Josh Hart is no longer on a minutes restriction for the Knicks, reports James L. Edwards III of The Athletic (Twitter link). Hart missed a majority of the preseason with back spasms and is also dealing with a finger injury that he expects to manage all season, but he was able to make his 2025/26 debut on Friday’s win against the Celtics.
Hart only scored three points on 1-for-8 shooting, but he collected 14 rebounds and dished out three assists with zero turnovers in just under 19 minutes. One person particularly impressed with the performance was head coach Mike Brown, writes Madeline Kenney for the New York Post.
“Josh, man, monster, monster, monster.” Brown said. “Not only did he guard everybody, he had six offensive rebounds, eight defensive. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen this before — 14 rebounds in 19 minutes — just a phenomenal, phenomenal game doing the dirty stuff by Josh.”
Hart called the outing a “solid first day here at the office” and noted that he’s still working on getting his conditioning back after missing much of the ramp-up to the season.
We have more on the Knicks:
- Miles McBride is not with the Knicks on Sunday as they head to Miami, reports Stefan Bondy of the New York Post (via Twitter). McBride will miss the matchup due to personal reasons, and it’s unclear if he’ll join the team for the rest of its three-game road trip. He started the previous game in the absence of Mitchell Robinson, who is still out due to load management, and scored 10 points with four assists and four rebounds.
- After leaving Friday’s game early, OG Anunoby says that he’s fine, and that he was dealing with cramping and not the ankle injury he fought through during preseason, writes Petter Botte of the New York Post. Botte notes that Anunoby went through practice on Friday, and SNY’s Ian Begley reports (via Twitter) that, according to Brown, Anunoby could’ve gone back into the game if he was needed.
- After Malcolm Brogdon‘s surprise retirement, second-year guard Tyler Kolek has stepped into a larger role and is making the most of it, Botte writes. It hasn’t all been smooth sailing, but Brown likes what he’s seeing from the young point guard. “He had a really good game defensively [Friday] night for the most part,” Brown said. “During the first stretch, he was really good offensively. In the second half, he wasn’t as good, but he’s a young guy, and, he’s gonna learn and grow from any minutes that he gets, and that’s what I like about him, because you know he’s young, he’s smart, but more importantly, he’s tough-minded, so he can take any type of coaching or any adversity that he goes through at any time and he’ll bounce back the right way.” Kolek points to his time on the bench with Cameron Payne last season as a key to growing his understanding of the game, as the two would analyze the play of Jalen Brunson and others together.