00:14welcome back to another edition of new york got game dexter henry stephan bondi day one of training
00:20camp just wrapped up steph you were there media day is over after yesterday now we're on to
00:26training camp and you got to watch a little bit of practice today just a small portion but
00:31what did you see anything you like anything notable to tell the knicks fans out there
00:35uh yeah i mean they were they were doing sprints they were um shooting free throws they have the
00:40game where if you hit you don't have to run if you miss everybody has to sprint everybody knows
00:44that game um a couple things though i thought andre drummond looked slimmer uh than he did last
00:50season with the sixers and there was a special guest sitting with the front office actually two
00:55one of them was rajon rondo um who was uh recently let go um as an or he's searching for
01:02an assistant
01:02coaching job he has ties to darren ermine he um darren ermine coached him as an assistant with
01:08the boston celtics um so it was cool to see a legendary point guard there jalen brunson talked
01:14about it and the other person there was jaron collins who was um jason collins brother um for
01:20for people who followed the new jersey nets with jason collins um and jaron collins that's uh he
01:26was recently fired by the new orleans pelicans so he was one of the people observing practice there
01:32don't want to get into like the weight watchers part of this when we talked about currently towns
01:35after media day how he noticeably looked slimmer for drummond when you talk about bigs like that i think
01:40for fans who might want to know do you think that can help him too especially on the defensive end
01:44with him moving his feet possibly dropping some weight yeah more so than cat i think that drummond
01:49probably benefits from dropping some weight i thought um you know he looked kind of sluggish
01:54in the playoff series against the knicks um look kind of slow so you know he's in his 30s now
02:00and um
02:01you know that's when you know we talked about it the last time that's when tim duncan started to drop
02:05weight he extended his career that way and i think that's a benefit for uh andre drummond one thing that
02:11mike brown did say they have a fitness test a conditioning test that everybody has to pass
02:17um to start the year and everybody on the team this is according to mike brown passed the
02:22conditioning test so that's a positive uh sign that is a positive what happens if you don't pass
02:26the conditioning test i'm just curious do we know what happens do you know playing time or you got it
02:30you can't do anything to get like what happens it means i mean listen i i remember this from
02:35mitchell robinson not passing the conditioning test uh you just do sprints all the time until you pass the
02:42conditioning test so you're in practice and you're running around the whole time so nobody wants to
02:46do that they want to play basketball uh they don't want to keep sprinting so um yeah they all passed
02:52yeah for those of us who've hooped if you had to run sprints and do suicides not fun uh when
02:57you had
02:57when you have to do that speaking of drummond drummond also spoke to the media and he talked about you
03:02know his choice to come to the knicks did you gain anything from you know what he said about that
03:06making his decision to play in new york and he's he's pretty much happy to be here yeah he said
03:10he had
03:11options um and he this was the perfect one and listen he's right i mean the knicks had to open
03:17spot right he's not going to step in anywhere and be the starting center certainly not on the
03:21contending team um but there is there are is an opportunity here for a lot of minutes for andre
03:27drummond uh one injury could just throw him in the starting lineup this is a this is a big opportunity
03:32from he's from mount vernon he moved to connecticut he said he grew up a fan of the knicks uh
03:37so they
03:38made a lot of sense for both sides um and you know we'll see how it goes i think like
03:44i said he
03:44looks slimmer he's he's adapted a three-point shot last season he said you know if i'm open wide open
03:50i'll take it like i'm not gonna press the issue and i think we saw that with the sixers he
03:54shot at a
03:55decent percentage whereas previous in his career he was never shooting three-pointers so that's the
04:00new element to his game a new wrinkle that he can bring to the knicks yeah how much of that
04:04do you
04:05think could can be a a weapon that should be utilized is that something knicks fans should
04:09look forward to to him maybe taking more trees increasing the volume this year steph or is that
04:14kind of break glass in case of emergency situation yeah i mean it's tough to say i think his main
04:19job
04:19is to rebound which he's great at a great rebound yeah um and defend which he's not as good certainly
04:26not as good as mitchell robinson um but you know the the the spacing the floor stuff it's going to
04:32be a
04:32wrinkle i i am interested to see that because the knicks have never really had a space the floor
04:38five uh even when isaiah hartenstein was here tibbs was like nah just set screens and go underneath and
04:45hit that floater sometimes and bang in the paint um mike brown's different obviously he's he's coached
04:52a lot of different teams uh we'll see how he if he puts andre drummond in a corner sometimes and
04:57if
04:57andre drummond is wide open in that corner take the three-pointer and if he's hitting it that's
05:02another weapon yeah it could be another weapon would be interesting for uh the knicks to see
05:06one of the other topics of conversations i saw and you just wrote about this uh whether or not the
05:11knicks will go to the white house that became a big topic conversation james dolan was asked about
05:16this following the championship mike brown spoke about it today what did he have to say well james
05:21dolan months ago soon after they won the championship went on wfan and said he accepted
05:26the invitation from donald trump to go to the white house uh now we're three months later and mike brown
05:33says well we still haven't made a decision that's something that we're speaking internally about and
05:39when we make a decision we will make it together as an organization so basically the message was we
05:45haven't committed and that's only noteworthy i mean listen there hasn't been one nba team
05:50one nba championship champion that went to the trump white house um but it's it's more relevant
05:56here because james dolan did come out and say he already accepted the invitation so that's something
06:02to monitor the knicks go to washington dc for a road game in december i think it's december 18th
