It’s time for the Knicks to right their wrongs, and in order to do that, they will need to win on the road after failing to do so twice in as many games.
New York moves to Sacramento for a matchup against the Kings on Monday, which falls right in the middle of their ongoing five-game road trip across the West Coast.
Here’s the latest from Coach Thibs and a couple of other Knickerbockers.
Tom Thibodeau
On having Patrick Ewing’s experience around the team:
“Patrick has all kinds of experience. Having played in New York, I think understanding New York, and winning at a very high level. Unfortunately, he didn’t win a championship, but he’s a championship player, I saw what he did every day. To carry a franchise the way he did for 15 years, it says a lot about him.”
On Josh Hart’s role in handling the ball:
“Josh handling allows us to move Jalen off the ball at times. It’s a different point of attack for us. Guys get used to off the dribble and now you’ve got to do catch and shoot. Then there’s pace involved and then oftentimes as a five goes onto Josh, [he] has a great speed advantage. We can take advantage of that as well. Having that versatility, we had that before when we had Derrick [Rose] and [Immanuel] Quickley. We’ve always been interchangeable with our second unit. And I think that when you have multiple guys that can run pick and roll and get to a second pick and roll that puts even more pressure on the defense. Deuce fits into that perfectly. He’s got a great wingspan, so he plays a lot bigger than his actual size.”
On team need for roster-wide leadership and toughness:
“It’s more what your actions are. That’s what we need. We need a team full of leaders. I think being mentally tough as a team, you want a group of leaders, a team of leaders. It’s not any one particular guy. It falls on the entire team. I’ve always been a big believer in that.”
Karl-Anthony Towns
On learning from Patrick Ewing:
“How dope is that s—? It’s dope as hell. The blessing and the fact that I can say that I was on a bus with Patrick Ewing and going to games and we talk a bunch and to be around a legend like that. You always learn a little bit here and then you ask him for that help and he’s been in the situations, especially here in New York. So his wisdom is priceless and his game is obviously on a Hall of Fame level. So getting a chance to sit with him, talk with him about basketball, about what I can do to be better from my spot, is awesome.”
On P.J. Tucker potentially joining the Knicks:
“Any time you can get a vet, and at one point I can remember how deadly he was at the corner 3s, No. 1 in the league, the idea sounds great.”
On McBride stepping into a larger role with Jalen Brunson out:
“For us, we have to maximize what he does best, his strengths. Today was a good practice for us to integrate him into a part of the offense and then see what we can do to utilize him as best as possible.”
On Draymond Green’s comments:
“I choose to approach that with love and not hate. That’s all I really care about. I hope no one has to go through what I went through and those kids — and what those kids had to go through. Losing a parent is tough.”
Miles McBride
On adjusting to a bigger role in the offense:
“It helps a ton obviously. You never want a guy to go down. And having a back-to-back is tough. Still shocked from just the loss the night before, the loss of a player going down like that. Being able to get a practice, get chemistry with guys, is always good. I feel like I don’t think my job has to change too much. I’m going to be aggressive and look to score, but understanding we have a lot of great scorers out there and I need to be able to get those guys going first. That’s going to be my job.”
On the team’s perceived lack of toughness:
“I think our team right now is pretty tough. Throughout the whole season we’ve had some great wins, some tough fight-it-out wins, and we got stops when we needed to get stops. Anybody that adds to it is going to be great.”