Mike Brown’s new offense sounded great on paper.
But inside the Knicks’ practice facility in Tarrytown during training camp, there was still quiet uncertainty about how his up-tempo, read-and-react system would mesh with a roster built around established stars and structured habits.
One game in, those doubts are fading fast. Brown’s West Coast offense and this roster of shooters and playmakers already look like a natural fit.
The Knicks opened their season with a 119–111 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, and for the first time in years, their offense looked fluid — free-flowing, unselfish and unpredictable.
“It’s been great,” said Miles McBride, who scored 15 points on 4-of-7 shooting from downtown off the bench against the Cavs. “I feel like we have a lot of different guys involved in actions, not necessarily scoring but just involved in actions, touching the screen, just body movement and player movement. A lot of guys out there benefitting.”
The ball didn’t stick. Instead it moved. It zipped. It hopped from one side of the floor to the other. For large stretches, New York played with the kind of pace and spacing modern contenders thrive on — a stark departure from the isolation-heavy identity that defined the Tom Thibodeau era.
And the results were immediate.
On opening night last season, the Boston Celtics ran the Knicks off the floor via an avalanche of threes at TD Garden that served as both a statement and a reminder of how far New York still had to go.
This time, the roles reversed: A Knicks team still learning Brown’s principles out-executed a Cleveland squad that won 64 games a year ago — the same Cavaliers who swept New York, 4–0, in last season’s regular-season series.
And the victory carried even more weight considering the circumstances.
Jalen Brunson struggled through a poor shooting night — 5-of-18 from the field and 1-of-9 from deep — yet still managed 23 points and five assists as the offense hummed around him. The Knicks led by as many as 15 despite missing two key rotation players in starting center Mitchell Robinson (ankle, load management) and sixth man Josh Hart (lumbar spasms) and they were able to hold their lead in minutes Brunson spent on the bench in the second half.
Cleveland wasn’t at full strength, down starting point guard Darius Garland, sixth man De’Andre Hunter and wing Max Strus — but that didn’t make the Knicks’ performance any less convincing, though Brunson, always level-headed, doesn’t want to get too far ahead.
“We have a long way to go. We have a lot to learn, a lot to get better at,” Brunson said after the victory. “A lot of details to pay attention to, and — let’s just say I’m happy it’s Game 1.”
Another big change under Brown? The sheer volume of threes.
It’s a necessary — and long overdue — shift for a roster loaded with shooters. The Knicks fired up 40 attempts from deep on opening night, connecting on 14. That’s a welcome sight for a team that ranked bottom-five in three-point attempts last season at just over 34 per game under Thibodeau.
For Brown, the focus wasn’t just on makes or misses, but on how those looks were created.
“We had 21 sprays. We want to get to at least 20 a game where we touch that paint — because any time you touch the paint, good teams, they’ve got to protect the paint. But now those wide-open shots happen and I think we can even generate even more,” Brown said. “I think we can generate 25 or 27 a game because we have that many players, in my opinion, that are capable of shooting the ball, snap-driving, touching the paint and moving it on when they need to off of two feet.”
This is only the beginning for a team still miles from its ceiling.
Robinson and Hart remain vital to the Knicks’ blueprint, and both are well behind schedule after missing most of training camp and the preseason.
Brown warned weeks ago that things could get ugly on the court before they looked like a functional team, that progress would come with growing pains. But even then, he made an observation that hinted at quiet optimism: his team was further along on both ends than he expected at multiple points during camp.
Maybe he was right. Maybe this group really is ahead of schedule after a complete philosophical overhaul. Maybe Brown’s system and this roster are, in fact, a natural fit.
Or maybe it’s still too early to say.
For now, the Knicks aren’t looking too far ahead — but it’s clear they have plenty to look forward to.
“Yeah, take it day by day. That’s all we’re thinking about,” Bridges said. “We’re not thinking about nothing else but what tomorrow is gonna look like. Are we gonna learn from this? Happy we can learn from a win and then we got Friday. So that’s how we think. Just take it day by day and game by game.”
