Knicks UNLEASHED

Inside Mike Brown’s Knicks: Roster Cuts, Cap Crunch and Faster Offense?

• Online Big Blue LLC • Season 2 • Episode 1

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A cap clock is ticking, three veterans are on the bubble, and a new coach wants to rip out the old playbook. We open the season by tackling the Knicks’ toughest early decision—Brogdon vs. Shamet vs. Matthews—through the lens of the CBA, roster construction, and how each skill set either fuels or fights Mike Brown’s system. The choice isn’t just about names; it’s about building a second unit that speaks the same offensive language as the first.

From there, we zoom out to the bigger bet: a full transition from isolation-heavy habits to a motion offense built on spacing, pace, and read-based decisions. Drawing from Steve Kerr’s Warriors principles—post splits, flares, ghost screens, and continuous ball movement—Brown’s staples aim to create paint touches, quick decisions, and relentless off-ball activity. We dig into how that shifts roles for Jalen Brunson and Carl Anthony Towns, what OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges unlock as cutters and spacers, why Josh Hart and Deuce McBride become connective tissue, and how Mitchell Robinson’s rim pressure fits a faster, smarter attack.

History backs the optimism. First-year coaches like Westhead, Riley, Kerr, Lue, and Nurse have won titles by aligning system and personnel quickly. We map that precedent onto New York’s deeper rotation and argue for real bench minutes to preserve legs and sustain pace. If the ball moves and the minutes spread, the ceiling rises—simple as that. Hit play to hear how cap rules, coaching philosophy, and player roles collide to shape a contender’s identity, and why this might be the Knicks’ best shot since the ’70s.

If you’re into thoughtful Knicks talk with zero fluff, follow the show, share it with a friend, and drop a five-star review to help more fans find us.

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SPEAKER_01:

