Knicks to Hire Mike Brown as Next Head Coach

[Deeeez Knicks]

It’s really tough to see how this will pan out until we give it some time. We def need some tweaks, but don’t really need to totally revamp things. We are as close as we have been since the Ewing years. Every little improvement makes a difference. Hopefully this is an improvement but time will tell.

[stuporman]

I don't know how many times I'm going to have to preface my comments by saying Brown isn't my guy and I'm still wait to see on him but I will do it again.

Reading all the comments about how he's average, not good, terrible and such so I go look at his stats and I'm wondering what people are basing it on.

In the over 350 coaches listed on BB reference he's 30th in regular season win % overall and with coaches having at least 3 seasons worth of games he's 12th to eliminate the small sample size ones.

He's also 30th in playoff win % and 13th out of coaches with at least 50 playoff games. Both regular season and playoff win % are above .500 and only 1 losing season where he had a full year.

Say what you will about his system, or methods, his in game adjustments or schemes, how he handles players or the media, the fact remains he's been successful and a winning coach.

It seems that people use the term 'retread' for any coach who's been a coach before and been fired, that's virtually all coaches that have been a head coach.

People want the shiny new toy, the untested 'genius' assistant but the problem is we don't know if they are going to be a good head coach until 2-3 seasons later and it's too late.

I don't know if he is the right choice and if he will help the team take the next step but the narrative he's a terrible retread seem to be sus takes at this point.

Time will tell though, he might be a mistake or might be the one who takes them over the hump. He's just not an exiciting hire, though, that much I can agree. He's safe in a boring way.

He coached LeBron for years. Never won a title with him but, that absolutely inflated his record.
He was fired to keep LeBron but that failed. He was brought back and fired a year later after injuries and losing the locker room.
His success in SAC was short lived and many contributed that teams success to the offense. Well when his AHC left Brown couldn't figure out rotations and lost the locker room. He was fired again and the team went on a decent run immediately.
In LA he went 0-8 in preseason and 1-5 to start the regular season and was fired again. Running the Princeton offense and it never took. That team sucked but, he didn't get anywhere with them either.

His resume is inflated due to having HOF/GOAT level players for most his career.
His success as an assistant really shouldn't be taken into account at all. It also inflates his record. Winning under Pop and Kerr with those HOF/GOAT STACKED teams? What did he do for those teams?

I think he has been blessed to coach the best of the best but, as a HC he hasn't really done much without them.

He has to prove he can win now. We have a really good team but, no GOAT level talent. If he can prove Jordi wasn't the key to his success in SAC then we are in good shape. It didn't work out that way though after Jordi left. He has lost multiple locker rooms and been fired 4 times and has no real success of his own to talk about.

There are plenty of reasons not to like this hire. His resume doesn't reflect his coaching IMO. His failures are more accurate because he lost the locker room more than once and lost his job more than once. That's his resume to me. That really doesn't look as good as all the fluff he gets.

Every coach in the top of winning percentage had it inflated by great players. Jackson with Jordan and Kobe, Kerr with Curry, Pops with Duncan, Riley with Magic and Shaq. Stop being typical with your hate, change it up sometimes.

[3toheadmelo]

If we don't run a more organized offense I will be pissed.
If we don't go 10 deep and give younger players a little bit of actual game experience during the season I will be pissed.
If we don't defend the 3pt line I will be pissed.
If we don't finish with a better record than this season I will be annoyed.
If we don't make the finals I will be pissed.

I am in a downward spiral since I started looking at Brown and his actual track record. I need to know what he does with asst coaches now. I don't trust Brown as of today to run the offense by himself. Not at all. So whoever is on his crew will be important AFAIC. Defense? That's another conversation.

Ugh. Firing Thibs for Brown just really dampened my outlook on next season. Am I overthinking it?

No you aren’t overthinking it I know you didn’t like Thibs but this is why some of us didn’t want to fire Thibs. The risk of hiring a worse coach was very possible and that’s exactly what happened. So it is what it is now.

What makes Mike worse than Tom? Mike has a better winning percentage, has coached a team to the Finals and has a winning record for all 3 of his head coaching jobs. Tom, for as good as he has been for this franchise, can't say that.

I'm not arguing about who is better as a coach, I'm just curious as to why people are saying Brown is a downgrade from Tom.

Mike brown hasn’t gotten past the first round of the playoffs in over 10 years.

