Steve Popper: Knicks coach Mike Brown ignores notion of sitting Mikal Bridges
A championship brings opportunities and accolades off the court.
On the court? Maybe it brings you about 15 minutes of playing time.
In the wake of all of the celebrations, that’s what has been basically been guaranteed to MIkal Bridges as he works his way through early-season struggles on the floor. Already this season in the first seven games entering Wednesday night’s matchup with the Chicago Bulls at Madison Square Garden, Bridges has seen games of 13 minutes and 16 minutes — fewer than he played in any game last season other than the one-possession season finale to keep intact his streak of consecutive games played.
It’s not the first time in his Knicks tenure that Bridges has found himself struggling through spots in the regular season and it’s not the first time that the question of the price paid to obtain and the sense of keeping him in blue and orange has been raised. But the saving grace for Bridges has been his playoff performances and the championship trophy that he was a huge part of bringing to New York.
"Our starters are going to get a lot more rope than the guy's coming off the bench, you know?” Mike Brown said before Wednesday’s game. “And that's kind of how I look at it. Again, this is a process and I have to always be careful of not trying to want [perfection]. You want it, but you can't live and die by trying to have everything be great and/or perfect in a matter of a week or two weeks.
“We know we can play better. The crazy part about it is we're 3-1 in our last four. Knowing that we're hungry for more, and that striving for perfection is going to help us out when it really counts, I think, at the end of the day.
"So we just can’t let go of the rope. We have to keep trying to get better on both sides of the ball and make sure that we’re embracing the little things so that we can hit a groove so we’ll be where we want to be at the end of the season. But knowing that we’re going to go through ups and downs throughout the course of the year.”
That hasn’t meant that Brown won’t shorten the rope for Bridges. In just the second game of the season with Bridges enduring an 0-for-8 shooting performance in a loss to Boston he played just 21 minutes and 53 seconds. After returning to normal usage in the next two games, he has played just 13 and 16 minutes in two of the last three games.
"He’s just got to keep playing,” Brown said. “Everybody goes through those ups and downs throughout the course of the season. And obviously it’s the beginning of the season right now, so he’s got to find his way. And not just with him, but with everybody when you’re in a funk, you got to find one or two things to hold your hat on.
"And Mikal is one of the best runners in the NBA. And so both directions, offensively and defensively. So he’s just got to try to hang his hat on that as well as his cutting and trying to do the other little things of rebounding and driving, touching the paint, spraying it.
"Then his shot will come eventually . . . But it’s a matter of time, in my opinion, before Mikal gets it going.”
With Bridges shooting just 30.8% overall, 26.9% from three and the good play of Landry Shamet, it has brought back questions of whether the Knicks might be better with Shamet in the starting lineup.
The loudest outcry to replace Bridges in the starting lineup came at the pivot point of the Knicks postseason just months ago. With the team trailing Atlanta two games to one in the opening round and Bridges having contributed a scoreless, four-turnover performance in Game 3, the Knicks considered shifting Deuce McBride into the starting lineup, a move that Brown ultimately resisted.
The faith paid off as Bridges, as he had the prior season, emerged as a key piece through the 14 wins in the next 15 games and he was celebrated with the rest of the team in the summer. But now the same issues of invisible performances are back and are the most glaring issue for a team that has looked like it hasn’t gotten close to that championship form in the opening weeks. Wednesday provided a chance to gather more insight with Shamet starting in place of Josh Hart, who sat out with right ankle soreness.
“The tough part about it is I don’t remember when that happened last year, but it’s more so the reality [that] Landry is playing well,” Brown said. “Landry, he played well in the last game. As you guys can see I’ll try to go with who I think is playing well. I’ll try to find minutes for them . . . Sometimes the other guys are playing good and that’s who you rock with to try to get the win at times.”
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.
