Quotes & Notes

Today we take a look at yesterday's notable Knick soundbites, plus three keys to the Hawks series I have my eye on.

Good morning! We’re getting close. Some good news: according to Mike Brown, every Knick practiced yesterday. I guess OG’s ankle is feeling OK.

Quotes & Notes

Before we get to the bulk of today’s newsletter, I thought we’d start off with five quotes from yesterday’s Knicks media availability that caught my eye. Mike Brown, Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns all spoke to the assembled press, and while most of what we heard was pro forma for this time of year, there were a few notable nuggets tossed in.

Let’s start with this one from Brown:

“One thing that Josh does do is he connects everybody on both ends of the floor…he does a lot of little things that are selfless and help in winning, and his competitive spirit is off the charts. he leads us in that area.”

I don’t know how much serious momentum ever existed within the Knicks coaching staff and/or brass to switch up the starting five, but I’ll bet you a doughnut that Hart wasn’t ever in serious danger of going to the bench. Mike Brown sees all the same things in him that Thibs did, for better or worse.

Next, here’s the Captain answering a question on the team’s development over the course of the season:

“To be honest, there's a lot of things that go on that you guys don't see. A lot of things we talk about, a lot of things we do that we don't even say publicly. For a reason - because we want to keep everything in-house.”

Brunson so rarely says anything of note, so this stood out. He paused before he gave this answer, which wasn’t even really a direct response to the question, as if he wanted to make a point. It’s almost like he’s tired of hearing all the noise and theories about why the team has been so inconsistent over the course of the season. He later added “things take time” when referring to the process of the season.

I dig it.

Next, here’s KAT with a short but sweet one:

“We will be judged by what we do on this run”

Karl’s been around long enough to know how to give a good soundbite. This certainly qualifies. He’s also not wrong. We can only hope the locker room collectively understands the importance of what’s in front of them.

Next up, here’s a tweet from the Athletic’s James Edwards III:

Mike Brown said he’s never made this many changes with a team in a season before. Said they started playing one way on offense and one way on defense. Liked the way the team developed and kept working at all the changes.

This was interesting, if only because Brown just completed his 10th full season as an NBA head coach. He’s coached young teams, veteran teams, great teams, terrible teams, and everything in between. The fact that he said this team has been the one he’s changed the most should mean…something, right? I’ll choose to look on the positive side and assume that the last few weeks’ worth of positives really are the result of a long, drawn out process that needed the full 82 to get right.

Last but not least, back to Karl:

“That’s when team bonding and unity is so important, when things aren’t going well. It’s never when things are going great that team bonding is lacking. It’s always, you test each other when things are going bad…It's good for us to know when things are not going well, we're going to lean into each other”

Lest anyone think this season was all smooth sailing, I hold this quote up as Exhibit A.

And you know what? That’s awesome. For one, I no longer feel like a crazy person, having been convinced things were getting a bit testy from time to time. Second, whatever doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.

Or so we hope, because if that’s the case, the Knicks should be more ready to embark on a long playoff journey than any team in the league.

That journey starts in earnest on Saturday, when New York can begin to put all these words into action. On that note, here are three things I’m keeping my eye on as we head into Game 1…