It was back at Thanksgiving, about four-and-a-half months ago, that Knicks coach Mike Brown made the decision to stop trying to play a double-big lineup with Mitchell Robinson at center and Karl-Anthony Towns at power forward. Brown brought Josh Hart to the starting five, moved Robinson back to the bench where the Knicks could better nudge his injured ankles through the regular season and in doing so, all but set the Knicks’ starting five n stone for the rest of the year.
When healthy, the Knicks go with Jalen Brunson, Hart, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns. Even when it’s been clear that the Knicks could use a change up, even when the team has struggled with a minus-0.8 net rating in the first quarter over the past month, 17th in the NBA, Brown has stuck with his starters.
Through thick, and more recently, very thin.
“It’s championship or bust mode for that team, I don’t know how Mike Brown has not at least given some other lineups a look with all the trouble they’ve had,” one Eastern Conference assistant coach said. “It’s a fine line between having the courage of your convictions and just being plain stubborn with it. They’ve had enough problems, it would not have hurt to be creative and see how it looks.”
Time Runs Out on Knicks Lineup Change
Now, though, the Knicks are just days away from the end of the season, and it is hard to imagine Brown trying anything too out-of-the-box at this point. He has choices–Landry Shamet into the starting five, Mitchell Robinson back in the unit, Deuce McBride, Jose Alvarado–but he’s shown no backbone for change.
It’s too late now, though Brown would not concede that when the Knicks beat the Hawks on Monday.
“I don’t believe in never ever. But right now we’re going to start that five and that’s how I foresee it,” Brown said. “If I feel I need to make a change at any time, I’ll make a change. But I don’t feel that way right now.”
‘Debate Literally All the Time’
Brown said he knows the debate on changing the starters has been ongoing among Knicks observers–because it’s been ongoing within the team.
Said Brown: “There’s debate literally all the time. Obviously there was a debate at the start of the season when we started two bigs [Robinson and Karl-Anthony Towns]. And there was debate almost every day because I was the only one with that [opinion] — and I was getting hammered at this angle, that angle, every angle. So we talked about it a lot.
“That’s just chatter that you have throughout the course of the year, trying to find ways to improve your team. So I think there’s always going to be chatter about [changing the lineup now]. … But there’s nothing I’ve felt close to acting on yet.”
Knicks Have $175 Million Starters
And as the sand runs out of the hourglass of this season, the chances of a Knicks change also run out. There are several issues for the Knicks’ starters, a unit that makes around $175 million in total. That’s one of them: The starting lineup has too many top-of-the-market No. 1 options and not enough gritty role guys.
The Knicks can be incohesive offensively and lackluster defensively.
“They don’t really lock in on games, not in the first quarter,” one East scout said. “We tell our guys, we want to hit them in the mouth early. They’re a good team, they usually come back when they get down. But if you hit them hard enough, they fold. I’d like to get some more toughness in that starting group however you can. Maybe it’s too late. But they’re going to need it.”
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