{"id":657892,"date":"2026-05-22T05:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T05:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/657892\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T05:51:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T05:51:12","slug":"knicks-mike-brown-effusive-of-josh-hart-compares-him-to-andre-iguodala-those-dudes-are-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/657892\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks’ Mike Brown effusive of Josh Hart, compares him to Andre Iguodala: ‘Those dudes are winners’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking at the box score of the Knicks<\/a>\u2019 Game 1 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> on Tuesday, it would appear Josh Hart<\/a> had a bad game.<\/p>\n

Not only did he shoot below 50 percent from the field and 20 percent from downtown, Hart had two turnovers, played just 31 minutes of a game that went to OT, and had a plus\/minus rating of -23, meaning when he was on the court, New York was outscored by 23 points.<\/p>\n

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In Thursday\u2019s Game 2, Hart, on the surface, played much better. He scored 26 points, including going 5-for-11 from three-point range, with seven assists and four rebounds and added two steals to one turnover. His plus\/minus rating was +18.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that Hart definitely had a better game on Thursday than he did on Tuesday, but he doesn\u2019t necessarily believe he had a bad game in Game 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m never a huge analytics guy,\u201d he said on Thursday night. \u201cAt a certain point, they\u2019re a lamp post to a drunk person \u2013 you can lean on them but it won\u2019t get you home. At a certain point, you gotta have a good feel for the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Hart\u2019s analogy, which drew incredulous laughter by not only reporters but Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a>, who was sitting right next to him, is certainly interesting, head coach Mike Brown agrees with the sentiment that Hart is more than just his stat sheet.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe does so many little things that don\u2019t show up on the box score,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI mean obviously, he shot well tonight, he scored 26 points, he had seven assists, one turnover, but he does so much more.\u201d<\/p>\n

To truly appreciate Hart\u2019s impact on the game, one must look past just his stats and actually watch what Hart does on the court.<\/p>\n

Sometimes that means simply defending the other team\u2019s biggest player. Maybe it\u2019s a recovered loose ball at a pivotal moment in the game that completely shifts the momentum, or perhaps it\u2019s just something he says to his teammates in the huddle.<\/p>\n

Whatever Hart does, Brown notices and doesn\u2019t take it for granted. Brown even compared Hart to another player he coached while he was with the Golden State Warriors<\/a>: Andre Iguodala<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey\u2019re different players, but they\u2019re similar players because Andre is edgy too,\u201d Brown said. \u201cAnd Andre is a hell of a player and he does so many little things that if you\u2019re not careful, you won\u2019t appreciate them. It\u2019s the same with Josh.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iguodala spent 19 seasons in the NBA, but other than a few really good seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> in the mid-2000s, his numbers never exactly jumped off the page.<\/p>\n

During the Warriors\u2019 dynasty in the mid-2010s, Iguodala hardly ever started, yet he impacted the game so much that he actually won NBA Finals MVP in 2014-15 while averaging just 10.4 points per game during the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s offensive output notwithstanding, Hart is very similar for the Knicks, which is exactly why he has earned Brown\u2019s benefit of the doubt.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBecause he\u2019s so impactful as a connector, I gotta give him probably more leash than anybody else,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI gotta let him go be him and get out of his way.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s hard sometimes as a coach because you\u2019re looking at X\u2019s and O\u2019s and you want everything to be perfect and you\u2019re looking at the box score and you\u2019re looking at this and with Josh and with Andre, all that s\u2014 should be thrown out the window because those dudes are winners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hart appreciated the high praise and comparison to a potential Hall of Famer, but his focus continues to be solely on winning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIggy was a hell of a player, I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m at that level, but I just try and go out there and play my game,\u201d Hart said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Looking at the box score of the Knicks\u2019 Game 1 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday, it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[52976,8174,2243,61628,36782,25169,6043,355,2113,99],"class_list":["post-657892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-andre-iguodala","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-josh-hart","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-knicks","tag-mike-brown","tag-nba","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}