The Knicks enter the 2024-25 season with high hopes after a playoff run to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals last season and an offseason that included a pair of blockbusters.
But as a head coach Tom Thibodeau spoke from the team’s practice facility on Monday’s media day, he preached the importance of not skipping steps and taking things one day at a time as the Knicks look to build a championship team.
Here are the main takeaways…
About the overall roster improvement
While Thibodeau said he would not comment on anything related to the Karl-Anthony Towns business, since the team has not yet officially announced the move (Towns is at the team facility on Monday), he spoke generally about the overall improvement of the roster, which also added a former Nets star. Mikal Bridges.
“When you finish a season, you take a deep dive into your team and then you analyze what you think the strengths and weaknesses of the club are, and then you plan accordingly moving forward all summer,” Thibodeau said. “The first step is the draft, and then you have free agency, and then you have trades. You are never satisfied. You always want to try to improve, so when opportunities present themselves and you feel it can improve the team, you want to try to take advantage of that. And I think so a lion [Rose] and his staff did a good job. They stockpiled draft capital and waited for the right opportunities. There’s always risk involved, but I thought it was a well-thought-out plan.”
About Jalen Brunson and Mitchell Robinson
Thibodeau shared good news about Brunson, saying the point guard is fully cleared after breaking his left hand in Game 7 against Indiana. Brunson had surgery shortly there after, and is good to go for training camp.
As for Robinson, who is recovering from a stress fracture in his ankle, things are a bit murkier.
“There’s no real time frame for it, other than we want to make sure he’s completely healthy before we move forward,” Thibodeau said. “So, as we get more information down the road—but we’ll be patient and take our time with it.
“When he’s ready to go, he’s ready to go. He’s doing well, I can tell you that from what he’s doing now. So, again, we’re just going to go step by step with that.”
On the starting lineup
Thibodeau was asked if AND Anunoby and Josh Hart are lined up to start at the forward spots this season, but the head coach said he needs to see more before making any concrete plans.
“I have some ideas, but I’m saying that before we look at everything,” he explained. “I want to see how things develop in camp first before I commit to it, but I have some general ideas.”
Taking things one day at a time
“You don’t want to skip anything, any step,” Thibodeau said, a message he reinforced several times Monday, “So, you start with your individual fundamentals and then you go to your team fundamentals, you install your systems. , you get everybody understanding playing style and the system, and then how you play off each other and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of all your teammates.
“You’re making a huge mistake if you skip any of those steps. No matter what happened last year, you start from scratch next season. So, you have to build the foundation first. It’s step by step, it’s a long grind, and you prepare for it.”
In his message to the fans, given his expectations
“I don’t think it changes for us. We know we have to go step by step and we’re not just going to get to the end of the season,” Thibodeau said. “So we know we have to put everything we have into it, focus on our daily improvement, and then if we do the right thing, the results will take care of themselves. For our fans, we love our fans. We have the best support in the league, we have the best arena in the league, the best city in the league. We know how important the team is to them, so we want to give them something we can be proud of.”
