Going into last night’s road game (Wednesday) versus the Sacramento Kings, the third game of a four-game Western Conference road trip, the Knicks were 25-14, second in the Eastern Conference standings behind the Detroit Pistons, who were 28-10. The Knicks opened the stretch last Friday losing 112-107 to the Phoenix Suns then defeating the Portland Trailblazers on Sunday, 123-114. They end the slate tonight against the Golden State Warriors.
Knicks head coach Mike Brown has demonstrated he is taking a 30,000 foot view of the NBA regular season in preparing his team for the postseason. While maintaining the long-held coaching philosophy of one game at a time, Brown, who is in his 12th season as an NBA head coach and his first guiding the Knicks, has extensively utilized his bench.
Contributions from players with relatively minimal NBA experience — Tyler Kolek, Mohamed Diawara, Ariel Hukporti and Kevin McCullar Jr. — have been indispensable as injuries and minutes management to the primary rotation members has made it necessary for Brown to reach far down his bench. Accordingly, expanding reserve units through the course of the regular season has proven to be a formula that championship-contending teams have employed.
Notably, the Oklahoma City Thunder, who won the title, and the Indiana Pacers, whom they defeated in seven games in the first NBA Finals to go the distance since 2016 and only the 20th in league history, relied heavily on their depth. Conversely, a reluctance to distribute meaningful minutes more widely was a primary criticism of former Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau among fans and media, despite his notable achievement of leading the Knicks to the Eastern Conference semifinals in 2024 and the conference finals last May.
In late November, Brown explained his theory on bench usage and foresaw that seldom used players in the early part of the season would emerge as factors as the schedule progressed.
“It’s so early in the season, the reality of it is that I don’t want to gas my guys this early in the season,” he said. “If the minutes can be respectable across the board, especially at this time of the year, then we can increase the minutes come playoff time or late in the season.
“Getting these guys reps in case someone gets hurt or in case we have to throw someone in the game. There is a comfort level that they have, and not only that they have, but I have, the staff has and everybody else has with someone new on the floor.”
The Knicks return to Madison Square Garden on Saturday to face the Suns again and will be at MSG on Monday and Wednesday as well to play the Dallas Mavericks and Brooklyn Nets, respectively.