Mike Brown wanted Friday’s preseason finale against the Charlotte Hornets to be a dress rehearsal — one final tune-up before opening night.
Instead, it became another reminder of how little time his full rotation has actually spent together.
The Knicks ruled starting center Mitchell Robinson out for load management and held Josh Hart, Karl-Anthony Towns, and OG Anunoby out for precautionary reasons. On paper, it’s October maintenance. In reality, it’s four starters or key rotation pieces missing valuable reps in a new system less than a week before the regular season begins on Oct. 22 against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
And for a team talking championship aspirations, that’s hardly ideal.
Hart hasn’t played since the preseason opener in Abu Dhabi, where he logged just seven minutes before exiting with lower back spasms. He entered camp resigned to the fact he’ll play the season with a splint on his right ring finger — and was seen walking gingerly on the Madison Square Garden floor before Friday’s tip.
Robinson hasn’t played since the first half of the Knicks’ Oct. 9 win over the Timberwolves. Anunoby, meanwhile, has now sustained two minor training camp setbacks — first a hand sprain that sidelined him for the opener, then an ankle tweak in practice that kept him out Friday. Towns, dealing with a quad issue, sat for the second straight game after missing Monday’s loss to Washington.
Out of a possible 985 total minutes through the Knicks’ first four preseason games plus one overtime period, the team’s top six players have logged just 287. Hart has played seven. Robinson, forty-four.
That’s not the type of rhythm-building Brown envisioned heading into his first season at the helm.
“I’d love to have everyone together, especially trying to play the way we’re playing — it’s new to everybody,” Brown said before tipoff Friday. “But it is what it is. Whether we had everyone or not, this is a marathon, not a sprint. You hope to be sharp by opening night, but the goal is to keep moving forward.”
Brown’s biggest challenge right now isn’t schematic, but timing. He’s trying to install new principles of pace, spacing, and defensive aggression, and every missed practice or game represents a missed rep toward cohesion.
“They’re learning quickly — actually a little ahead of where I thought we’d be,” he said. “But the guys who’ve been out, they’re the key pieces to what we’re trying to do. They haven’t gotten the reps, and for us to jell from top to bottom is gonna take more time than I thought, probably because of the injuries.
“We’ve got capable guys ready to play when their numbers are called, and that’s what I’m looking forward to seeing.”
Brown is choosing to see the setback as an opportunity. The Knicks were the healthiest team in basketball last season, losing the fewest games to injury league-wide. He knows history rarely repeats itself. Robinson, Anunoby, Towns, and Hart each carry varying levels of injury concern — so the early absence of key names could, in time, serve as useful preparation for the inevitable grind ahead.
“I’ve said this before: any time you’re missing guys, it’s next man up,” Brown said. “Knock on wood, we could be missing guys during the season. So this is just another opportunity for players to step up and get a chance to play. We’ll go out and play with who’s available.”
Brown remains confident his group will be ready when the lights come on for real.
“Mitch is load management, yes,” he said. “If it was a regular-season game — or a playoff game — to my understanding, Mitch was going to play.”
It’s preseason patience for now. But when the games start to count, Brown’s players will need to answer the bell.
