Five Key Challenges the Knicks Must Tackle Before the Postseason
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With six weeks left in the regular season, the New York Knicks sit at 42-25, third in the Eastern Conference and 1.5 games ahead of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Head coach Mike Brown, hired last July to extend the club’s season into June, says the group must elevate its “standard of sacrifice, competitive spirit, connectivity and overall belief” before the playoffs start on April 20.
1. Unlocking Karl-Anthony Towns
In his second year at Madison Square Garden, Karl-Anthony Towns is averaging 20.0 points, his lowest figure since his 2015-16 rookie campaign. New York is 16-11 when he attempts at least 15 shots but 24-12 when he stays below that mark. Brown insists the offense should still center on Jalen Brunson, positioning Towns as a clear No. 2 option. The coach has simplified sets to fit the roster, yet Towns acknowledges the challenge of fluctuating usage and reduced minutes.
2. Sustaining Defensive Gains
The Knicks rank eighth in defensive efficiency overall and have been the NBA’s best defensive team since Jan. 15, allowing 106.1 points per 100 possessions in that span. Assistants Darren Erman and Brendan O’Connor recently showed players film of elite defensive units such as Detroit, Oklahoma City and Phoenix to highlight permissible physicality. Recent losses to the Clippers and Lakers exposed slippage, but upcoming games feature several lower-rated offenses before an April 9 meeting with Boston’s No. 2-ranked attack.
3. Keeping Jalen Brunson in Rhythm
Brunson’s 30.3 percent usage rate is 13th in the league, and opponents have doubled him more frequently. He committed seven of the team’s 19 turnovers against the Lakers and was 16-for-50 over a three-game stretch versus Los Angeles, Denver and Oklahoma City. After averaging 29.4 points in his first 30 games, he has posted 23.1 over the last 31. Brown attributes the dip to normal variance and stresses the need to keep Brunson healthy after last season’s ankle sprain sidelined him a month.
4. Managing Mitchell Robinson’s Minutes
Mitchell Robinson, limited to 48 games over the previous two seasons, has already matched that total this year by sitting one side of back-to-backs and averaging 19.2 minutes. Guided by vice president of sports medicine Casey Smith, the plan aims to preserve Robinson’s elite offensive rebounding — 8.0 per 36 minutes, tops in the league — for the postseason. Although his free-throw accuracy has fallen back to 39.5 percent, Brown views Robinson’s second-chance creation as crucial to the Knicks’ sixth-ranked three-point output.
5. Enforcing Accountability — Coaches Included
Brown inherited a roster familiar with one another and has leaned on holdover assistants for guidance. Early friction surfaced when players such as Josh Hart were benched late in games, but the Knicks have since climbed to third in offensive rating and sixth in three-pointers made while improving from 14th to eighth on defense. Brown, often blunt after losses like Sunday’s defeat to a LeBron-less Lakers squad, insists there is “no sugarcoating” as New York tries to avoid sliding behind Cleveland or into a potential first-round matchup with Detroit, a team that has beaten the Knicks three times this season.
Owner James Dolan has declared at least an NBA Finals appearance as the season’s baseline. Whether Brown can meet that benchmark will depend on how effectively the Knicks address these five areas before the real season begins.
Source: ESPN
