Fan Poll: What's the Knicks' Biggest Fix at 2-3?

Here's the stat that sums up this start: through five games, the Knicks have scored 549 points and given up 548, per the ESPN box scores. Plus-one. After an 0-3 open and two straight comebacks against Detroit and Chicago, the champs are 2-3, and honestly that record feels about right for a team that's been great for stretches and sloppy for others. So with a rare off day before Friday's NBA Cup opener in Philly, I want to hear from you: what's the one thing this team has to fix first?

I'll give you my pick at the end. First, the ballot.

• Get Mikal Bridges going again
• Stop giving the ball away
• Fix the defense
• Trust the new rotation (more Kolek and Clarkson)

Making the case for each one

Start with Mikal, because that's the conversation everybody's having this morning. He's scored 25 points in five games on 10-of-37 shooting, 5-of-20 from three, per the ESPN box scores. On Wednesday in Chicago he played 13 minutes and only three in the second half while Mike Brown rode Tyler Kolek, Jordan Clarkson and Landry Shamet to the win, and the New York Post's Stefan Bondy called it his shortest night as a Knick outside of the two quick cameos that kept his games-played streak alive. Brown's explanation was simple: "the combination we had out there, we kept playing well," and it was "harder to go back to what we started with," per the Post. Fair. But the one good Bridges night, 12 points and 4-of-8 from deep against Detroit, was also our best defensive game of the year.

Turnovers are the boring answer and maybe the right one. The Knicks have 80 in five games, 16 a night, per ESPN's team totals, and Karl-Anthony Towns has 23 of them by himself. Seven came in the Pistons win alone, including back-to-back bad passes in the fourth that forced a timeout, per SNY. Mike Brown said after the Orlando loss that about "three-fourths of our turnovers were our mistakes rather than their [defensive] pressure," per SNY, and that's still the most fixable thing on this list.

Then there's the defense. We're allowing 109.6 points a game, per ESPN, and the last two nights tell you everything: Detroit dropped 38 in the first quarter on Tuesday, and Chicago, a 1-3 team coming in, hung 127 on us with 18 threes and Norman Powell scoring 30 on 10-of-15, per the ESPN box score. That's not the length-and-size defense that won a title in June.

The last option is the fun one. Kolek went for nine points and nine assists with zero turnovers in 18 minutes in Chicago, and Clarkson scored 18 off the bench a night after a DNP, per the NBA.com box score. Those three reserves combined for 41 points, per SNY. Brown has said his bench rotation is fluid, and per the Post he wants the team back "on track" with a veteran group before he gets younger guys like Mo Diawara and Pacôme Dadiet more run. If Wednesday's group is the answer, maybe the fix is just letting it play.

My vote, and why

I'm voting for getting Mikal going, and it's not close for me. The turnovers matter, but Towns at the five is still a weapon, he's averaging a double-double, and he'll clean that up. The defense matters most in a vacuum, but I think it's tied to Bridges. I want him and OG Anunoby on the wings together because that size and length is how you beat good teams in May. When Bridges was hitting shots against Detroit, the Pistons went 9-of-37 from three, per the NBA.com box score. When he sat in Chicago, the Bulls made 18 threes.

The encouraging part is that the shape of this team is fine. We're plus-14 in the paint and plus-24 on the offensive glass across five games, per the ESPN box scores, and Brunson just hit 6-of-10 from deep after making 4-of-20 in the four games before, per the Post. The inside half of the recipe is working, and the outside half is coming around.

So that's my ballot. Email your vote to team@knicks365.com with one line on why, and I'll share where the readers landed in next Friday's mailbag. Need a refresher before you vote? Read the Morning After from Chicago (https://knicks365.com/blog/knicks-bulls-recap-brunson-38-comeback-2-3), the Pistons win (https://knicks365.com/blog/knicks-pistons-recap-towns-27-20-first-win) and our 0-3 numbers breakdown (https://knicks365.com/blog/knicks-0-3-by-the-numbers-where-the-points-went). Next up is Philadelphia on Friday at 6:30 p.m. CT on Prime Video, per ESPN's schedule.