I agree. And that’s important. Bc there are a lot instances where this team has some of the things that they had under thibs, like the “keep fighting” mentality or mantra that they repeat (esp Brunson) after each game

as a coach he has one of the best EQ’s. the dubs miss him for sure.

It’s because he was playing Thibs-style basketball ironically enough. The broad consensus early on in the season was cautious optimism because he was playing the bench, playing around with rotations etc. Then the knicks went on a losing streak and he shrivelled away from developing the bench and ran into the arms Thibs-style basketball, where Jalen had the ball isoing teams

The thing is Jalen isoing teams has a high floor, but a limited ceiling, so the knicks started to play broadly well again. Mike sat the bench and parked KAT under the basket boxing people out and grabbing boards. He detached KAT from the offensive rotation for the most part

The Hawks series infuriated so many of us, because we’d seen this team play so many different styles in the early season, so we knew they we capable of more than just Jalen hero ball. Mike’s adjustment to play through KAT more wasn’t a lightning bulb going off over his head - knicks fans had been calling for Mike to get KAT involved for a while and after the 2 losses to the hawks the loud consensus was to play the ball through KAT more and move away from thibsball

We were calling for his head because we saw him running the team like Thibs and we saw our team losing another crucial year in our small window to win a chip. This team hasn’t changed massively when it comes to the players, it’s changed massively because of the embrace of a style of basketball that involves more people than just Jalen. We should have been able to earnestly compete last year, but we were limited by Thibs’s (and Brunson’s) ceilng. Mike’s seemingly abandoned that from game 4 of the Hawks series onwards, so he’s beloved now

the thing w brunson is that he’s a jay wright player. the core of who he is as an offensive star is on the ball, but he knows how to do everything off of it in a way that leverages his scoring skills just as well. this stuff w kat orchestrating would not work if jalen had a lower motor and awareness off the ball (this is common for ball dominant offensive hubs).

the kat sets are the most important optimization of the offense because of his true triple threat and because of the rotation’s shooting prowess almost a through z and ball iq a through z.

brunson’s a great isolation player, and sometimes that’s needed when the defense has license to be opportunistic and the screws need to be extra tight. but, even then, the ball sticking too much on him in the run-up to the halfcourt action is really a bail out for the defense. he’s our best ballhandler, which is why this happens, but i’d like to see changeups in our approach to getting into sets in tight game moments. maybe it costs a turnover from a less sure guardian of the ball, but i think the advantage of keeping their defense on their toes over a larger sample of possessions accrues and tilts the dial to getting brunson out of the defense’s fixed crosshairs when initiating crunch time dead balls.

The Hawks also have great backcourt defense but not great frontcourt defenders. Initiating the offense with Dyson or NAW on your guard gives you a smaller margin for error than if you have Jalen Johnson or Okongwu at the top of the key on your ballhandler (who still has a significant size advantage too)

The way they’re pressuring Brunson full court made me wonder if it was gonna tire him out. To his credit tho he seems like an absolute cardio machine, being able to take that pressure and still have enough in the gas tank to take and make clutch shots. A lot of guys would be so tired from the pressure it would affect their ability to get to their spot AND the quality of the shot itself, but Brunson doesn’t seem affected. 

Everyone else really struggled to do that against the spurs press

He gets more rest and its also easier to get the switches they want when brunson is off ball.

Yeah. That clip of his dad screaming in his face after they went down 1-2 against the Hawks was the turning point. He literally yelled “PASS THE BALL!” at him, and thus began orchestrating the offense through KAT more.

On this whole playoff run really, if we win it all

Great points haha

Haha, good a theory as any

Something changed on defense also

Should’ve chosen less boring stars than Tatum and Sabonis and SGA.

the one that cut the streak?

I was high on the knicks winning the series up 2-0 but you just doomed them

It’s so nice to see KAT finally get some love from the NBA world. He’s been treated so unfairly nationally for a long long time.

Minnesotans love hard man. After Rubio, KAT was a glimmer of hope in a dark time in the franchise’s history so seeing him be a huge part of bringing the franchise back from the dead, then all he did in the community (including what he said in a tough time for us earlier this year) isn’t lost on us. After the Thibs/Jimmy mess, he really took ownership as the face of the franchise and spoke about “playing Wolves basketball” and setting a standard as a leader should, unwavering loyalty til’ the day he was traded which in a smaller market is a big deal.

P.s. personally I love New York, visit a couple times every year and have a number of Dominican friends so know how meaningful him being on the team is to them and how proud he must be to represent them especially in memory of his Mother. Hoping to see some República Dominicana Towns jerseys in Uptown when I head out there later this summer.