Mike Brown: Knicks made ‘sizable changes’ on both sides in-season

Knicks head coach Mike Brown elaborated on Thursday on his Wednesday comments regarding the number of changes his coaching staff made in-season his first year on the job.

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“You always evolve over the course of the season,” Brown said after practice in Tarrytown on Thursday. “But to change as much as we did on both sides of the ball. We made some pretty sizable changes to our offense and defense throughout the course of the year.”

After practice on Wednesday, a reporter asked Brown what he’s learned about his roster with a regular season as head coach at Madison Square Garden under his belt.

“That they’re resilient. That’s probably the biggest thing. You don’t really get that feel until you’re around them. I say that for a lot of different reasons – some of the wins that we’ve had coming back, especially late in games,” he said. “We started off the year playing one way on offense and one way on defense, and we made some pretty big changes throughout the course of the year. I don’t know if I’ve ever gone through a season with a team, as a head coach or as an assistant coach, making the changes that we’ve made with a group of guys.”

On Thursday, another reporter revisited the question, and Brown invoked Kenneth Chenault, the third-ever Black CEO of a Fortune 500 company as American Express CEO from 2001 to 2018.

“His definition of leadership was real easy: It’s to give your group hope while defining reality, and that’s what a leader does,” Brown said. “And part of giving your group hope is to give them ownership of the process. Because when people have ownership of the process, they’re probably more engaged or they want to buy in more.

“So I’m not gonna come in and say, ‘Hey, we’re gonna play our offense this way. We’re gonna play our defense this way. And you guys are veterans, you adjust and figure it out.’ No, if I think that it could be a little better with hearing what they have to say — now I can’t listen to all 18 guys, but the top guys: if your top guys have input, and they’re saying, ‘Hey, what about this? Or I’m not sure about that?’ Then I’ve gotta listen, and I gotta think about making adjustments. That’s what that’s all about.”

“This is a partnership. At the end of the day, though, when you have as many people involved with this, I have to make the decision that’s best for everybody, so at the end of the day, I’m gonna make the decision, and I chose to change some things up because I felt it would fit the group better on both sides of the basketball.

BIG MITCH? BIG ADVANTAGE

Brown reiterated the Knicks will look to use their advantage at center against the Hawks, though he fell short of calling it a shortcoming for the East’s No 6 seed.

“Those guys [the Hawks], they’re all long, they’re all athletic. So is that a ‘quote unquote’ edge for them, their versatility? I don’t know,” he said after practice in Tarrytown on Thursday. “I do know I like our bigs. I like KAT’s size. I like his ability to play outside and inside. I like what he brings to the table when you’re comparing him to Mitch.

Robinson also talked around the perceived advantage the Knicks will have at center in their first-round playoff series.

“[The Hawks] are a great team. They got some good bigs over there, stuff like that,” he said on Thursday. “Come out of this and play hard.”

Robinson finished with eight points, 12 rebounds, three blocks and two steals in the Knicks’ victory over the Hawks on April 6. He is averaging seven points, 11.8 rebounds, 2.2 steals and 1.8 blocks over his last five games against Atlanta.

“Mitchell’s size, his athleticism, his ability to be a vertical threat, it gives our opponents different looks offensively, just by substitution,” Brown said, snapping his fingers. “And so, from that standpoint, it’s pretty neat. And then, you know, like I said, defensively [Robinson and Towns] both bring different things to the table.”

RUN IT BACK

Eight of the core nine players are back for another playoff run, this time under Mike Brown, not Tom Thibodeau. Robinson joins Towns, Hart, Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, Miles McBride and Landry Shamet as holdovers from the Knicks roster that made it to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in the last 25 years.

The Knicks’ defensive anchor said the approach remains the same.

“We put in the work,” he said. “Out here grinding, getting gritty and ready to go.”

Hart echoed a similar sentiment.

“Preparation is the same. They’re going to know us inside and out. You have to do the same thing,” he said. “We’ve got to know their tendencies, what they like to do as a team, as individuals, matchups, those kinds of things. So preparation is always the same.”

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