Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson called a players-only meeting following Monday’s home loss to injury-depleted Dallas, according to Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.
According to Shelburne’s sources, Brunson reiterated that the onus was on the players — not the coaching staff — to find solutions for their struggles over the past few weeks. New York has lost nine of its past 11 games and is currently 25-18, the No. 3 seed in the East, but only holds a one-and-a-half game lead on the No. 7 Cavs.
Shelburne’s report isn’t surprising, considering what the players said after the game. The Knicks trailed by 28 points at halftime, eventually losing by 17 in a game that was never really competitive.
“We all need to do some soul searching,” Hart said. “Right now we’re playing embarrassing basketball. We’re not executing on the offensive end. Defensively, we’ve been abysmal. We’ve been terrible defensively all year.”
For his part, team captain Brunson expressed confidence in the team’s ability to rediscover the play that resulted in a 23-9 start and an NBA Cup title.
“[Our soul searching] should have started a couple of weeks ago, but we’ve got to start tomorrow,” Brunson said, per Stefan Bondy of The New York Post (subscriber link). “We’ve got to figure this out.
“I have the utmost confidence in every person in this room, in this locker room. Just things haven’t gone our way. But we have the ability to do it.”
Here’s more from New York:
- Head coach Mike Brown didn’t mince words about the team’s performance on Monday, writes James L. Edwards III of The Athletic. “They scored 75 points in the first half,” Brown said. “At halftime, we usually do the clips and talk about technical X’s and O’s, all that crap that coaches and teams do. There was nothing to be said at halftime except for ‘Lock in and do your f—ing job.’” Edwards believes the Knicks should “strongly” consider making major changes to the roster ahead of the trade deadline.
- Speaking of the deadline, Fred Katz of The Athletic evaluates five proposals from fans to determine whether the deals make sense for the Knicks or their trade partners. One of the theoretical trades would send Guerschon Yabusele and Pacome Dadiet to San Antonio for Jeremy Sochan in a cost-cutting move. Katz says he personally wouldn’t make the deal and thinks the Knicks are unlikely to as well, though he doesn’t rule it out entirely if they can’t find anything else of value for Yabusele and/or Dadiet.
- In an appearance on NBA Today, Shelburne said the Knicks were not happy with Brown for an incident that took place during Thursday’s loss at Golden State. Draymond Green fouled Karl-Anthony Towns on a post-up and was arguing with an official after. Brown, an ex-Warriors assistant who coached Green for six years, evidently found the exchange amusing and the two hugged near the sideline (YouTube link). “That hug did not land well with a lot of folks in New York,” Shelburne said. “In that locker room, in that organization — while you can understand he might have a bond with Draymond Green — I don’t think that landed well.”
- Kristian Winfield of The New York Daily News passes along a few more quotes from Monday’s loss.
celtics without tatum, indy without hali, the east has never been more easy and knicks still cant lock it down. pathetic cry baby floppers
@chandler: Yet you clearly can’t get them out of your head. Talk about pathetic.
Edwards suggesting major changes. How he’s even employed remains a mystery.
The team has no legs left in the 4Q. They are all exhausted. Last year they had the conditioning to outwork teams in the fourth, especially when they would fall behind in the third. They have no gas tank and teams are just shredding their D.
And now the schedule gets much more challenging and the locker room is infighting.
Something bigger than a team meeting needs to happen soon.