One Thing Mike Brown’s Knicks Do That the Warriors Don’t

[commentary + coaches clinic video]

The Knicks beat the Spurs 105-95 in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, but the biggest thing I came away with wasn’t Victor Wembanyama settling for too many jumpers. It wasn’t Dylan Harper’s impressive rookie moments. It wasn’t even Karl-Anthony Towns bullying his way to a huge night against San Antonio’s front line.

All of those are valid strategic observations for people that care about the outcome.

It would be nice if Latrell Sprewell — a former Dub who got his All-NBA status while wearing the blue and gold, but now can be seen courtside at Madison Square Garden sitting next to other former Knickerbockers — finally gets his revenge on the Spurs.

But as a rather non-invested Warriors fan, this identity-stamping win by the Knicks reminds me of a different, distant solar system.

For New York, it was the simplicity. Over and over again, Mike Brown’s offense boiled down to a very straightforward question: Who do we want Jalen Brunson attacking?

Once they identified the matchup, the Knicks used screens, re-screens, slips and spacing to get Brunson onto that defender. A lot of the time, it was getting Stephon Castle off of Brunson by hunting Julian Champagnie.

Then they just let Brunson play. That’s it. No twenty-second symphony. No five actions chained together. No organized chaos. Just a superstar getting to the spot he wants against the defender he wants. And it worked.

Of course, there’s also the Knicks’ culture of just playing their hearts out, epitomized by — no pun intended — Josh Hart.

Here’s an hour-long video of Brown at the annual University of San Diego Coaches’ Clinic that I attended last August. His topic was Culture and Leadership:

Watching the Knicks last night made me think about the Warriors. Golden State’s offense has always been different. It begins with one Wardell Stephen Curry II’s gravity.

The goal isn’t necessarily to get Steph the shot. The goal is to force five defenders into impossible decisions and then punish whichever one they get wrong. When it’s working, I still think it’s the most beautiful offense in basketball.

On top of that, to close out games, the Curry-Draymond Green two-man game remains one of the greatest shared brains in the history of the NBA.

The funny thing is that Towns may have been the key to the meat of the game. KAT set the tone physically. He attacked the rim. He forced contact.

As for San Antonio, Wembanyama too often settled. For him, there were way too many jumpers, too many possessions floating around the perimeter and too few trips where he simply imposed himself in the paint.

The scary part for the rest of the league? Wemby’s already this good. That part of his game is still sitting there, waiting to be unlocked.

It might even be deliberate, to a degree. I’ll be in the minority on this, but I really can’t blame Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson too much for their Game 1 loss. You can mess up the process and leak confidence if you command that lithe, talented big to go in the paint and embrace contact with the much heavier KAT.

Mastering the physicality of the NBA is gradual. It’s maturation towards blending of a brute force style with the finesse you brought to the table.

In a way, Quinten Post is going through the same thing, albeit with other nuances and at a far smaller scale with a much lower ceiling.

Some guys have the opposite process of that, such as Jalen Duren. He would benefit from a game that includes more finesse.

Michael Jordan comes to mind as a superstar who evolved his game to include more physicality.

Friendly reminder: Steph has also evolved his game to include absorption of a lot of physicality.

Game 1 belonged to the Knicks, but for me the lesson wasn’t about New York or San Antonio. It was a reminder that there are many ways to build great offense.

Some teams weaponize simplicity. The Warriors weaponize chaos from the gravity of Steph.

And I’ll take this moment to plug my roster strategy of obtaining Kawhi Leonard, LeBron James, and not one but two Top-20 picks to surround Curry as the ultimate doable off-season, with the strongest preference for the latter of those three moves:

Every time I see Brunson close the game for NYK on the offensive side of the ball, I reminisce that Curry is one-of-one and I am here to remind you why we love our team and to never give up on the dream of just one more chip.

🫶💙💛