Mike Brown brings to Knicks what . . . Tom Thibodeau did
Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown shouts to his team during their game against the San Antonio Spurs in the second half at Golden 1 Center on Dec. 1, 2024, in Sacramento, Calif. Credit: Getty Images
He is a two-time NBA Coach of the Year and a basketball lifer. He has reached impressive heights with different teams and worked alongside some of the best players in the game. His arrival with a franchise has almost always led to a turnaround,and when he’s been dismissed, it often has led to a downturn for the team he left behind.
Of course, I’m talking about the Knicks' new coach, Mike Brown, due to be introduced next week. Or am I describing Tom Thibodeau, whose dismissal from the job created the vacancy?
That’s an oddity, maybe more a glitch than a problem. But it does beg the question, the simplest one: Why?
Why did the Knicks fire Thibodeau after a five-year run that was one of the most successful in franchise history, a tenure capped by a 51-win season and a berth in the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in a quarter-century? More to the point, why do it without a clear successor in place and then land on a coach who has a resume that reads very much like Thibodeau’s?
You certainly can’t question Brown’s credentials. He's deserving of any NBA head-coaching job, and like most coaches who are victimized by front office and ownership urges, his history of firings is hard to explain.
The first one, his dismissal by Cleveland in the wake of 66- and 61-win seasons, was painted as an effort by Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert to try to convince LeBron James not to leave. That ended with James announcing he was taking his talents to South Beach, and Gilbert later called it a mistake to let Brown go.
Brown immediately landed a job that was even more imposing than the one he’s stepping into right now, replacing Phil Jackson with the Lakers when the Zen Master finally ended a run that included five NBA titles. His first season brought the Lakers to the same place they were in Jackson’s final season, losing in the Western Conference semifinals. When Brown attempted a change in the system for a veteran squad of stars already banged up with age and injuries, it took only five games into the following season for the front office to push him aside.
He went back to Cleveland and spent one tumultuous season with a 21-year-old Kyrie Irving, and really nothing needs to be explained beyond that. After six seasons as an assistant with Golden State in which he earned three championship rings, he became the head coach for Sacramento and brought a franchise that hadn’t made a postseason appearance for 16 seasons back to prominence. The Kings went 48-34 and had the top-ranked offense in the league, with the city embracing the team's "Light the Beam'' laser show after each win.
Does that sound similar to the celebrations in the streets of New York in recent seasons as the city fell in love with the Knicks again?
Like Thibodeau, it ended too soon for Brown in Sacramento. Two solid seasons meant little when Brown was cut loose 31 games into the 2024-25 season. Dim the beam in Sacramento, take down the street signs in New York, the parties are over and the coach gets the blame.
So now Thibodeau is out and Brown is in at Madison Square Garden, and you won’t find a person who'll say a bad thing about the Knicks' new coach. You have Brown as your coach and you’ve got a solid, hard-working guy who has made a life in the game. Same as Thibodeau. They know every system, study every offensive and defensive intricacy.
The other thing they have in common is that Brown knows what he’s walking into, something we don’t have to wait for his introductory news conference to be assured of. He’s seen the big markets and small, the rebuilding projects and the pressure of living up to lofty expectations.
While some teams have turned to young unknowns, analytical experts, Brown is like Thibodeau, eyelids heavy from watching film. No amount of study by Brown will create a drastic change of a system and it shouldn’t, not after the kind of season the Knicks just completed. In Sacramento, he created a fast-paced system when he arrived; the Kings were No. 1 in points and offensive rating but 12th in pace — a drop from eighth the season before. Not faster, but more efficient, and that matters because Brown is inheriting Jalen Brunson as his best player. Brown isn’t going to change the way Brunson plays, and he shouldn’t.
Brown might play this a lot like Thibodeau did. Maybe he tweaks the offense a little, maybe he coaxes a little better defense out of his stars. He can go a little deeper into his bench with the addition of Jordan Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele, improvements from what the Knicks had last season for the eighth and ninth options. The Knicks want development of the players at the end of the bench, a noble plan even if it’s no different from before — the door to the gym open early in the morning and no room for them at game time.
Maybe the biggest change is a different voice. The Knicks will talk about leadership and collaboration, but it still comes down to the players and the product. The players and product were good under Thibodeau, and history tells you that when he leaves a franchise, it doesn’t stay that good. Brown is the safest way to keep the advances the team made while crossing fingers that another season of experience and a new face guiding them will get them to the championship that has eluded the franchise for the past 52 years.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
