Former Coach Applauds Knicks New Hire

Saving the New York Knicks’ interior fortunes? It’s a Jersey thing.

The Knicks have turned to New Jersey native and former Seton Hall star Mark Bryant to help stabilize their game in the paint, hiring the well-traveled NBA veteran as an assistant coach earlier this summer. Bryant has frequently been referred to as one of the Association’s top big men gurus, notably honing the games of talented rebounders like DeAndre Ayton, Jalen Duren, Dwight Howard, and more throughout an assistant coach career that began after a 15-year playing tour with 10 different teams.

If anyone’s familiar with Bryant’s game both on and off the bench, it’s former Seton Hall coach P.J. Carlesimo, who oversaw his collegiate tenure as a Pirate. Carlesimo later got to coach Bryant during their respective first NBA stops in Portland before he had him on his staff at his last full-time NBA head coaching stop with the Seattle SuperSonics/Oklahoma City Thunder.

Speaking with Stefan Bondy of the New York Post, Carlesimo praised the fit between Bryant and the Knicks, particularly anticipating what he can do with tenured Manhattan center Mitchell Robinson.

“When Mitchell gets to know Mark, I think he’s going to appreciate his experience,” Carlesimo said. “I think Mark will have some things that he can share with him.”

Though he might get lost in the fold thanks to the Knicks’ backcourt headliners, Robinson is poised to be one of the most consequential Manhattanites this season: the longest-tenured Knick is coming off an ankle injury that limited him to 31 games but he’ll take on a larger load thanks to the departure of Isaiah Hartenstein.

Bryant might also be able to help with the depth … or lack thereof … behind Robinson: the backup five figures to be Jericho Sims, who has metropolitan experience but has yet to establish a lasting role in the rotation. Westchester mainstay Dmytro Skapintsev and second-round pick Ariel Hukporti are also in the system while New York re-upped with in-season arrival Precious Achiuwa earlier this week, though the latter sees himself more as a power forward than a true five.

While Robinson’s role as a traditional center, one meant to camp under the basket for blocks and boards, appears to be an endangered species in the modern NBA, Carlesimo reiterated how important it will be for Bryant and the Knicks to continue fostering that role, especially with the “tremendously significant” loss of the Oklahoma City-bound Hartenstein.

“Mitchell needs to be healthy as much as anybody, as much as Julius (Randle) or anybody else,” Carlesimo, who spent the past decade as an analyst for a variety of networks, said. “It’s even more important now, to be as physical as he can be, to be the offensive rebounder that he can be.”

“You love his competitiveness, his physicality, his defense, his rebounding, especially his offensive rebounding, but you want to be able to keep him on the floor and it’s even more important without Isaiah.”

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