Oh, it's good to be back on the mic. This is Tim, this is New York Knicks. Unleashed the 2025, 2026 edition, the premiere episode. Oh, want to talk about the Knicks roster. Want to talk about the hustle and flow version, if I like to call it, of the Mike Brown offense. Want to talk about the philosophy he could potentially be running. And he he gave some key comments during the, or I should say after the uh the Timberwolves game, uh, and even after that uh that loss to the Washington Wizards. Of course, this is all just preseason, so it doesn't really matter. Also, against the Wizards, he basically played his entire bench. No starters saw any minutes in that game. Uh we got to talk about the roster right off the bat. We got to talk about the rooster because this is where the Knicks are gonna be. This is where the Knicks are gonna have to figure out exactly what they're gonna do because they have some decisions to make. This is this is the first time in a long time that the Knicks have had a bench or could potentially have a bench. I I've said it before. I I thought that um that Tom Thibodeau, who I thought was a good coach for the Knicks for their last five years, either had cataracts or maybe he had like 2020, or I should say 2040 vision because he looked at the he couldn't see past the sixth man on the bench. He literally looked behind the bench, said, Hey, I only got six guys. Then when he walked down to the end of the bench, he's like, No, there's a bunch more down here. Well, Leon Rose and Mike Brown have until Saturday at 5 p.m. to decide on the non-guarantee contracts on this roster. You got Landry Shamut, you got Malcolm Brogdon, and you have Garrison Matthews all kind of vying for the same spot or the last spot. And there is a reason and a rationale why Pacom Dadier, I don't know why he's still on this team. I don't understand why he is listed as within the top 10 on this roster. He's been listed as the uh second team. Uh, and I I don't get it because I've watched him play last year. I watched him play all through preseason. Maybe he's doing something in camp. I don't know. But due to the CBA rules, the Knicks' team's salary cap, uh excuse me, the team salary cannot exceed 207.8 million. So the Knicks only have enough money to keep either Shamut, Brogdon, or Matthews. Unless there's a trade. Unless there is a trade. Right now, the Knicks have 14 players on standard deals. They can carry a maximum, of course, 15 players on standard contracts, so they don't have enough room on the roster to keep all three of the veterans. So you take a look at it. Who do you move on from? Do you do you move on from Landry Shamut? Do you move on from Malcolm Brogdon or Garrison Matthews? All of them have assets that they bring to the team. All of them bring a certain je ne sais quoi. Now there's also talk that the Knicks could be trading Miles McBride or a Pacom Dadier or even Mr. Tyler. I like Tyler. I like Tyler as a backup point guard to Jalen Brunson. I think he's got, I think he's got a good fit for that role. I think it would be a mistake to move on from him or from Deuce. I think Deuce is one of those young assets that is a valuable player, and I should say a valuable rotation player to this Knicks team because he could do so many different things. Now you have to remember before the Knicks agreed on these contracts on these players, in reference to Lander Shamut, Malcolm Brogdon, and Garrison Matthews, they were all told their ages had to agree this would be a true competition for the last roster spot. I have to admit, Brogdon to me has not been the player that I thought he was going to be. I don't know if he's playing himself back into shape. He's also a guy that's missed a lot of time over the last five years. Um, so he he's just kind of one of those guys that is he living off his former glory? I haven't, like I said, I haven't seen a lot in the times that I've seen him play, but he is that professional. He is that guy that can come in. Landry, we know Landry quite well from last year. He's had he had some big moments and he had some moments where he sat on the bench. And the question is going to be is that more of a Tom Thibodeau thing? That the reason why he was relegated to the bench at certain periods of time, or is he gonna be more of a rotational player here for the Knicks, or is he gonna be towards the end of the bench? Garrison Matthews, I mean, he's a guy that if you watched him play over the last couple years, it'll give you four points. So, you know, he'll do a little bit on the defensive end. I think if anything, if if you take a look at it from namesake, you know, people are gonna say, well, you gotta go with Malcolm Brockton. And and and I don't know. I I really don't know because like I said, you are risking it with a guy who has had injury issues basically throughout his entire career. So do you go, do you go that direction? Now the team can be under 14 players for a minimum of two consecutive weeks uh if they choose to waive all three of the veterans and start the season with 14 players on the roster. That I don't know if that's gonna be an option. I don't think it is. I think that one of these guys is gonna make one of these guys is gonna make the team. You can't say it's gonna be the familiarity of Landry Shamit because of the fact that Landry just hasn't been, he hasn't been in the Mike Brown system. This this is something totally different. This is gonna be something totally different than we have seen over the last five years. And that's kind of what I that's kind of what I want to talk about right off the bat. I personally feel, and it's not just because I'm a huge Dick fan, but I personally feel that this is the Knicks' best shot to win an NBA championship since the 