Mike Brown entered the season touting the New York Knicks’ depth, and subsequent ability to stretch the rotation 10 guys deep. While he’s kept plenty of promises, this isn’t one of them. And the Knicks need that to change.
Rolling 10 deep every night is not a mandate. We can settle for Brown just being slightly less Tom Thibodeau-ian about his rotation in certain instances.
Yes, the top of the roster’s minutes are down. But a couple of unsettling moments have come to pass in recent games.
Jalen Brunson left the Knicks’ recent loss to the Orlando Magic with an ankle injury inside two minutes to play. Brown said the captain was still on the court because they were trying to win the game. Yet, Brunson left with 1:54 left in the fourth, and New York trailing by 16.
Then, in the Knicks’ first game without Brunson, they lost OG Anunoby to a hamstring issue. From that point on, Brown essentially ran with a seven-man rotation that saw Mikal Bridges play the entire first quarter, not get a rest to start the second, and then play all but three minutes of the second half.
Occasionally heavy minutes are an occupational hazard. Bridges logging 42-plus minutes in November is somewhat unsettling, but mostly innocuous as long as it doesn’t become a habit. Except, with Brunson and Anunoby both fighting the injury bug, the risk of it becoming a habit is suddenly very real.
New York’s rotation is thinner than we thought
Curveballs have abounded for Brown to start the season. Mitchell Robinson and Josh Hart began it on the shelf, and Robinson’s minutes will forever be managed. Deuce McBride missed a couple of games due to personal reasons, and perhaps worst of all, Guerschon Yabusele has proven borderline unplayable.
The Knicks are juuuust deep enough to navigate these issues. They are not deep enough to tackle them in tandem with both Brunson and Anunoby potentially missing. Not even with Landry Shamet packing more of a punch than anyone saw coming.
It’s on Brown to dig deeper down the roster, even if it comes at the expense of short-term gains.
Yabusele can’t play sub-seven minutes in a game where Anunoby leaves and doesn’t return, and Robinson battles foul trouble. What’s the point of having Pacome Dadiet and Mohamed Diawara on the roster if one of them can’t buy Bridges a brief rest at the end or beginning of a quarter, particularly in the first half?
The Knicks need Mike Brown to paper over gaps in the rotation even if it’s painful
In more ways than one, the Knicks are paying for their lack of player development under Tom Thibodeau. One of Dadiet, Tyler Kolek, or Ariel Hukporti should be ready to slide in when the body count thins out. It doesn’t seem like any of them are.
Whether they would have gotten more reps last season is debatable. But New York would have at least known what they were working with—or not working with—for sure.
Granted, this isn’t a Thibs-era problem. Brown has not made player development a priority, either. Not even during garbage time, at least not nearly enough.
Now is the time for that to change. It has to change. It isn’t necessarily about Diawara, Dadiet, Hukporti, or Kolek being an actual solution. It’s about ensuring the Knicks adequately insulate the players they know are solutions against unnecessary risks.
Thibs never embraced this concept. It isn’t clear whether Brown will be any different. But we’re potentially about to find out.