Knicks believe early season struggles are fixable: 'We're not quite there yet'

Why are the Knicks 0-3? From head coach Mike Brown’s perspective, it’s mostly a combination of the following: 1. Missing quality shot attempts 2. Not enough physicality/pace on either side of the ball 3. A lethal combination of careless turnovers and poor transition defense. There are many other reasons why the defending champs are 0-3. But those three are the most glaring – and fixable – issues Brown sees at the moment. During shootaround on Sunday morning, Brown talked to his players about each of the three issues listed above. He hit on them again before Sunday night’s game against Orlando. “We're not quite there yet,” Brown said late Sunday night, shortly after New York fell to 0-3 in a loss to Orlando. The good news for the Knicks? They believe the issues at hand are fixable. (Also, they won the NBA title last year and will have a well-earned grace period with fans/media. Imagine if the Knicks started 0-3 last year? It would have been total chaos.) Jalen Brunson says the lack of crisp cuts/actions on offense is on him. “Organization on my part and making sure we’re in the right place to execute what we need to do; everything falls on my shoulders,” Brunson said late Sunday. “I just got to be a better leader in making sure our guys are ready to go and are in the right spots. There are a lot of little things but that’s the main thing. Organization on my part.” Turnovers (16 against Orlando, 49 over the first three games) and poor transition defense (Orlando, missing Paolo Banchero to injury, had 23 points off turnovers on Sunday) hurt New York against the Magic. The Knicks, by Brown’s count, also lost five of six 50-50 balls (loose balls where the ball can be corralled by either team) in the fourth quarter. “That’s hard to overcome,” the coach said. Of course, the Knicks aren't going to go 0-82 this season. They will win plenty of games. But losing to a Magic team missing Banchero is not ideal -- no matter what time of year it is.Brunson has said several times this season that the first two weeks or so of the year will reveal a lot about this Knicks team. Every opponent will get up for games against the defending champs (particularly at the Garden). And then there’s the championship hangover. “Everyone has been telling us what a great job we did, how fun it was, what we did for the city, the constant praise (for winning the title),” the Knicks captain said. “So now we need the opposite.” Fortunately for Brunson and the Knicks, “the opposite” is never hard to find in this town.BENCH ROLES UP FOR GRABSAndre Drummond played just seven minutes against the Magic – the same amount as third string center James Wiseman. Wiseman also played a couple of minutes in place of Drummond on Friday against Boston.Brown says Drummond will be the Knicks’ backup center on Tuesday against Detroit. But the coach also made it clear that all rotation spots off the bench are up for grabs. “We have our starting five. Other than that, anybody can play,” Brown said before tipoff on Sunday. “When you’re a backup in this league, that doesn’t mean you’re always gonna be the seventh man or you’re always gonna be the eighth man. No, no, no, no, no, no. It’s competitive. And it’s less so with the starting group if your starting group is established, which ours is, but everybody else after that starting five, I can throw in front of the next guy in a heartbeat.” Brown was responding to a question about Wiseman playing against the Celtics. He then referenced the Knicks’ standards, which are spelled out in a document signed by all staffers.“We will make sure that everybody embraces it, not just accepts it,” Brown said. KNECHT-ING IN WESTCHESTERNew two-way player Dalton Knecht will initially spend time with the Knicks’ G League club, the Westchester Knicks. The thinking is that Knecht will have ample opportunity to play in G League games. Knecht will certainly garner consideration to play in NBA games with the Knicks. But Brown and the organization want Knecht, an ex-Laker, to get acclimated. “We want him to play as much as he can,” Brown said of Knecht, a 2024 first-round pick. To make room for Knecht, the Lakers’ first-round pick in 2024, the Knicks waived two-way player Kevin McCullar Jr. McCullar Jr. was beginning his third year with the Knicks this season. “Kevin, first of all, he's a fantastic young man and we're gonna miss him, obviously,” Brown said. “But he's been here (two years; three including this season) as a two-way player so we have a pretty good feel for him. He has a good feel for us and you know being able to try to get to know a guy like Dalton Knecht at this point of the year, it's something that we need to take a look at.“So (getting waived) wasn't anything that Kevin didn't do. He was great and he is an NBA player and I think he's gonna get a shot someday; and it could be with us – who knows -- down the road. But (the decision to waive McCullar Jr.) was more so having the opportunity to bring a guy like Dalton on just to get to know him a little bit better.”