70s. And and I went back and I and I looked up a bunch of head coaches who were first time, not first time, but were first year head coaches with a team in the history going back to 1980, that that won a championship right off the bat. And I think it's because of the fact if you take a look at, I think I you had you had this task-oriented disciplinary as in Tom Thibodeau. And I'm not saying Mike Brown is gonna be this loosey-goosey guy, but he is more of a players guy. He is more of a players coach. So you kind of went back, you kind of looked at an NBA history. When you had a guy come over for the first season, taking over a new team, what you know, who were some of the guys in in NBA history that won? First thing I think of uh right off the top, uh, right off the bat is Paul Westhead. That was over in 1980, took over the Lakers as a head coach for what isn't Jack McKinney. Um, and he led the team to an NBA title. Mike McKinney got hurt, though. Next one you think about is Pat Riley. Right off in 1982, he replaced as Westhead of the uh coach of the Lakers, and he led them to his championship in his first season. You also have to think of the venerable uh Steve Kerr. And the reason why we're bringing up Steve Kerr as well is because we want to talk about the offense that Mike Brown may be running because of his influence by Steve Kerr and the Golden State Warriors when he was the associate head coach or the associate coach. Uh, of course, he coached the Golden State Warriors to the championship in his debut as a head coach, though, back in 2015. Uh, we're not gonna get into that, but Mark Jackson got fucking screwed. If we're gonna be if we're gonna be 100% honest, Mark Jackson built that team. He helped define those players, he helped coach those players. They they were putting something together the year prior. Of course, Mark Jackson's got a little bit of uh you know, a little bit of an ego and a little bit of some other things behind the scenes that were going on. We're not gonna get into that, but he got screwed out of that 2015 championship, which is why uh, which is why Curry and other people actually gave him a ring. So we're not gonna get into that. You also got Tyrone Liu back in 2016, who replaced uh Dave Blatt midseason for the Cleveland Cavaliers and led them to an NBA title. You also got Nick Nurse back in 2019, his first year as head coach of the Toronto Raptors. He led to their team to the first NBA championship. So here is a lineage of history and reference to first year head coaches in a new organization that led them to victory. And I kind of think that's the that's what we're gonna see with with the venerable Mike Brown. Mike Brown has been a head coach, he's been an assistant coach, he's been an associate head coach, he's done, he's done everything in this league, he's done his dues, he's worked with various players, but I think his key influence is is always gonna be, of course, the Golden State Warriors, because that's where if you want to if you want to talk about it, he had his most success over and over again. And Mike has been talking about a complete shift basically, and a complete system change. It's gonna be a sharp contrast that that us Knicks fans have not seen in years, maybe going back to Mark Jackson, maybe going back to Starberry. Um, where the where the Thibodeau offense at times kind of broke down like that 67 Chevy I used to have and kind of stalled when scorers like Brunson and Carl Anthony Towns were forced to create their own shots, and they really got no support at times from anyone else. And and we kind of dragged out possessions, kicking and screaming because we wanted to, you know, we wanted to leave as little room humanly possible in reference to to you know having the the other team matriculate down the floor. And all this left little room for anyone else to play on the bench because you forced your guys to play such such such consecutive minutes. We talked about it before that the um they they gave a list of the top five, I should say the top three players who the top how do you how would you phrase this? There was the top three players who played the most minutes, and the top five in the NBA last year were all Knicks. So you take a look at it and you say, okay, we need to show some, we need to show some bench, but we also need to show some pace. We need to do a little half court, we need to do a little full court, we need to create spacing. And even Mike Brown came out and said, I want them to learn to play basketball the right way offensively within our staples, which is a perfect statement for this team. That's the pace, whether it's in full court or half court, whether it's just spacing, if you hit the paint, you don't have the ball, don't just stand there, get out there right now, create, recreate space to create more opportunities for driving and kicking out. He also added, Mike Brown, that space the right way at all times, execute ball reversal to move the defense, paint touches, not just dribbling and driving with the cut and rolls, quick decisions. Hey, if it hits your hand, shoot it, pass it, snap drive it, try to collapse the defense. Those are the things that we believe in. And I love that because you watch now, listen, Tom Thibodeau's system works for an extended period of time. That's why he wore out his welcome in Chicago and with the Timberwolves. It works for a period of time. And you always hear the analogy that you have to play that half-court offense and once you get into the playoffs, and everything slows down when you get into the playoffs. Well, I can I can beg to differ that uh with reference to that next last series, but we're not we're not gonna talk about the Indiana series, but it's gonna be an adjustment for players like