Knicks Morning News (2025.08.07)

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6536972/2025/08/07/knicks-mike-brown-coach-questions/?source=emp_shared_article

Edwards’ new mailbag includes a question from some jabroni:

If Brown plays 10 guys, who’s the 10th? — @sepinwall.bsky.social‬

Before he was fired by the Sacramento Kings last season, Brown seemed to play seven or eight guys for heavy-to-good minutes and then hand a few other players spot minutes. I’d be surprised if Brown played 10 regulars on a nightly basis, but it’s also possible that is something the suits want him to do and was a selling point for the job.

For the sake of your question, here is the players on the roster currently who will certainly play every night if healthy: Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart, Bridges, Miles McBride, Mitchell Robinson, Jordan Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele. I feel confident in saying Brown will, at the very least, use a nine-man rotation to begin the season. It’s possible he extends it to 10, and that may depend on who the Knicks sign with the veteran-minimum contract they have available to use. The team could still use a more traditional, veteran backup point guard. It’s also possible that Brown gives a youngster like Pacôme Dadiet some of the spot minutes like he gave to Alex Len while in Sacramento.

As of early August, though, my gut tells me that Brown will use a nine-man rotation made up of the list I provided above.

Again, Edwards doesn’t seem that plugged in and his speculation can be off. Later in the same mailbag, he says he thinks Brown will do the double-big starting lineup, with Yabu backing up both frontcourt spots. We’ll see, I guess.