[Jalen Bluntson]

I don't know how you're gonna argue that Brown's record and playoff performances don't count because he had LeBron in Cleveland but not also mention that this year was only the 2nd time Thibs made it out of the 2nd round, 1st being the year he had an MVP on his team, and this year we had 2 All-NBA players

Either roster talent matters for everybody equally, or it matters for nobody

Even if we take out his time in Cleveland with LeBron, and his time in LA with Kobe, he still has an overall winning record as a coach

I wouldn't call him a great coach, but he's certainly not a bad coach.

I just think it's a luxury to only have coached HOF/GOAT led teams. It certainly inflates the stats. Take away those teams and his coaching record is 2.3 years and he was fired for losing record and losing the locker room. Wait...he had the second CLE stint as well so ..3.3 years and fired twice after losing his locker room.

I don't think it's a disaster we hired Brown. I think my nerves are just rattled but, his resumé is a bit fluffy. It's not crazy to think so. I am not trying to exaggerate or crash out on the team. I'm just pointing out things I see.

[Gravy]

If he just goes deeper to the bench in his rotations I'll be happy.

If we don't run a more organized offense I will be pissed.
If we don't go 10 deep and give younger players a little bit of actual game experience during the season I will be pissed.
If we don't defend the 3pt line I will be pissed.
If we don't finish with a better record than this season I will be annoyed.
If we don't make the finals I will be pissed.

I am in a downward spiral since I started looking at Brown and his actual track record. I need to know what he does with asst coaches now. I don't trust Brown as of today to run the offense by himself. Not at all. So whoever is on his crew will be important AFAIC. Defense? That's another conversation.

Ugh. Firing Thibs for Brown just really dampened my outlook on next season. Am I overthinking it?

No you aren’t overthinking it I know you didn’t like Thibs but this is why some of us didn’t want to fire Thibs. The risk of hiring a worse coach was very possible and that’s exactly what happened. So it is what it is now.

All season everyone told me we would be getting Johnnie Bryant or another young 29yo hotshot assistant like it was a prophecy to happen. Now that we got Mike Brown the cope is wild. They hated this mfer like two weeks ago lol

[3toheadmelo]

Mike brown has had talent outside of Bron. He fumbled Kobe, Dwight Howard, Nash, Gasol. And yes they were old, but they got much better after Brown was fired.

He had a talented kings team with Fox, Sabonis, Derozan, monk, Keon Ellis, Davion Mitchell and still couldn’t get past the first round and had a losing record last season.

[stuporman]

If you didn't like Thibs you probably don't like Brown and calling both of these guys mid, average or terrible simply is an opinion formed around preference not stats. We can nitpick everything apart about their careers and habits but at the end of the day with both stats are the stats.

Again, I wasn't on board with it, he wasn't and still isn't my guy but the narrative is based on feelz not facts....although, yea, I agree he feelz yucky like a monday morning without coffee.

[Jalen Bluntson]

I don't know how many times I'm going to have to preface my comments by saying Brown isn't my guy and I'm still wait to see on him but I will do it again.

Reading all the comments about how he's average, not good, terrible and such so I go look at his stats and I'm wondering what people are basing it on.

In the over 350 coaches listed on BB reference he's 30th in regular season win % overall and with coaches having at least 3 seasons worth of games he's 12th to eliminate the small sample size ones.

He's also 30th in playoff win % and 13th out of coaches with at least 50 playoff games. Both regular season and playoff win % are above .500 and only 1 losing season where he had a full year.

Say what you will about his system, or methods, his in game adjustments or schemes, how he handles players or the media, the fact remains he's been successful and a winning coach.

It seems that people use the term 'retread' for any coach who's been a coach before and been fired, that's virtually all coaches that have been a head coach.

People want the shiny new toy, the untested 'genius' assistant but the problem is we don't know if they are going to be a good head coach until 2-3 seasons later and it's too late.

I don't know if he is the right choice and if he will help the team take the next step but the narrative he's a terrible retread seem to be sus takes at this point.

Time will tell though, he might be a mistake or might be the one who takes them over the hump. He's just not an exiciting hire, though, that much I can agree. He's safe in a boring way.

He coached LeBron for years. Never won a title with him but, that absolutely inflated his record.
He was fired to keep LeBron but that failed. He was brought back and fired a year later after injuries and losing the locker room.
His success in SAC was short lived and many contributed that teams success to the offense. Well when his AHC left Brown couldn't figure out rotations and lost the locker room. He was fired again and the team went on a decent run immediately.
In LA he went 0-8 in preseason and 1-5 to start the regular season and was fired again. Running the Princeton offense and it never took. That team sucked but, he didn't get anywhere with them either.

