Jalen Brunson Recently Held Players Only Meeting

The New York Knicks are starting to slip. They’ve officially lost four straight games and are only two of their last ten. While they still hold a spot as the third seed in the Eastern Conference, they are getting dangerously close to the rest of the pack. Within two games of them, there are four more teams looking to move their way up the standings.

One of the Knicks’ worst losses of the season came just this week against the Dallas Mavericks. The Knicks were fully healthy and still dropped the game 114–97 to the Mavericks, who have two injured superstars on the bench.

Ramona Shelbourne of ESPN reported that, “Knicks captain Jalen Brunson called a players-only meeting after New York was blown out at home by the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night, sources told ESPN.

Brunson's message to teammates after their ninth loss in 11 games, according to multiple sources, was that the Knicks needed to find answers for their poor play in January among themselves, rather than look to the coaching staff for solutions… He was concerned enough about the situation to call the meeting and make clear to his teammates that the answers for their recent struggles were to be found within the walls of the locker room."

Players-only meetings are usually not a good sign. First of all, your team needs to be really struggling to call one, but also, to look at how to improve without the input of the coaching staff, which can mean the coach doesn’t have a great command over the locker room.

The Knicks are under a ton of pressure to make the NBA Finals this season, as the Eastern Conference looks wide open for the taking. Hopefully, this meeting can help them get back on the right track.