Knicks Coach Trusts Star to Guide Quicker Scoring Style

Mike Brown isn't looking to recreate Tom Thibodeau's style as the newly-named head coach of the New York Knicks. He's trying to build on the new-and-improved rotation to take advantage of the weaker Eastern Conference with his token offensive creativity, something the Knicks desperately needed last season.

Brown is attempting to invite greater pace to the New York offense, and states as such early into his introductory presser when stressing the principles he's most excited to bring to the table. He knows he'll need buy-in from Jalen Brunson, the star of the Knicks show, but according to Daily Knicks, that's a step the coach isn't worried about.

“The first thing is, everybody knows I like to play fast,” Brown explained to New York media. “And to have a guy like Jalen out there gives you the versatility to play all different types of ways, which is what it’s going to take throughout the course of a ball game.”

Brown's stressed pace and space at every turn since returning to his assistant coach roots within the last decade, first studying under Steve Kerr's motion-style offense with the Golden State Warriors before paying homage to the Seven Seconds or Less Suns with the Sacramento Kings at his most recent head coaching stop.

He'll need Brunson, who commands much of the team's scoring rhythm with his penetrative strikes at the rim and isolation size-ups, to commit to his desire to make quick decisions and keep the ball moving, to lead the way for Karl-Anthony Towns and their band of talented role players. They ranked in the bottom five in pace last regular season, with their primary players rarely working together between trips down the court.

Though Brunson has been a dominant guard scorer since taking the jump as a Knick, it wasn't long ago that he was a role player who had to make quick decisions off of the ball, and Brown knows it. He was on the Warriors' bench in 2022 when his team dismissed the Dallas Mavericks from the Western Conference Finals, a plucky unit that rostered a young Jalen Brunson in a second-fiddle role to Luka Doncic.

Brunson will have a lot on his plate in adjusting to the style shift, especially without a reliable secondary ball handler in New York's rotation, but the leading scorer and shot-taker will have to be flexible in seeing Brown's vision through.