyone on the team, even if they go long stretches out of the rotation.
“It builds a lot, when you’re talking about building a team,” Brown said. “And then at the end of the day, your guys get used to it, so come playoff time, if you try something new or different when it comes to the lineups, it’s not like, ‘Oh my God, what’s going on? We’ve never done this.’ Nah, we’ve done it.”
There is the flip side, though. Playing time and roles are constantly changing. Jose Alvarado started the year as the backup point guard but now finds himself behind Tyler Kolek in the pecking order after missing time due to an ankle injury. There is constant fluctuation with the bench players in how much time each plays. That could cause problems.
Not with these Knicks.
“That’s just kind of the makeup of our group, and that’s special,” Shamet said. “Typically, you go to a lot of NBA locker rooms, there’s some ulterior motives and personal agendas — which is part of why we’re all here, is some ego, of course. Everybody is a good player at this level and is striving to get to something or be somewhere. But very rarely does that take a backseat to just truly buying into one another, wanting the best because, ultimately, good things come from that for everyone. It’s special. It’s really special.”
It can perhaps deliver more special results.