Brunson. It's gonna be uh an adjustment for a player like Carl Anthony Towns, where where they're so ingrained the last couple years in in isolation scoring, we're gonna get away from that. It's gonna be like an orchestra. We're gonna have ball movement, we're gonna hopefully start trusting our teammates, and hopefully Mike Brown, who does wear glasses, is gonna say, hey, listen, I got 14 guys, 15 guys on this fucking bench. Let's see if we can't play some of them. But if you go back to Mike Brown over with the Golden State Warriors, and you look at the offensive philosophy for the Warriors, and I think that's kind of where we're gonna see. They had that championship run, of course, from 2015 to 19, also in 2022, and they had a blueprint. To me, it was a blend of motion, spacing spacing, and unselfish basketball. And they had this other ability to maximize the versatility in their talents. And right now, the unique the Knicks have a unique roster of talent depending on exactly who they keep. Now, Steve Kerr, which I find interesting, came from the Phil Jackson triangle offense, of course. But he was also with Greg Popovich in that Spurs motion system. So kind of what Kerr did is he kind of blended both. He created his he created an offense that would was built on spacing and ball movement with players constantly moving the ball to create open looks and forced defense, and basically force defensive rotations. Pull guys off Brunson, pull guys off Carl Amanda Towns, pull guys off OG Ananobi. That's what you need to do. And it and it's and if you take a look at it, he had he added a little influence of the triangle, kind of a read and re kind of a read and react ink. You know, the triangle, and Mike Brown talked about this, is minimally scripted. There's minimally scripted plays. Instead, the players, and now we're putting the owners back on the players, make reads based on the defensive rotation. This kind of empowers players. This says, okay, I'm trusting you. We're gonna trust you to make the quick, smart decisions while emphasizing on pace flow and just having a good time playing the game. When it's run correctly, it's a thing of beauty. And as you saw, and as you saw with Kerr and the war at Golden State Warriors, it leads to championships. You can also say, well, it doesn't hurt that you got Curry and a bunch of other players. No, of course it doesn't. But we have players in here. We have the players. You have to have ball movement, you have to move it through multiple hands, create the right shot, constant off-the-ball movement. You need the flare, you need to do a couple pin downs, you know, do some cross screens, some backcuts, but always be moving. I always think of Obi Toppin. Obi Toppin, especially here with with Tom Thibodeau. To me, he was a he he he was a cornerstander, he was a bystander. And he kind of still does this in Indiana. He stands, he stood in the corner, basically waiting for the play to come to him. I remember a couple games being at the garden, even with my wife sitting there looking at him, saying, Is he gonna fucking move? Is there concrete in those shoes? Because there has to be. Because he's not fucking moving at all. And also the best part of this system, if this is truly what we're running, no one player dominates the ball. Unlike the Tom Thibodeau isolation heavy system. Not one player dominates the ball. You're constantly moving the ball, you're constantly creating motion, you're constantly looking for the offensive man. And I think that's kind of what you want to do. You want to do what I like to refer to as tempo and transition. Push the pace. And that's one of the things we didn't see the Knicks do a lot in the last couple of years. Push the pace off of misses. You know? Take a look down court, grab that rebound and initiate the break. That's what you need to do. Attack. You need to attack before the defense sets. And I think the Knicks, and I think Mike Brown, I think this is where we're headed. And I think you have the players right now in Brunson, OG on OG not an OG on an obi, uh, also with bridges, and you of course have Carl Anthony Towns and Josh Hart, and you have McBride, and you have Clarkson, and you have Mitchell Robinson, you got Mitchie the Kid. You have, and you even have much more of a deeper bench that we have seen the Knicks have in years. So just remember, it's going to be a I and like I said, it's if if it's it's one of those systems that if it works, it's gonna work perfectly. You're gonna have peak ball movement, you're gonna have a blend of motion, which will create an unstoppable balance, hopefully for open looks, for drives to the lane. You're gonna keep constant movement, and you're gonna have the adaptability to move the system so many different ways because nothing is designed, because it's an unselfish game on a read-based motion. It's not scripted, but it's scripted on intelligence. Oh, this was a big this was a lot of this was a lot of fun to do this. I really do miss doing Nick videos um and Nick's podcast. We're gonna do the Nick pod, we're gonna do Nick's Unleashed all year this time. We're gonna do three, four podcasts a week, depending on the game schedule. Um, I had a lot more to talk about today, but I want to keep this one simple because I want to save it for some content from a couple other days. But as always, make sure you like, make sure you subscribe. We're gonna have start up the own YouTube channel, but of course you can find us everywhere that you find podcasts under Nyx Unleashed. So if you do see us, make sure you leave a five star review and maybe leave a nice comment to help us build up into the analytics. And as always, we've said it once, we've said it before, we've said it a thousand times. Let's go, Nick.