Mike Brown the mad scientist: How the Knicks coach tries different lineup experiments to keep his team successful

Mike Brown learned this summer just how much adoration comes with winning a title as head coach of the Knicks. And when the Knicks lost their first three games of the season as they set about their attempt at a title defense, he learned that panic also sets in quickly.

But even before Brown coached his first game in New York last season, he talked about how he wasn’t going to prioritize a regular season game early in the year over the big picture. And while he has snared the biggest prize, Brown has stuck to that methodology.

As the Knicks readied for the 10th game of the season with five wins in their last six games, having finally pushed back over .500 at 5-4, Brown has played mad scientist along with the rest of his coaching staff, testing rotations and strategies. They hope to see what works, what could fit now and what might be film to study and implement at some later moment.

“We're trying to be the best team we can be by the end of the year so that means we're trying different things,” Jalen Brunson said. “We're still trying to get better. We’re still learning different things. So throughout the course of the season, obviously we want to play well, we want to win, but we also want to continue to grow as a team and try not to plateau. I think the way we do that is to continue to try and see how we win games differently. Obviously, we want to win as much as we can, but we're very much process-driven, not result-based driven.”

Brown has insisted that his starting lineup is set — although with Josh Hart missing the last two games with ankle soreness, Landry Shamet stepped in and the Knicks won each game. But the Knicks coach has toyed with minutes, trying Karl-Anthony Towns and Brunson on the bench together at times and abandoning that quickly. Mikal Bridges has seen his minutes cut while he’s struggled early. And off the bench there are no certainties, minutes varying night to night — and even nine games in Brown debuted a lineup combination in the last game that had not played together for a second before that.

"It builds trust, because it's like, hey, you know, they trust me to go out there and play right now, even though I might not have played in two or three games,” Brown said.

“It helps with connectivity, because guys feel more a part of it, because they're getting an opportunity, and it helps with everybody's readiness. Because the reality of it is, if a guy's sitting on a bench and he's been there game after game after game, which happens sometimes, then he may lose a little interest and relax a little bit because it's like, hey, I'm not going in.

“But then if you call their number every once in a while. throw them in the game; now they know, I’ve got to be ready. You know the best example of it is, we had Jaden [Aikens] up there on a two-way [contract], and we threw him in the game during some real moments.

"He did a nice job. But if he can go in the game during some real moments, anybody can, because he's a young two-way guy, and he probably wasn't expecting it. . . . So it builds a lot, when we're talking about building a team. And then at the end of the day, your guys get used to it. And so come playoff time. If you try something new or different when it comes to lineups, it's not like, oh, my God, what's going on? You know, we've never done this. Oh, we've done it. We mixed and matched. And so I like to do it throughout the course of the year, especially early on.”

As a result, it seems that the Knicks find a different hero with every win. Most nights it may be Brunson who carries the load as the star centerpiece, but early on this year Towns has proved to be steady and maybe just as valuable. Shamet or Jordan Clarkson might be the key to a win on another night, and some players go from DNP-coach's decision to an early call off the bench the next game.

The Knicks benefited from the experimentation last season. Using Towns as the offensive hub strategy seemed new, but the Knicks had attempted it at times, seeing what worked, what tweaks could refine it. There were also moves to use Jose Alvarado or Tyler Kolek alongside Brunson rather than serving as spot duty behind him, a move that helped pull out the Game 4 comeback in the NBA Finals.

“With belief being one of the main things, you have to find successes at times in what you do, more successes than failures in what you do,” Brown said. “And the more successes that you have, that will add belief in each other, and in the process. And so, for me, that's why it's even good to win some games as a coach that you're like, 'we should have lost that game,’ because it adds to that belief, and you can still teach and coach during that time.

“But if you win too much — it’s just my personal opinion. I know I'm going to probably get killed for saying this because everybody's like, 'you can never win too much.' Well, I disagree. I think you need to hit adversity, just like in regular life. You need to hit some adversity, because that will really tell you what you have and what you're made up of. So finding that fine line of winning enough so that belief continues to rise appropriately while hitting some adversity is what I like to go through, especially throughout the course of the season, more so early on than late.”

And what have the lessons shown early in this title defense, the roller coaster ride already started?

“That the group is resilient and that it's going to be hard,” Brown said. “This is a new year, new season, and new challenges. So we have to embrace all the little details, while trying not to have much slippage in our process. Because nobody's handing anything to us, and if we want to have success, which we're more than capable of doing and that's what some of these wins show you, then we got to go earn it.”

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

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.