Mike Brown used Friday’s blowout against the Chicago Bulls to take a closer look at two guards he wants to keep involved, and the move left Jose Alvarado on the bench until the fourth quarter for the first time since he was traded to New York at the deadline. The Knicks rolled past Chicago 136-96, but the game also exposed how crowded the rotation has become with four regular-season games remaining.
Brown said he paired Landry Shamet and Miles McBride as the backup point guards, adding that Alvarado has done a fantastic job and that McBride is getting healthier while Shamet is getting healthy. He said he is trying to find minutes for players who have proven themselves, and called that a priority. “That’s going to be a priority for me, because they’ve proven themselves for us,” Brown said.
The decision came against the backdrop of a starting group that has been under the microscope for two seasons. The projected Knicks lineup of Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Karl-Anthony Towns has logged the third-most minutes of any lineup in the NBA this season, but has produced only a plus-0.7 net rating. Last season, that same five-man group played the most minutes together in the league and posted a plus-3.3 net rating.
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Brown has already hinted that he could change the starting group, though he has not done it yet. The remaining schedule gives him little room to experiment for long: the Knicks’ final four regular-season games are all against postseason-caliber teams, which means every minute he distributes now could shape how the rotation looks when the games start to matter most.
The tension for New York is simple. Brown says he needs to reward guards who have earned trust, but the team’s best-known lineup still carries the most weight on the roster and remains the group the Knicks have leaned on for two seasons. Friday’s rout over Chicago offered a clean win. It also showed that the minutes Brown wants to give out are starting to run out.
