In these early days of his tenure as head coach of the Knicks, Mike Brown has openly conceded that he’s made mistakes as he tries to learn his players while they learn him. And maybe no player has been on display as a test case for that more than Josh Hart.
It’s understandable. Hart isn’t an unstoppable scorer. He has been an erratic shooter with a finger on his shooting hand that points in the wrong direction. His playmaking might be the best on the Knicks, but it often is done at a pace or risk that resembles running around chaotically.
But this is part of the experience with Hart, one that every one of his coaches has gone through. Despite arriving in the NBA as a first-round pick, he doesn’t look the part until you watch him every day on the floor and realize how important his full-speed-ahead wild ride is to the team.
“Yeah, I think they gotta — it takes a second,” Hart told Newsday late Wednesday night after the locker room cleared out in Dallas. “I’m definitely an acquired taste.”
For Brown, that resulted in putting Hart on the second unit, a move that Hart was OK with although it limited his minutes and role early in the season.
That resulted in days like the one in Chicago last month in which he played only 15 minutes and sat out the entire fourth quarter of a loss, sitting alone on the bench in frustration.
It took little time for that to change, though. Hart’s minutes have jumped to 32.7 over the last three games, much closer to the league-leading 37.6 minutes he posted last season, and he’s averaging 14.0 points, 8.7 rebounds and 8.0 assists per game in that span.
And watching from just behind the bench Wednesday, you could see and hear how much Brown relies on him in games, utilizing him almost like a coach on the floor, organizing the team on both ends.
“I think it just shows the respect level that they have of myself and the input that I’m able to have,” Hart said. “Every coach that I’ve played with — except for Stan Van Gundy — had an open line of communication. He lets me kind of go out there and play and read the game and call different plays if I see something, stuff like that. He gives me a lot of leeway and grace with it, and obviously it’s appreciated. That’s kind of like my role on the team to make sure, to be that guy.”
“You definitely want guys to feel good about how they’re being used,” Brown said. “In the same breath, Josh has been fantastic. I think there were two games, maybe three, early on that I kick myself for not throwing him back in the game late.
“They’re not the same player, but man, he’s just such a glue piece like Andre Iguodala was in Golden State. He just ties everything and everybody together. He does so many things out there that are just really simple that makes the game easier for everybody. He’s a two-way guy. His personality, his presence, is of a leadership quality. Those descriptions, that’s what reminds me of Andre. He can definitely do that for us and probably play more minutes.”
Maybe the reason that coaches don’t realize that on film is that Hart rarely seems to take himself too seriously. He serves as a class clown in the locker room, where he is the unruly foil to Jalen Brunson’s style as team captain and clear coach’s son. He chirps in behind Brunson’s answers in postgame media sessions, mocking his podcast partner and longtime ally since their days at Villanova.
And on the court, he does the kind of thing he did Wednesday, when he hustled to break up a pass, fell into fans in the front row at American Airlines Center and, before returning to the court, took a few M&Ms from a fan and popped them in his mouth. He was an Eagle Scout in his youth, but somehow the lesson about taking candy from strangers never resonated with him.
“Nah, that probably wasn’t a great decision,” said Hart, a caffeine devotee who appears to be on a sugar rush at all times. “It was in the moment. I saw all the M&Ms flying.
“Obviously, I’m still a Mike & Ike’s guy,” he added, doing the work for the company that named him Chief Candy Officer earlier this year.
Even as his role has changed, he has surfaced with an assortment of ad campaigns this season. Still, he is doing the work on the court. Asked if he is ready for more minutes with OG Anunoby sidelined, he responded, “I hope. I think before that I was playing — before he went down — I think I was playing the least minutes of my career.”
He keeps track of those things?
“When I’m mad, yeah,” he said with a smile. “But I’m ready to always do what needs to be done to help the team get wins.”
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.
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