Kristian Winfield: Mike Brown to New York: 4 ways new head coach can improve Knicks

Yahoo

2 days ago

NEW YORK — Tom Thibodeau is out. Mike Brown is in. A new era is underway at Madison Square Garden — and it comes with sky-high expectations.
Brown, a two-time NBA Coach of the Year who most recently won the award in 2023, inherits a Knicks team fresh off its first Eastern Conference finals appearance in 25 years. On paper, it's a group built to contend: an All-Star backcourt engine in Jalen Brunson, a dominant center duo of Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson, and the OG Anunoby-Mikal Bridges duo coined 'Wingstop' for their two-way presence on the wings.
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But beneath the surface lies unfinished business. The Knicks were eliminated by the Indiana Pacers in back-to-back postseasons, the second coming despite a massive roster overhaul that landed Bridges and Towns in New York last summer. Their 50-win success was real — but so were the glaring holes exposed in the playoffs: defensive lapses, offensive predictability and a lack of trust in young bench pieces when it mattered most.
Enter Brown.
The veteran coach has led a team to the NBA Finals, turned perennial losers into playoff threats and helped guide Golden State's dynasty from the sidelines as an assistant. Now, tasked with elevating a ready-made contender to championship heights, Brown's fingerprints will be all over this next chapter in Knicks basketball.
Here are four ways Brown can immediately improve the Knicks in Year 1.
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Take Jalen off the ball more often
Only one player in the 2025 NBA playoff run held the ball for longer than Brunson: Cade Cunningham, and the Detroit Pistons did not have the talent around their All-Star centerpiece that the Knicks put around theirs. Brunson led all NBA players in average time of possession (8.6 minutes), seconds per touch (6.06) and average dribbles per touch (6.04) during the regular season. For reference, that's two more minutes per game holding the ball than Oklahoma City's reigning Most Valuable Player of the Year Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, three more minutes than Giannis Antetokounmpo and Tyrese Haliburton, and three more minutes per game than 2016 LeBron James, who played alongside Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love in pursuit of Cleveland's first title. Each of Brunson's ball-dominant metrics increased during the playoffs. It's an area Brown can make an immediate impact, because good ball movement can beat the best defenses, while stagnant, standstill offenses don't stand a chance in today's NBA
And the natural counter-argument? If it ain't broke, why fix it?
Despite the offense, the Knicks still managed to win 50 games in back-to-back seasons and make the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in a quarter century, something they are favored to do once again with key injuries to Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics), Haliburton (Indiana Pacers), Darius Garland (Cleveland Cavaliers) and the Milwaukee Bucks waiving Damian Lillard (Achilles).
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Play the young guys
The Knicks gave Brown a deeper bench than Thibodeau had to work with in the past. Case in point: where Thibodeau had Cameron Payne, Brown will have former Sixth Man of the Year Jordan Clarkson, and where Thibodeau turned to Precious Achiuwa, Brown will have French standout Guerschon Yabusele. But the young players are the same, and Brown has a history of developing prospects into impact players in their role. The Knicks took Pacome Dadiet with pick No. 25 and Tyler Kolek at pick No. 34 in the 2024 NBA draft, yet Thibodeau only used Kolek in emergencies and virtually never put Dadiet on the floor. The Knicks as currently constructed are a team set to be up against the second apron for the foreseeable future, which means they will need to lean on developing some of their young players in lieu of adding big-name players in free agency. So players like Dadiet, Kolek, Hukporti and, if they bring him back, Kevin McCullar Jr., need to see the floor to grow into impactful players later down the line.
And is there evidence Brown will play and develop his outer rotation players? Ten Kings players averaged double-digit minutes in 2023, when Brown won Coach of the Year. In 2024, Davion Mitchell and Keon Ellis both saw regular minutes as part of Sacramento's rotation. Ellis notably went undrafted in 2022 and cracked the Kings' roster through a two-way contract before Brown helped him develop into a regular rotation player. Brown was also more willing to go away from his starters if another player had a better matchup or a hot hand, vs. Thibodeau's clear-cut loyalty to the players he rode to the playoffs.
Hold stars accountable on defense
