Steve Popper: Still-developing Knicks get look at reshaped Cavs squad
Knicks' Karl-Anthony Towns drives to the basket around James Harden of the Cavaliers on Feb. 24, 2026, in Cleveland, Ohio. Credit: Getty Images/Jason Miller
CLEVELAND — For the Knicks, as they took the floor at Rocket Mortgage Arena Tuesday it was familiar.
The Cavs have been a rival for years and a team with which they entered the night in a battle for positioning in the Eastern Conference playoff race. But even with the familiar setting, it was really something completely new.
The trade deadline arrival of James Harden has reshaped the way teams approach the Cavs and maybe thrown a scare into teams that saw Cleveland struggle in the postseason in recent years. it was a new test Tuesday night, taking on a Cleveland squad that has found a new identity with Harden.
But the Knicks are different, too, changed from last season and maybe changing more than we see from game to game as the season wears on toward the playoffs. The major shift came in the offseason when the Knicks fired Tom Thibodeau, the coach who’d brought them from a dysfunctional organization to championship contender, and replaced him with Mike Brown.
“Yeah, definitely different, different style,” Cavs’ coach Kenny Atkinson said. “Obviously Mike plays more players. That’s a big change. Pace seems to be up. Offensive rebounds seems to be more of an emphasis. Definitely a style change. No doubt about it.”
The biggest change though might be that Brown is learning about his team and adapting, reverting to some of the things that Thibodeau did with this group last season. But he also is fine-tuning other things.
The biggest change might be in minutes and that’s as much credited to the health of players on the bench and the improved depth on the roster. All five of the Knicks starters have seen their minutes drop this season. Josh Hart, who led all of the NBA with 37.6 minutes per game last season is down to 30.5. Mikal Bridges played 37 minutes per game last season, third in the NBA, and is down to 34.2. Jalen Brunson leads the team at 34.7 per game, but still slightly below what he did last season. Karl-Anthony Towns is down to 31.4 from 35 minutes last season.
“I’m not a guy who is necessarily going to play guys high minutes but the reality is when I explained,” Brown said, referring to recent conversations about the health of reserves. “For instance, Mitch [Robinson] didn’t play last year during the regular season and obviously that resulted in more minutes. Landry [Shamet] didn’t play much last year. Deuce [McBride was] in and out. Tyler [Kolek] not at all. Even Mo [Diawara].
“When you have other guys playing, somebody’s minutes are going to go down. So it’s collective across the board. And it’s what a lot of people don’t understand. Because they look at KAT’s numbers or this guy’s numbers or they look at this guy’s numbers. And they compare it to last year. It’s hard to compare it to last year because the team dynamics are different. Starting with the minutes.”
Bridges minutes have been reduced partially because Shamet, who did play 50 games last season after fighting back from a dislocated shoulder, has excelled this season, shooting 42.5% from three while providing solid defense.
“Yeah, I think it’s for everybody,” Bridges said. “Me as well. You’ve just got to sacrifice, find your moments and play the right way. I mean, especially the talent we have on the team. Less minutes, you just go out there and you’ve got to play as hard as you can in the minutes you have.”
But it’s not just minutes. The Knicks have changed their style on both ends of the court.
“We have a brand of basketball or style of play that we’re focused on,” Brown said. “We’re trying to get better at it. We’re playing different offensively, not a lot different, but we’re playing different offensively to a certain degree from the preseason up until this point we’ve made some changes. And we made some changes defensively. That evolution will continue to happen throughout the course of the rest of the year. For us we’re just going to keep trying to find our style of basketball, our style of play and play it no matter [the opponent].
“That’s what coaching is about. I don’t ever think you can take what you do and transfer it from team to team to team. It doesn’t always fit the personnel. You have a way that you’d like to play. You have mainly concepts and then you have plays or actions with those concepts. Just like defensively it’s the same thing. You try to fit it with your group of players.
"When you do that you may have to say at the end of the day this player is a little quicker, this player is a little slower, this player is a little stronger. Whatever it may be. Now you have to make adjustments to fit your group first. Make sure it fits the group first and then the individual second, starting with Jalen, KAT and then on down the line. So that’s what we did.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
