Let’s talk about Coach A and Coach B.
Prior to his arrival in New York, Coach A’s winning percentage was .561 in the regular season, .326 in the playoffs. Despite two 50-win campaigns and a 60-win season to his name, Coach A only made it to the conference finals once, in his first season as head coach. He missed the playoffs once and was bounced out of the first round on three occasions. Having won a Coach of the Year, never once did Coach A make it to the NBA Finals as a head coach, but he did win a ring as a lead assistant working under a well-traveled, though legendary coach who was said to have benefitted from Hall of Fame talent around him.
Given his resume and wasting the talents of generational stars, the decision to hire Coach A was heavily reviled despite taking his team to the playoffs for the first time in fourteen years.
Prior to his arrival in New York, Coach B’s winning percentage was .599 in the regular season, .556 in the playoffs. Despite two 50-win campaigns and two 60-win campaigns to his name, Coach B only made it to the NBA Finals once, in his second year as head coach. He missed the playoffs twice across nine full seasons and was bounced out of the second round on four occasions. Having won Coach of the Year twice, never once did Coach B win the NBA Finals as a head coach, but he did win four rings as a lead assistant working under a legendary coach who was thought to have benefitted from the Hall of Fame caliber players around him.
Given his resume and wasting the talents of generational stars, the decision to hire Coach B after a month-long string of rejections from other candidates has been met with reactions ranging from indifference to vociferous criticism despite the fact Coach B took his team to the playoffs for the first time in seventeen years, bowing out to the defending champions, two seasons ago.
Coach A, eventually fired by the Knicks in May of this year, is Tom Thibodeau, who would add another Coach of the Year award to his name and take New York to the playoffs in four of his five years with the organization, unceremoniously fired after taking the Knicks to their first Eastern Conference finals in 26 years. He eventually won over his players, several of whom left touching tributes for Thibs on social media, further delighting fans and the media for his grit, no-nonsense style of coaching, and promotion of “defense first,” an embodiment of living and breathing basketball with every waking hour of his existence. Alas, pushing his starters to accumulate taxing minute tolls and failing to trust and develop, let alone play, his bench was his undoing.
What will make the Mike Brown experience, the Coach B of our case study, any different from Tom Thibodeau’s tenure in New York?
To start, Leon Rose and Thibs already laid the foundation for a championship-caliber squad, one that was two wins away from the NBA Finals, with the former adding Jordan Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele to the bench, upgrades over the departed Cam Payne and Precious Achiuwa, complementing the promise of Mitchell Robinson, Ariel Hukporti, Tyler Kolek, and Pacome Dadiet on the second unit.
With Mike Brown, the Knicks have a coach who learned under Gregg Popovich in the early stages of Tim Duncan’s time with the Spurs, Rick Carlisle as the Pacers phased out of the Reggie Miller era, and Steve Kerr for several championships as a lead assistant in Golden State.
In his defense, Brown was unceremoniously fired four times, twice by Dan Gilbert, all with the hopes of luring LeBron James back to Cleveland, once by Jerry Buss five games into his second season as Lakers head coach, when the Dwight Howard/Steve Nash experiment unsurprisingly didn’t pan out, and the Kings after an aging DeMar DeRozan couldn’t gel with a fallen-by-the-wayside lineup.
Though people will question his tactics—namely, running his stars into the ground—not all the coaching acumen in the world could save Thibodeau from the many knee injuries that plagued superstar Derrick Rose, nor could the most gifted of personality pacifiers work with Jimmy Butler, whose eventual departure from Minnesota triggered Thibs’s firing in the 2019 offseason. Similarly, none can fault Mike Brown for the poor roster-building around LeBron James during his first stint in Cleveland (no player of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love’s caliber, who eventually joined James during his second run in Cleveland, had ever played with LeBron during Brown’s initial go-around with the Cavs).
Any odds stacked against Thibs, including criticism that no coach could get the best out of Julius Randle or that Thibodeau would never be able to make things work with Karl-Anthony Towns after his first tenure with him essentially failed, were resoundingly toppled after Thibs turned Randle into an All-NBA star and wrung a career year out of KAT, who also added an All-NBA third team selection to his resume.
What similar barriers might Brown be expected to face?
Despite the departure of Tyrese Haliburton, Mike Brown made do with Domantas Sabonis, De’Aron Fox, Harrison Barnes, Kevin Huerter, and Malik Monk to form the second most efficient offense in the NBA in 2022-2023, becoming the only coach ever to win the Coach of the Year award unanimously. Whatever output Brown had with Sabonis and Fox can only increase given the better options the Knicks afford at their positions in Jalen Brunson and Towns.
Clarkson and Yabusele joined the Knicks knowing the Mike Brown hire was imminent, a nod in coach’s favor.
Of course, the Knicks have some kinks to iron out, like getting under the second apron of the salary cap, surrounding Coach Brown with able minds on his staff, and convincing Mikal Bridges to extend his contract on a team-friendly deal, like Brunson before him, but if Mike Brown can lend his offensive acumen to the starting five and continue to develop and trust in the likes of Miles McBride, Robinson, Dadiet, Kolek, and Hukporti, then the sky is the limit.
Heading into the upcoming season, the Pacers are without Haliburton and Myles Turner, the latter having joined Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee. The Celtics are retooling without Jayson Tatum, shedding Jrue Holliday and Kristaps Porzingis from their roster, losing Luke Kornet to San Antonio in free agency while trading defense for offense with the arrivals of Anfernee Simmons and George Niang. While the Hawks and Magic got better in the offseason with the moves for Porzingis, Luke Kennard, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker to Atlanta and Desmond Bane to Orlando, and the Cavaliers will remain hungry after injuries knocked them out prematurely in their playoff series against Indiana, the East is there for the taking.
In the words of Tommy Beer, Knicks fan and expert extraordinaire, Mike Brown “is one of the most gregarious, amiable, media-savvy head coaches in the NBA, which is significant in a massive media market where the GM/President/front office don’t speak with the media.” In New York, a head coach like Brown, as Beer notes, “is THE voice of the franchise.” His behavior, mannerisms, and “antics” will be a far cry from Thibs’s cold, bristly demeanor, with Brown also being a noted “player’s coach.”
Will Knicks fans be content with Brown’s time in New York in the way they ultimately felt about Thibs, who only five years ago was an otherwise disliked hire by the organization?
Unlike Thibs, Brown will not be given the grace of building a roster and culture for five years. The time to win is now. Could this be like Buck Showalter handing the keys over to Joe Torre to finish the job the former failed to complete in New York?
For New York Knicks fans, that is the only result they will come to accept.
Fifty-two years is far too long without a title at the Garden. God willing, Mike Brown will put an end to the drought.