What to Think of the Knicks’ New Head Coach?
After a disastrous crumble in the Conference Finals by the New York Knicks, they decided to move on from 2020-21 Coach of the Year Tom Thibodeaux as their head coach. After a long, painful and often confusing search for a new one, they landed upon Mike Brown, a former Head Coach with stints for the Cavs, Lakers, and winning a few rings as an associate HC with the Warriors, before making his final stop before this one at Sacramento, where he turned the franchise around and won Coach of the Year in 2023 while led them to their first playoff berth in almost two decades. While Thibodeaux was starting to look the odd man out in New York, the firing still should be somewhat surprising considering he’s coming off of coaching the Knicks’ best season in over a decade. However, while some people may be butthurt over the move, the reality is that he did what we brought him in to do; turn us from an awful team to a solid one. His ceiling is fairly low as a Head Coach, likely never going to bring a franchise a ring, but his floor is very high, and will raise a bad team to at least respectable seasons. His identity is a gritty, scrappy, physical style of ball, which is what helped the Knicks succeed when he first got here. He brought in Julius Randle, Isaiah Hartenstein, Mitchell Robinson, Jalen Brunson, and Josh Hart, guys who all fit that mold. Even role players like RJ Barrett and Donte Divincenzo played hard for the team. However, the roster started to change once they traded RJ and Immanuel Quickley to the Rapors for OG Anunoby and Precious Achiuwa. While both players fit Thibodeaux’s scheme, the move started dismantling the roster that Thibodeaux had put together. In the offseason, they moved Julius Randle, Donte Divincenzo and more to the Timberwolves for Karl-Anthony Towns, a player who, while very talented, did not play gritty or scrappy or anything else that defined Tom Thibodeaux basketball. He was a shooting center, a move which showed a transition to a roster more focused on putting up points then keeping scores low. Bringing in Mikal Bridges was another fine move (the trade itself was okay, I know some people are worried about the unprotected 2031 1st round pick but the reality is Mikal Bridges is a solid NBA player and that prospect is currently in middle school) but again showed a transition to a team more focused on becoming more fast paced and offensive/shooting focused (in a sense, although the Knicks statistically had the slowest face in the NBA of bringing the ball up to court). And the moves left too little salary for Isaiah Hartenstein, causing him to go to the Thunder and win a championship. Happy for the guy. But still, causing that final bit of whatever was left of the gritty, physical team to be gone forever. We now have a roster that, while extremely talented, probably more so then before, was not even close to the kind of team that Thibodeaux excelled in coaching. So, here we are, with Mike Brown. Brown is, while a similar-ish kind of coach to Thibodeaux, more tailored to coach this specific roster. He is more reliant on and willing to use the bench, better at making mid-game adjustments, a better offensive coach and more creative with play designs, and much more geared to help us win a championship - that’s the only thing the Knicks will be going for.