His resume is inflated due to having HOF/GOAT level players for most his career.
His success as an assistant really shouldn't be taken into account at all. It also inflates his record. Winning under Pop and Kerr with those HOF/GOAT STACKED teams? What did he do for those teams?

I think he has been blessed to coach the best of the best but, as a HC he hasn't really done much without them.

He has to prove he can win now. We have a really good team but, no GOAT level talent. If he can prove Jordi wasn't the key to his success in SAC then we are in good shape. It didn't work out that way though after Jordi left. He has lost multiple locker rooms and been fired 4 times and has no real success of his own to talk about.

There are plenty of reasons not to like this hire. His resume doesn't reflect his coaching IMO. His failures are more accurate because he lost the locker room more than once and lost his job more than once. That's his resume to me. That really doesn't look as good as all the fluff he gets.

Every coach in the top 20 of winning percentage had it inflated by great players. Jackson with Jordan and Kobe, Kerr with Curry, Pops with Duncan, Riley with Magic and Shaq. Stop being typical with your hate, change it up sometimes.

Hate? Stop being typical with your over the top condescendion.

Jackson won championships with Jordan and Kobe. Kerr with Curry. Pops with Duncan. Riley with Magic/Shaq. Did you have a point related to anything I said? No.

Just pointing out that if you look deeper than the fluffy resumé there are reasons not to like the hire. He's been fired 4 times and lost locker rooms more than once. So has Thibs. The difference needs to be that Brown isn't a rigid douche who fails to adjust.

If you follow the board/discussion you kinda see me talking myself through this emotional crisis. Don't be such a dick!!

[MrDollarBills]

No you aren’t overthinking it I know you didn’t like Thibs but this is why some of us didn’t want to fire Thibs. The risk of hiring a worse coach was very possible and that’s exactly what happened. So it is what it is now.

What makes Mike worse than Tom? Mike has a better winning percentage, has coached a team to the Finals and has a winning record for all 3 of his head coaching jobs. Tom, for as good as he has been for this franchise, can't say that.

I'm not arguing about who is better as a coach, I'm just curious as to why people are saying Brown is a downgrade from Tom.

Mike brown hasn’t gotten past the first round of the playoffs in over 10 years.

That's a fair critique.

[Pr0nzingis]

He coached LeBron for years. Never won a title with him but, that absolutely inflated his record.
He was fired to keep LeBron but that failed. He was brought back and fired a year later after injuries and losing the locker room.
His success in SAC was short lived and many contributed that teams success to the offense. Well when his AHC left Brown couldn't figure out rotations and lost the locker room. He was fired again and the team went on a decent run immediately.
In LA he went 0-8 in preseason and 1-5 to start the regular season and was fired again. Running the Princeton offense and it never took. That team sucked but, he didn't get anywhere with them either.

His resume is inflated due to having HOF/GOAT level players for most his career.
His success as an assistant really shouldn't be taken into account at all. It also inflates his record. Winning under Pop and Kerr with those HOF/GOAT STACKED teams? What did he do for those teams?

I think he has been blessed to coach the best of the best but, as a HC he hasn't really done much without them.

He has to prove he can win now. We have a really good team but, no GOAT level talent. If he can prove Jordi wasn't the key to his success in SAC then we are in good shape. It didn't work out that way though after Jordi left. He has lost multiple locker rooms and been fired 4 times and has no real success of his own to talk about.

There are plenty of reasons not to like this hire. His resume doesn't reflect his coaching IMO. His failures are more accurate because he lost the locker room more than once and lost his job more than once. That's his resume to me. That really doesn't look as good as all the fluff he gets.

Every coach in the top 20 of winning percentage had it inflated by great players. Jackson with Jordan and Kobe, Kerr with Curry, Pops with Duncan, Riley with Magic and Shaq. Stop being typical with your hate, change it up sometimes.

Hate? Stop being typical with your over the top condescendion.

Jackson won championships with Jordan and Kobe. Kerr with Curry. Pops with Duncan. Riley with Magic/Shaq. Did you have a point related to anything I said? No.

Just pointing out that if you look deeper than the fluffy resumé there are reasons not to like the hire. He's been fired 4 times and lost locker rooms more than once. So has Thibs. The difference needs to be that Brown isn't a rigid douche who fails to adjust.

If you follow the board/discussion you kinda see me talking myself through this emotional crisis. Don't be such a dick!!