06:08they you know the thunder last year they said they didn't go to the white house because of a
06:13scheduling issue um the knicks can't make that excuse at least if trump is actually in the white
06:17house because they have a day off before that game in washington dc and then they have two days off
06:23right after that game in washington dc so it's going to be hard to say we had a scheduling scheduling
06:28conflict yeah it's a little tough they don't don't have that out is this something you think could be
06:33a distraction at all stuff you know we're talking about the essay with the contracts but when you get
06:37around to that point it's a december it's a december game of december games we're talking about but
06:41do you think this at all could be a distraction because we would think the noise will get around
06:45it more if something isn't said about a decision before that sure and i expect the knicks before
06:50well before that game to announce announce their intentions um and you know we'll see i you know
06:59i they're gonna beat the wizards wizards think so actually they're better i was gonna say wizards
07:05think they're a little bit better yeah they're a little bit we'll see what's up with ad and trey young
07:10i'm not quite convinced yet um but and they have the number one pick obviously but we'll see
07:15uh i think they're gonna beat the wizards regardless they always go to washington dc and
07:20i don't think i've ever seen them take it l there at least not during the brunson era um so
07:26yeah and
07:27um it's always a it's msg south yeah they the fans take it over it's one of those type of
07:34arena yeah
07:34there's a couple of arenas like that msg mid-atlantic we'll say that i'm thinking about that i don't think
07:38the knicks have actually lost during the brunson era at msg i don't know that they had that game a
07:43couple years ago when you put up the i don't know it was it was it a 50 piece it
07:47was in december it
07:47wasn't last year it was the year before so i remember that so you might be right about that
07:50but you know what wizards fans they might come for you steph you said they're not going to be good
07:54this all all five of them i know it's you i should not i know two of them i know
08:01hey i went to i
08:02went to the university of maryland um i went there plenty i went there actually when michael jordan was
08:07playing there so uh it was a big deal then they they also weren't very good back then but um
08:13you know i i remember the washington bullets they they have a fan base they just they've been really
08:18bad for a really long time i think they have the record for the longest stretch without a 51 season
08:23that is correct they they do they do have that record all right um first day of training camps
08:29wrapped up what are you going to be looking for looking at and who you're hoping to hear from over
08:33these next couple of days of training camp well i mean we talked about it yesterday this contract
08:39extension stuff every time cat gets in front of a microphone every time josh hart gets in front of
08:43a microphone and he's anytime deuce mcbride gets in front of microphone they're going to be asked about
08:48it and their response is going to be noteworthy other than that that you have the spot for the final
08:52rock for the uh you have the battle for the final roster spot mike brown was asked about that today
08:57he
08:57said i have no expectations i'm gonna let it unfold obviously they need a new uh third center so you
09:03know that battle is going to be between james wiseman and drew eubanks i saw james wiseman today he looked
09:09fantastic i mean it's you know i i've never really dealt with him up close he's tall he's strong he
09:15looks
09:15like a legit nba center obviously and you know he uh he comes from a high pedigree as the number
09:21two
09:21former uh number two overall pick um but you know and then you have bruce brown who
09:26you know he's he has great nba uh pedigree and a resume as an nba champion i thought he was
09:33great
09:33with the brooklyn nets when he was in new york um so it's going to be an interesting battle we're
09:38going to watch that throughout training camp and that's gonna you know that's going to define the
09:43last game of the preseason because i don't that's it you know is that that's the one in toronto um
09:49i don't expect the starters to play in that game so it's going to be a battle right to you
09:53so you would
09:54say steph you know we're looking at these preseason games starting monday in philadelphia
09:58really going to be opportunities for these guys to really show what they can do this is what the
10:03coach staffs looked at this is what we're going to be looking at james wiseman and company they
10:06really have to show out in these games yeah and with the caveat i am interested to see how brunson's
10:12going to look he talked about that today brunson talked to me today about how his summer was disrupted
10:17because of the um because of the wrist surgery and how it was actually worse he was worse off
10:24this time than he was two years ago when he broke his hand in that pacer series and he had
10:28surgery
10:28because back then he had surgery in may this time he didn't realize he needed surgery until july uh he
10:35spent a longer time in the cast this time he the the rehab went way deeper into the summer than
10:40it did
10:41two years ago so it disrupted his summer you know he says he feels good but it was different and
10:46so i'm
10:47interested to see how he comes out you know depending on and also he's not going to play much
10:51but i am interested to see how he's going to look when he's out there how much do you think
10:55if if any
10:56of all do we see the starters play in the first game against philadelphia uh good question uh is
11:01lebron going to play i you know they they they put they open up at the garden you know philly
11:08does
11:09and that is lebron's first game do you spoil it and put him out there for the first preseason game
11:15i don't know i think that's going to be interesting for me it'll be a lot more fun because i'll
11:19be in philly
11:20it'll be a lot more fun if lebron's plays but i understand why they would want to wait uh for
11:25that game
11:25at the garden to debut him against the knicks yeah it'll be interesting we'll both be down in philly
11:29for the game on october 5th first preseason game for the knicks day one of training camp wrapped up
11:35stephan bondi was there with all the good coverage steph appreciate you as always we'll have more coverage
11:39coming your way everybody on new york got game talk to everybody soon
11:44and thanks for watching new york got game
11:47boom shakalaka
