As New York Knicks basketball nears \u2014 training camp is a little over a month away \u2014 the thoughts and ideas of what could take place next season are starting to float to the forefront of minds. There are questions after a busy offseason in New York, but none that can be fully answered until the balls are dusted off and rolled out onto the floor.<\/p>\n
Today, though, we\u2019ll take a look at four questions (not in order of importance) for the Knicks. Some will be answered sooner rather than later, while others may take time.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s get into it.<\/p>\n
1. How much will the young guys play?<\/p>\n
We should know this answer by the time the NBA season officially begins, but as we sit here at the end of August, there is still some mystery about how new coach Mike Brown will utilize the young talent on this roster.<\/p>\n
Tyler Kolek, Pac\u00f4me Dadiet and Ariel Hukporti are the three second-year players whom the Knicks have on their roster that may benefit from more consistent roles. However, the Knicks are a veteran-heavy team in the hunt for the elusive NBA championship after reaching the Eastern Conference finals last season.<\/p>\n
To answer the first question, we must first ask some additional questions: Will Brown consistently play 10 or 11 guys per night? Will New York be willing to possibly take a step back in the regular-season win column to get game reps for the younger talent?<\/p>\n
We should have a better idea of the answers to these questions come training camp.<\/p>\n
As of now, it\u2019s hard to envision a world where more than one of the young players begins the season with defined roles. The Knicks added two quality veterans in Jordan Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele this offseason via free agency \u2014 and there\u2019s a good chance a third quality veteran comes through the door as New York still has a veteran-minimum signing it can make. Even without knowing who else the Knicks might sign this summer, Brown has nine great-to-solid veterans at his disposal to begin the season. He could make up a rotation of just those guys with ease. Yet, if Brown is willing to stretch his regular rotation to 10 or 11 to get game reps for a young player or two, we\u2019ll learn that development was a priority for the front office when looking for its new head coach.<\/p>\n
Of Kolek, Dadiet and Hukporti, the latter appears to have the easiest pathway to a role on next year\u2019s team sooner rather than later. Center Mitchell Robinson has had a long injury history and, while he\u2019s healthy now, it wouldn\u2019t surprise me if he were on some form of game-management plan so that he can be preserved throughout the season. I could see Hukporti being the backup center every three games or so as Robinson \u201cload manages.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Hukporti, Kolek is the only other traditional point guard on the roster behind Jalen Brunson. Miles McBride will likely assume the backup point-guard duties, but maybe Brown views him more as a shooting guard, despite his height. There could be a pathway for Kolek \u2014 who struggled at summer league but showed some good signs as a table-setter during his rookie season \u2014 to work his way into a consistent role.<\/p>\n
As for the 20-year-old Dadiet, he has the most upside of this trio, but New York is stacked at wing. OG Anunoby, Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges and Clarkson will eat up the large bulk of the wing-rotation minutes.<\/p>\n
With all that said, I do think the young players will play more this season, especially in garbage time. Too often last year, former head coach Tom Thibodeau would play his starters heavy minutes in blowout wins. It was not uncommon to see Bridges or Hart in the game with four minutes left and the Knicks up by 20-plus points. My hunch is that we\u2019ll see less of that this year under Brown, and the likes of Kolek, Dadiet and Hukporti will benefit.<\/p>\n
Depending on who the Knicks sign with their last veteran-minimum slot, I expect that one of the second-year players will be a regular in Brown\u2019s rotation. I think it\u2019s important for the organization to try and develop someone during the regular season so that once the playoffs arrive, everyone \u2014 from top to bottom \u2014 knows whether or not an extra body can step up to the plate.<\/p>\n
2. Who will be the starting lineup?<\/p>\n
I feel comfortable saying that one of these two lineups will start for the Knicks on opening night: Brunson-Bridges-Hart-Anunoby-Karl-Anthony Towns OR Brunson-Bridges-Anunoby-Towns-Robinson.<\/p>\n
Which one? We\u2019ll likely learn that during the preseason.<\/p>\n
There are benefits to both, but the former proposed starting lineup never fully connected as a unit, especially in the postseason. Thibodeau switched to the latter midway through the playoffs, and while that group wasn\u2019t awesome, it statistically performed better with Robinson in the starting unit than with Hart. Two teams have now concluded that Towns needs a more traditional center alongside him.<\/p>\n
With that said, I believe that the goal with the starting lineup should be to maximize the offense. Between Brunson and Towns, specifically being the foundation of this team, finding a way to get the starting group to consistently be a top-five offense should be the goal. Yes, the Knicks finished the regular season with a top-five offense in totality, but the group was middle of the pack in the second half of the season and often looked bogged down against the better defenses in the playoffs. The No. 1 priority for the Knicks this season is to find a way to have the offense humming, no matter the opponent, more often than not.<\/p>\n
Whichever way Brown decides to go, he and his staff have to get creative so that the roster\u2019s strength \u2014 which is offense \u2014 is highlighted. That is what is most important.<\/p>\n
3. Will Robinson finish the season as a Knick?<\/p>\n
The oft-injured big man was one of the most dominant players in the postseason, and he\u2019s currently eligible for an extension.<\/p>\n
The version of Robinson we most recently watched is an All-Defense candidate. He would be in the conversation for Defensive Player of the Year. What team wouldn\u2019t hold onto a player like that? Well, the Knicks know Robinson better than anyone, and he\u2019s been unable to stay on the court due to various injuries. I\u2019ve gotten the sense that New York would be willing to sign Robinson to a team-friendly extension that covers them in the event he continues to get hurt. On the flip side, I\u2019m sure Robinson points to his performances in the postseason and believes he can get one more nice deal from the Knicks or someone else if he\u2019s able to stay healthy in a contract year.<\/p>\n
The most fascinating scenario that could present itself during the season is if Robinson doesn\u2019t miss time leading up to the trade deadline and is as dominant during the first 35 games of the regular season as he was in the playoffs. Will the Knicks capitalize on his play and expiring contract and trade him then? Would New York keep him to continue their title chase, not break up the continuity and risk losing him in free agency? \u00a0There are pros and cons to both in this scenario.<\/p>\n
Robinson, his health and his future with the organization will be one of the more intriguing underlying storylines of this coming season in New York.<\/p>\n
4. Can Brown get the Knicks to play faster?<\/p>\n
New York ranked 26th in PACE last season, per NBA.com. The Sacramento Kings, under Brown, were notoriously one of the fastest-playing teams in the league.<\/p>\n
Brown talked about wanting to play faster in his introductory news conference. It sounded like it would be a point of emphasis throughout training camp and during the season. However, saying it and getting it to happen are two different things, and the Knicks\u2019 coaching staff will have to find a way to get this group to take it up another level in that department.<\/p>\n
Playing fast doesn\u2019t just mean getting a defensive rebound and pushing the ball quickly in transition. That\u2019s part of it. Playing fast also means making quick decisions in the half court and getting the ball moving. The 2024-25 Knicks weren\u2019t always the best at that.<\/p>\n
I do believe personnel factors heavily into how fast a team can or cannot play. Some players just have different gears, different methods. I do believe, though, that the Knicks, despite not having the players to be top-five in PACE, can improve significantly simply through an improved half-court offense. That\u2019s where Brown and his staff will have to earn their bones immediately.<\/p>\n
Getting the Knicks to play faster in the half court against the likes of Cleveland, Detroit, Orlando and other elite defenses is how Brown can show why he was the right man for this job.<\/p>\n
(Photo of Mitchell Robinson: Dustin Satloff \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As New York Knicks basketball nears \u2014 training camp is a little over a month away \u2014 the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,2901,82],"class_list":["post-96146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}