Whats thibs resume without Rose and Brunson? Let me google it real quick... "Tom Thibodeau has a 63% win percentage when he has Derrick Rose on the roster. Without Rose, Thibs has a 46% win percentage."

Really? well thats it than, using the same logic Thibs is absolute garbage. Thanks for the argument. Lets move on.

Please ignore it for the third time. it will be hilarious.

[Ravenxvirall]

I’m confused reading through this now. So what brown has done as an assistant doesn’t matter, just what he’s done as a head coach but when it comes to Bryant who’s only been an assistant that experience does matter? Legit question and I’m one that wanted to take a chance on Bryant btw.

[Gravy]

I don't know how you're gonna argue that Brown's record and playoff performances don't count because he had LeBron in Cleveland but not also mention that this year was only the 2nd time Thibs made it out of the 2nd round, 1st being the year he had an MVP on his team, and this year we had 2 All-NBA players

Either roster talent matters for everybody equally, or it matters for nobody

Even if we take out his time in Cleveland with LeBron, and his time in LA with Kobe, he still has an overall winning record as a coach

I wouldn't call him a great coach, but he's certainly not a bad coach.

I just think it's a luxury to only have coached HOF/GOAT led teams. It certainly inflates the stats. Take away those teams and his coaching record is 2.3 years and he was fired for losing record and losing the locker room. Wait...he had the second CLE stint as well so ..3.3 years and fired twice after losing his locker room.

I don't think it's a disaster we hired Brown. I think my nerves are just rattled but, his resumé is a bit fluffy. It's not crazy to think so. I am not trying to exaggerate or crash out on the team. I'm just pointing out things I see.

Saying Lebron is equal to Brunson or KAT is craazy

[stuporman]

He coached LeBron for years. Never won a title with him but, that absolutely inflated his record.
He was fired to keep LeBron but that failed. He was brought back and fired a year later after injuries and losing the locker room.
His success in SAC was short lived and many contributed that teams success to the offense. Well when his AHC left Brown couldn't figure out rotations and lost the locker room. He was fired again and the team went on a decent run immediately.
In LA he went 0-8 in preseason and 1-5 to start the regular season and was fired again. Running the Princeton offense and it never took. That team sucked but, he didn't get anywhere with them either.

His resume is inflated due to having HOF/GOAT level players for most his career.
His success as an assistant really shouldn't be taken into account at all. It also inflates his record. Winning under Pop and Kerr with those HOF/GOAT STACKED teams? What did he do for those teams?

I think he has been blessed to coach the best of the best but, as a HC he hasn't really done much without them.

He has to prove he can win now. We have a really good team but, no GOAT level talent. If he can prove Jordi wasn't the key to his success in SAC then we are in good shape. It didn't work out that way though after Jordi left. He has lost multiple locker rooms and been fired 4 times and has no real success of his own to talk about.

There are plenty of reasons not to like this hire. His resume doesn't reflect his coaching IMO. His failures are more accurate because he lost the locker room more than once and lost his job more than once. That's his resume to me. That really doesn't look as good as all the fluff he gets.

Every coach in the top 20 of winning percentage had it inflated by great players. Jackson with Jordan and Kobe, Kerr with Curry, Pops with Duncan, Riley with Magic and Shaq. Stop being typical with your hate, change it up sometimes.

Hate? Stop being typical with your over the top condescendion.

Jackson won championships with Jordan and Kobe. Kerr with Curry. Pops with Duncan. Riley with Magic/Shaq. Did you have a point related to anything I said? No.

Just pointing out that if you look deeper than the fluffy resumé there are reasons not to like the hire. He's been fired 4 times and lost locker rooms more than once. So has Thibs. The difference needs to be that Brown isn't a rigid douche who fails to adjust.

If you follow the board/discussion you kinda see me talking myself through this emotional crisis. Don't be such a dick!!

Jackson, Kerr and Riley didn't win titles with their stars in those players first few years of their careers but Brown is supposed to win it in LeBron first few years otherwise he sucks.

Kerr and Riley's win percetage went down as their careers went on so we should also conclude they sucked because we also say Brown sucks because his last season wasn't as good as his first few.

When you win a title in your first few years with great players that have matured and are ready to win it those coaches don't often get accused of 'losing lockerrooms' because of their reputation it's the player who get accused of not fitting into the 'championship culture'.

Nitpicking is typical mid fan stuff. Step up your game and pull yourself together, as a Knicks fan you should be used to disappointment, this isn't the first time.

