Mike Brown agrees to become the Knicks' latest scapegoat
According to ESPN's Shams Charania, the Knicks decided to move ahead with the recently-fired Sacramento Kings coach, and seeing as how he was reportedly the only candidate to receive multiple interviews, it sure seems like New York was running out of backup plans.
Listen, Brown is by no means a bad coach. Suggesting otherwise would be ridiculous. His longevity and success speak for themselves. But to land the Knicks job — specifically, to land this Knicks job in these circumstances — doesn't inspire a ton of confidence that the front office didn't just mess with their title window for no reason.
New York unceremoniously jettisoned Tom Thibodeau after he led the team to their first back-to-back 50-plus win seasons since the 1993-94 and 1994-95 campaigns. They were two wins away from the NBA Finals. They had one of the most clutch players in the league in Jalen Brunson playing for a coach who rode his biggest stars to a fault. When you consider the standard set by Thibodeau, the idea in firing him seemed rooted in the notion that someone else would get the Knicks over the hump.
Which is to say the Knicks were going to hire someone better than Thibs. Then they got turned down by everyone.
Instead, New York replaced a two-time Coach of the Year with more than 450 wins and an NBA title as an assistant on his resume with a two-time Coach of the Year with more than 450 wins and an NBA title as an assistant on his resume.
MORE KNICKS: New York should beg Tom Thibodeau for second chance in failed coach search
Neither have won an NBA Finals as a head coach despite having superstars on their rosters. Brown had LeBron James in Cleveland, then Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol in Los Angeles and still couldn't win a ring. Thibodeau had Jimmy Butler, Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah in Chicago, then Brunson, Josh Hart and Karl-Anthony Towns in New York. No rings, either.
This is not to say Thibs and Brown are the same. It just feel impossible to call this an upgrade. Especially in light of the coaches the team supposedly wanted to speak with first.
Brown will keep the Knicks' floor high — the team's title odds slightly improved from 10-1 to 9-1 at BetMGM after Brown's hiring — but whether or not he's got the juice to bring the franchise back to the Finals is a different issue. It's also the issue he's been hired to solve.
So Brown becomes next in line to get scapegoated if the Knicks don't win. That's always how it goes with head coach hires. This one just feels entirely self-inflicted. There was no need to fire Thibodeau unless the Knicks had a better option locked up.
The front office seemingly rage quit on the entire coaching staff because Tyrese Haliburton turned into prime Reggie Miller for a few games. Brown will get the blame if this goes poorly, but it's the team executives who will have laid all the groundwork.
Dolan & Co. thought every elite coach would be lining up outside Madison Square Garden to take over a Knicks roster contending for a title. Now they'll live with the consequences of their miscalculation.
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