Rick Brunson, Jalen Brunson‘s father, will remain on the Knicks staff but he’ll have a reduced role under new coach Mike Brown, Stefan Bondy of the New York Post reports. Brunson has been on the staff of 2022, the same year that Jalen Brunson joined the Knicks as a free agent.
He was Tom Thibodeau’s top assistant last season but Brown will hire his own associate head coach. Darren Erman, Mo Cheeks and Mark Bryant, who were also members of Thibodeau’s staff, are also expected to return under Brown.
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- Offering transparency regarding the team’s offseason moves, Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens admitted the trades he’s made — including deals involving Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis — were designed to get the team under the second apron. “We’ve known for a long time that hard decisions were coming,” Stevens said, per the Associated Press. “The second apron is why those trades happened. I think that is pretty obvious. And the basketball penalties associated with those are real. … So that was part of making the decision to push and put our chips on the table and go for the last two years.” However, he won’t call next season a rebuilding year. “That’s not going to be part of the lexicon in our building, and that’s the way we’re going to focus moving forward,” he said.
- It didn’t take long for the snakebit Sixers to deal with another injury, though this one is minor. Lottery pick VJ Edgecombe is dealing with a left thumb contusion, which is affecting his Summer League status, Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports tweets.
- Sixers forward Justin Edwards earned a new three-year contract after going undrafted last year. Edwards is proud of what he’s accomplished. “Going undrafted, I didn’t let it determine the rest of my basketball life,” Edwards told Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I just worked hard and did what I was able to do and got a contract out of it.”