For a Thibodeau-coached team, the Knicks defense was never up to par. That's because it's hard to cover for two players — albeit incredible offensive talents — with such glaring shortcomings on the defensive end. This could be Brown's biggest challenge: finding the right schemes — and pressing the right buttons — to unlock New York's full defensive potential. The Knicks already have one of the best combinations of two-way wings in Bridges and Anunoby. Josh Hart and Miles McBride are disruptors, too, and Robinson is a well-known defensive anchor. But their two-best players were defensive liabilities, so much that Thibodeau had to go stretches on end with one of Towns or Brunson on the bench for defensive purposes in the conference finals against the Pacers.
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Brown will need an answer to this critical issue when the next playoff run comes around. That could be challenging both — directly and through the media — to guard their yard. Brown doesn't back down from this particular challenge. It was part of his M.O. in Sacramento, where former Kings All-Star De'Aaron Fox told reporters he appreciated the tough love and refuted reports that a rift between point guard and head coach were responsible for Brown's dismissal 31 games into last season.
Can Brown hold Brunson and Towns accountable? His coaching resume would suggest as much: Brown has coached James, Kobe Bryant, Fox and Domantas Sabonis and was an assistant with the Golden State Warriors for their three-rings-in-six-years run, where he worked with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green. Brown has won four NBA titles as an assistant, including one with the San Antonio Spurs. He knows what it takes to win big. If the stars in orange and blue want to win a title, they will listen to the man who has seen them won up close and personal.
Tun on the jets
Who says tough love can't be fun? Brown went viral on social media during his tenure as head coach in Sacramento for participating in a team practice, sprinting the full length of the court and shouting 'turn on the jets' to light a fire under his team. So it's no coincidence his 2023 Kings team posted the best offensive rating in NBA history (118.6) in a season Brown won Coach of the Year for the second time in 11 seasons.
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The Knicks could see more practice time — and hard practice time — under Brown. In fact, it's expected, which will be a complete deviation from Thibodeau's approach: heavy minutes in-game with minimal practice time on off days. The added time in Westchester won't hurt if the starters aren't all ranking near the top of the league in minutes per game. In fact, it will benefit a team that has more untapped potential on both ends of the floor than most teams returning with their cores intact next season.
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What will be better under Brown?
Opportunity for players outside of the starting five will be available. If someone doesn't have it going, Brown will turn to the bench. He will be more inclined to do so given the bevy of options at his disposal, but the Knicks need their main guns fresh at the end of the year for playoff preservation purposes. No player under Brown averaged 35 minutes per game in Sacramento in 2023. That kind of minutes distribution is what helped both Oklahoma City and Indiana to the NBA Finals this season.
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What will be worse under Brown?
Early chemistry will take a hit. After all, Thibodeau was the coach responsible for elevating the Knicks back into the playoff conversation after years toiling away as a lottery team. A new voice and a new perspective can work wonders at Madison Square Garden, but like any relationship, there will be growing pains as a new coach and a pre-constructed roster get on the same accord.
What we don't know
Will the Knicks offense immediately improve under Brown? Many credit the Kings' offensive success to Brown's former assistant, Jordi Fernandez, who left and revitalized the Nets last season as the Kings struggled to find consistency. And what kind of offense will Brown implement in training camp this summer? Will it resemble what the Golden State Warriors run with a roster loaded with offensive talent? Will the Knicks put the ball in Towns' hands more as a facilitator the way Brown used Sabonis in Sacramento?
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Brown and his not-yet-solidified coaching staff has the rest of the summer to plan, prepare and position themselves to take the Knicks to the next level. In New York, after a conference finals appearance, the bar is set at the NBA Finals. If Brown can deliver, the details will be an afterthought buried beneath the memories of a championship parade down the Canyon of Heroes.
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