Just in case you needed further evidence that Mike Brown is ushering in a new era of New York Knicks basketball, he did something during the final stretch of Wednesday’s victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers to give it to you: He closed the game with Deuce McBride, and the starters.
With about 4:40 remaining in the fourth quarter and the Knicks ahead by nine points, OG Anunoby was subbed in for Landry Shamet. That left New York with a lineup of Deuce, OG, Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, and Karl-Anthony Towns. Brown did not make another substitution until he put Shamet in for KAT with just 40 seconds remaining.
Sticklers will note the Knicks were outscored during this Deuce-plus-starters stretch. That’s tantamount to tilting at windmills. New York was a minus-one during those four minutes, and won the Deuce-plus-starters court time overall.
Oh, yes, you’re reading that correctly. There were other Deuce-plus-the-starters minutes.
Deuce-plus-the-starters will clearly be a Knicks staple
This fivesome logged almost seven minutes together, making it the Knicks’ second-most used lineup of the night, behind only the starting five. And during their floor time, New York as a whole posted an offensive rating north of 123.5, while banging in 60 percent of its twos, and 40 percent of its threes.
Small-sample caveats apply to everything this early into the season, but this is a development into which it’s worth reading. It would be one thing if Brown showed no previous inclination to trot out the lineup for which so many Knicks fans have pined. Except, he did.
New York rolled out Deuce-plus-the-starters in its very first preseason game. While this group wasn’t exactly a staple in exhibition tilts, that had more to do with injuries and minutes caps than anything else.
Plus, almost seven minutes of action is a lot by this lineup’s standards. Last year, these five racked up a total of 49 minutes together, across both the regular season and playoffs.
This lineup will probably be a crunch-time regular
Getting a clear picture of the Knicks’ crunch-time intentions is difficult when both Mitchell Robinson and Josh Hart are nursing injuries with mysterious timelines. It stands to reason, though, that Deuce, Brunson, Bridges, OG, and Towns will populate Mike Brown’s go-to lineup in the clutch.
Sure, this decision will be to some extent matchup dependent. New York may prefer to close with Towns and Robinson versus certain frontcourts.
But the Deuce-plus-starters unit actualizes Brown’s desires more than any other potential lineup. It provides five-out spacing, three-point volume, the means to move Brunson away from the ball, the personnel to get up and down the floor, and even lightens the point-of-attack workload upon Bridges’ shoulders at the defensive end.
Plenty of basketball must still be played before we make sweeping declarations. On paper, however, Deuce-plus-the-starters looks like it could be the Knicks’ best and most important lineup. And if opening night is any indication, Mike Brown feels the same way.