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. While the team is still 25-18 and holds the No. 3 seed in the East, it only has 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 the play. 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
Celtics without Tatum are 26-16 and 2nd in the east while the Pacers have struggled to a dismal 10-34 mark. Celtics are playing pretty well and I’m curious to see if Tatum comes back for the playoffs.
Indy has dealt with injuries to the entire team all yr long. At this point the goal is to L as many as possible, grab #1 pick, wait for hali, back to the finals
Indy got lucky last yr. And are proving that this yr. 10 wins should really excite you.
@chandler: Yet you clearly can’t get them out of your head. Talk about pathetic.
Chandler has been doing this since last season in the playoffs insulting the Knicks the whole way. You should see Chandler on the baseball trade rumors its even more sad there all he talks about is the Mets yet hates them I really get the feeling they are just a very unwell and sad person behind their screen.
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.
Agreed, firing Brown is the best move right now!
Even in the modern NBA, it’s a bit over the top to say that the onus is on the players — not the coaching staff — to find solutions for on court struggles. It should be a joint venture, with the coaches hopefully taking the lead.
What Brunson is really saying is that Brown lacks what it takes to, and/or isn’t of a mind to, help with this. From what I’ve seen, he’s probably right. Brown is excellent at articulating the team’s shortfalls, and the need to improve on them. But he pretty clearly doesn’t consider them his problems, or plan to do much of anything about them.
Brown talks a good game; dosen’t have players back and no solutions. Thibs firing coming back to haunt Dolan
Brown threw Mason Jones under the bus
So one of the absolute worst defensive players in league calls a players only, did they all tell him how much of a liability he is?
Brunson is a great iso scorer. Cunningham showed him a few games back what a complete pg looks like. Knicks will never win anything with Brunson as their best player, dribbling around all game.
That’s what Captains do ….. starting all star player.
Knicks defensive rating was better at this time last yr. Ended up at 114 which was top 10. This yr even with Mitch playing it has been worse. This is all on coaches to me. We all know what Pacers exposed last yr in playoffs. So it’s no secret what Knicks needed to fix this yr. So what are these coaches doing ????
Trade Mitch …….. Looney and Bey.
Remember me. Like I said Pistons don’t need another center to trash your Knickerbockers. We’ll have Beef Stew this year or did you forget he was out.
👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇
For you lol ……..
The day you beat us. You can talk all you want. Right now you are still the team we walked over in the playoffs. I pray we meet again. Right now the season is still playing. Celtics don’t even have good bigs. Yet they out rebounded Pistons 45-41. Don’t get lost for playoffs.
We have lots of hard hacking fouls to give to your big guns.Ausar and Ron will be in his s**t this year. A year older and hunger! I do respect your love of team. I just read but never reply. You have given the Pistons love and it’s appreciated! I’m an old man just enjoying ball again.Just good to see hard nosed team ball our guys are a unit from top to bottom. Finally
I happen to like Pistons young talent. If you been here. You should know that. So I am not hating. I am being critical. Cause imo they need depth at C. To really push them to next level. Top Tier astvteams all have solid bigs. In playoffs tgey play a bigger part. All basketball ok. I look forward to seeing a good Pistons team.
Since the advent of the cup the team that wins has a huge letdown afterwards. Knicks are no different. It’s hard to rev up that early in the season and keep it going. Hopefully the Knicks pick it up soon. They should still get the #2 seed in the east. It’s a long season fellas
Bit late for Malone or Jenkins is it? Real coaches not babysitters. Anyways, this knicks team has a lot of talent and should be judged on the playoffs. I doubt a number 1 or 2 seed is necessary for success this season in the east. Pistons are young and largely unexposed to playoff ball. Celtics don’t have Tatum and Luka Garza is their back up centre. Bucks have fallen off a cliff. The cavs a trending downwards. Miami won’t beat themselves yet very beatable. Pacers gone. Atlanta have been poor for the roster construction in my opinion.