Jalen Brunson reveals 3 keys to ending Knicks slump after players-only meeting

TARRYTOWN, NY – The New York Knicks are struggling to translate intent into results, having lost nine of their last eleven games. As a team captain Jalen Brunson said before the season, after Monday night loss Dallas Mavericks, and after Tuesday’s practice: They’ll adjust if they want to win.

“You’re going to have ups and downs. We’ve got to manage them the best we can. We’re not managing our slumps the best we can right now … even if we’re not winning, we just have to play better. I said this last night. I can live with the result of us playing hard and going down to the wire to lose or just playing solid basketball. So we’re told Brunson can’t just bring it back.” journalists in team practice.

After a successful NBA title run in Las Vegas in mid-December, the team is 7-11. This The Knicks roster is mostly the same group that reached the Eastern Conference finals and literally the same group that won the third NBA tournament of the season. Where did that team go?

Since the NBA Cup, the Knicks have played 10 of 18 away games. They played every other day during that time, except for two straight and an extra day of rest before the loss in Sacramento. It’s not the team’s first four-game losing streak of the season, but it’s part of it a larger sample of disappointing basketball.

After a tough loss to the Mavericks, fifth-year guard Myles McBride offered that the Knicks players may have became too comfortable with his early season success. Asked by ClutchPoints on McBride’s commentsBrunson initially played them down before pausing to agree.

“I don’t know if we won either, um,” Brunson said before pausing. “I could see that. Just because, obviously, you’re playing in the Cup, it’s like a playoff game. And when we go back to the regular season, it’s different. But it’s something we should be able to manage. It’s still basketball, it’s still our job. It’s still something we have to be able to manage and work with a lot of energy, but no matter what the stakes are, we’re better than that.”

Brunson’s 3 keys to getting the Knicks back on track start with defense

Brunson has drawn a line in the sand several times since Brown’s hiring, making it clear that the Knicks players are either willing to adapt to the new coach’s system or they don’t want to win. After Monday’s loss, he added that the team will turn things around if they care enough to do so. Asked Tuesday if he’s concerned they don’t, Brunson made it clear they have to show it.

“No,” the point guard replied. “We just have to worry about what we’re doing. We just need a little more of us.”

Effort is the first area the star has identified as needing improvement. Next came the defense, when Brunson may have sounded the most like the son of an NBA coach.

“We’ve got to be a team that, when we’re not shooting like we did in the first half, we make up for it with the little things. Like defensively, our rotations, doing all the little things. Things that I’ve been emphasizing for as long as I can remember, since I’ve been back in college. It was just the little things that we’ve had to do, and when we’re down we’ve got to rely on playing defense,” Brunson told reporters.

He connected the first two areas when asked why the team struggled to grind out close games like they might have last year or the season before. His answer clarified his position on group mentality this part of the discord.

“That’s our mindset. That’s our mindset. Our mindset has to be better. We can’t focus on things we can’t control. We can control the effort and the way we play defensively. It doesn’t take as much skill on that side of the ball. We just have to connect it better,” the guard explained.

A win won’t cure everything for the Knicks slump, but it’s a start

Brunson’s Knicks take on the 12-29 Brooklyn Nets at home on Wednesday night. A win would not be a solution to the woes that have plagued the team in recent weeks or clear their path to the playoffs.

New York won the first game after the NBA Cup by a point due to clutch heroics from Brunson. Brown said after Tuesday’s practice that regardless of the outcome, the group’s issues have begun to surface.

It’s the process against the Nets that will matter most. After all, that’s what Brown was brought to perfect. Midseason results shouldn’t have mattered until the team started surprising itself with its poor play.

Brunson’s Knicks say they know how to get back on track. They say they want to do it. They will have a chance to prove it. There are only two weeks left until the trade deadline. It’s time for them to show that they are a real group all the way.