[DOT]

What makes Mike worse than Tom? Mike has a better winning percentage, has coached a team to the Finals and has a winning record for all 3 of his head coaching jobs. Tom, for as good as he has been for this franchise, can't say that.

I'm not arguing about who is better as a coach, I'm just curious as to why people are saying Brown is a downgrade from Tom.

Mike brown hasn’t gotten past the first round of the playoffs in over 10 years.

That's a fair critique.

Not really

Because it implies he's been coaching that entire time, which he hasn't been. He got fired in 2014 from Cleveland, then didn't get another head coaching job until the 2023 season, which is 9 years in and of itself. Hard to make it past the 1st round when you're not even coaching

Even if we could the 2013 season where he only coached 5 games, it's only been 6 seasons since he made it out of the 1st round. For comparison, Thibs had not made it out of the first round in 5 seasons as a coach before making it to the 2nd round in 2023.

[Jalen Bluntson]

Every coach in the top 20 of winning percentage had it inflated by great players. Jackson with Jordan and Kobe, Kerr with Curry, Pops with Duncan, Riley with Magic and Shaq. Stop being typical with your hate, change it up sometimes.

Hate? Stop being typical with your over the top condescendion.

Jackson won championships with Jordan and Kobe. Kerr with Curry. Pops with Duncan. Riley with Magic/Shaq. Did you have a point related to anything I said? No.

Just pointing out that if you look deeper than the fluffy resumé there are reasons not to like the hire. He's been fired 4 times and lost locker rooms more than once. So has Thibs. The difference needs to be that Brown isn't a rigid douche who fails to adjust.

If you follow the board/discussion you kinda see me talking myself through this emotional crisis. Don't be such a dick!!

Whats thibs resume without Rose and Brunson? Let me google it real quick... "Tom Thibodeau has a 63% win percentage when he has Derrick Rose on the roster. Without Rose, Thibs has a 46% win percentage."

Really? well thats it than, using the same logic Thibs is absolute garbage. Thanks for the argument. Lets move on.

Please ignore it for the third time. it will be hilarious.

You clearly aren't paying attention. Please do so next time.

[Fury]

Mike brown has had talent outside of Bron. He fumbled Kobe, Dwight Howard, Nash, Gasol. And yes they were old, but they got much better after Brown was fired.

He had a talented kings team with Fox, Sabonis, Derozan, monk, Keon Ellis, Davion Mitchell and still couldn’t get past the first round and had a losing record last season.

They didn’t get better when they got rid of him in either case. Lakers got swept in the first round the year he got fired just after 5 games. And the Kings missed the playoffs this year after firing him after 31 games.

[stuporman]

What makes Mike worse than Tom? Mike has a better winning percentage, has coached a team to the Finals and has a winning record for all 3 of his head coaching jobs. Tom, for as good as he has been for this franchise, can't say that.

I'm not arguing about who is better as a coach, I'm just curious as to why people are saying Brown is a downgrade from Tom.

Mike brown hasn’t gotten past the first round of the playoffs in over 10 years.

That's a fair critique.

Most of that was him as an assistant so if you erase the 3 rings as a lead assistant with the Warriors yea...I mean, Bryant keeps having disappointing playoff flameouts every year as an assistant, so he should have been the hire.

[FrozenEnvelope]

You're going to find some negatives and red flags on the resume of a coach who's been around almost 30 years. Most of you weren't even born when Brown started his career.

I think you have to look at the overall picture and I don't see how you come away thinking this was a bad hire. It's not like Spo was available. We were choosing between Brown and Jenkins, Nori and Borrega. Now if you are related to Johnny Bryant or a big fan of Budenholzer, Malone or Vogel, fine go ahead and complain.

[3toheadmelo]

What makes Mike worse than Tom? Mike has a better winning percentage, has coached a team to the Finals and has a winning record for all 3 of his head coaching jobs. Tom, for as good as he has been for this franchise, can't say that.

I'm not arguing about who is better as a coach, I'm just curious as to why people are saying Brown is a downgrade from Tom.

Mike brown hasn’t gotten past the first round of the playoffs in over 10 years.

That's a fair critique.

That’s all that matters to me

[CharlesOakley]

going from thibs to mike browns feels like going from an iphone 5 to an iphone 3

Yeah but this iPhone3 has been modded to use type c input. Meanwhile iphone5 only uses that old iphone input

Thibs was a rotatary phone with a 50 foot cord so you can take it into the bathroom. Mike Brown might be an iphone 3 but it's a big upgrade.