Knicks practice: Jalen Brunson said his offseason injury kept him in a cast longer than his earlier broken hand, with surgery about three weeks later. "I feel good, but also I know that it wasn't just my normal summer." Mike Brown said everyone passed the camp conditioning test.
"Are we still hungry? ... Or are we just content? That's our big question." Jalen Brunson said keeping the Knicks' core intact is very valuable, but the answer comes in the first couple of weeks. The title is "in our past," he said, with "no relaxation whatsoever."
Jaden McDaniels doesn't know if the Timberwolves will use him off the ball more: "I'll do whatever. Like, on ball, off ball, I feel like I'm good at both, so it really don't matter to me." He told Cody Williams to keep guarding Jalen Brunson after a great job last game.
"Those 5, they gonna play... everybody else in this gym, you fighting." Knicks coach Mike Brown told his team Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart will play; everyone else is fighting to make the team or for minutes.
Labaron Philon Jr., the 76ers' rookie point guard, played 25 minutes against the Knicks. Nick Nurse said New York was "pinning him on the side a little bit" and the staff will work on giving him a countermove. Philon called matching up with Jalen Brunson surreal.
Josh Hart says the short summer after the title didn't hurt his conditioning: "probably 3 weeks after, I was, I was kind of back working out," lifting at 6:30 most days in July and August. Asked how good college friend Jalen Brunson is: "it's not LeBron, let's relax."
Mike Brown gave veterans a longer post-Finals break and pushed younger players back after Labor Day: "We put a little bit more pressure on our younger guys than our older guys." Jalen Brunson said rehab and other obligations mean he hasn't decompressed: "Not really."