Forget another bid for Kidd. The New York Knicks ought to be down with Mike Brown.
There was no elephant in the room, and it certainly wasn’t in North Texas either. Less than an hour before the listed tip-off time of the Knicks’ Eastern Conference Finals opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Dallas Mavericks announced the departure of head coach Jason Kidd.
The brief Knick is the latest casualty of the Mavs’ post-Luka Doncic purge that has already bid farewell to Anthony Davis, D’Angelo Russell, and the mastermind behind the infamous Doncic deal. It has brought an end to Kidd, whose Hall of Fame career has been defined by Texas-sized highs and lows.
One Dallas point guard has already fled for Manhattan. It doesn’t take rocket science to place another in the lead quarter-zip worn by Brown, who inherited it after the already-controversial ousting of Tom Thibodeau, whose reward for the Knicks’ first conference finals trip in a quarter-century was a vacation that has proved permanent.
Few coaches in recent NBA memory, maybe beyond, have walked a tighter rope than Brown. From the second his pen hit the Knicks’ contract, every move would be observed, every mistake amplified and set to serve as guaranteed fodder for amateur and professional hardwood comedians alike.
Only adding to the stress was a spotty, if not lengthy, head coaching resume that failed to produce a title despite working with the talents of Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Steve Nash, and more.
The whispers will probably only get louder with Kidd back on the market, especially after the post-Thibodeau search last summer. The intelligent hardwood gossip suggested that the Knicks, at the height of their poaching era, took a special interest in Kidd, who eventually landed an extension from the Mavericks that will be paid in inactivity.
Some will thus be quick to label Brown’s current endeavor a must-win for his metropolitan longevity, especially since coming up short sent Thibodeau to the unemployment line last year.
Of course, no one in their right mind would have the bewildering audacity to ask Brown, or any other Knicks, about what transpired down south.
Even if the Knicks weren’t engaged in what could’ve well been their most important game since “Pulp Fiction” and “The Shawshank Redemption” were in theaters, any and all inquiries could’ve well been neutralized with any number of cliches.
“Control what we can control.” “We’re worried about ourselves.” “One step at a time.”
The Knicks have lived up to every meaning of those ordinary-turned-extraordinary tropes during this increasingly epic playoff run. Why would they mess with that at this point or any?
Brown’s seat has no doubt faced a few temperature changes in his debut tour: tepidness provided heat when the Knicks started 2-3. Brown righted the ship well enough to secure an in-season title, but the aftershocks of a holiday hangover, one that may have cost the Knicks a top two seed, followed him no matter how much he accomplished in the latter portions of the season.
Anyone complaining now … with the latest addition to a franchise-best eight-game playoff winning streak being a Manhattan miracle in the form of a 22-point comeback in the opener against the Cavs … either carries a vendetta against Brown or simply craves metropolitan hardwood chaos.
For understandable and irrational reasons alike, Brown’s tenure will be compared to Thibodeau’s. It’s a futile exercise given the radically different situations each man walked into, but Brown is separating himself through the adjustments he’s made.
Thibodeau was steadfast in his beliefs, and it paid off handsomely, getting the Knicks back into contention and setting the tone for this current path, where they could realistically be considered the favorites to reach the Final Four.
Named as the man capable of clearing the semifinal hump in an era where mere appearances aren’t cute anymore, Brown is justifying his title and then some.
“I feel like the real change for us came before Game 4 in Atlanta,” All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns said, recalling the Knicks’ revival from a 2-1 series deficit in a report from Jared Schwartz of the New York Post. “I think that’s when we really changed our offense. It’s been great. It’s been something I’ve talked about for a lot of the season, to feel like we can help our guys more. We made the right moves. [Brown] set the table for us to have this kind of run.”
It’s Brown who has opted to play the skyscraping lineup of Towns and Mitchell Robinson together. It’s Brown who has been willing to separate Josh Hart from his Villanova Wildcats, Mikal Bridges, and Jalen Brunson from time to time.
Come Tuesday, Brown made the decision to attack Cleveland star James Harden downhill defensively, and it paid off to the tune of a Brunson breakout that vindicated his Clutch Player of the Year status.
Beyond this latest strategizing, Brown sat down with Towns and clarified his role in the New York offense, and he has been willing to show variety in the second unit. The handling of Towns’ minutes has been one of the more perplexing and polarizing narratives of Brown’s debut tour, but he appears to be hitting the right buttons.
“He’s done a great job of adjusting our team to give us the best chance to win,” Towns said as the Knicks waited for their ECF opponent, per Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press. “The spot we’re in now is because of his courage and the trust to change what we were doing and put us in a better position.”
A diverse secoOn some nights, it’s Jose Alvarado coming off the bench. Tuesday featured Landry Shamet dealing the daggers, allowed to stay in the game after Josh Hart’s struggles.
Few will forget the contributions of youngsters Mohamed Diawara and Tyler Kolek this season, and even Jordan Clarkson’s lingering efforts have been refreshing compared to the unforgiving exile that Thibodeau would bestow.
New York clearly isn’t kidding when it comes to this portion of the title chase. There’s thus no reason for them to be “Kidding” either.
