Knicks' Mike Brown Will Bring Clear Improvement as New Head Coach

Knicks' Mike Brown Will Bring Clear Improvement as New Head Coach originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

The New York Knicks are coming off a season that saw levels of success that fans of the club hadn't seen in over 20 years. In their fifth season under head coach Tom Thibodeau, the Knicks finished the regular season as the No. 3 team in the Eastern Conference.

In the first round of the playoffs, they took on the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons put up a good fight and were often leading late in games, but time and time again, Jalen Brunson lived up to his status as the Clutch Player of the Year award winner, helping the Knicks prevail in six games and defeating the Boston Celtics in seven.

Knicks' Mike Brown will bring clear improvement as new head coach

Unfortunately, the Knicks fell to the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals, thus ending their run at a championship. To some, advancing to the conference finals for the first time in 25 years would be deemed a success. The Knicks thought otherwise, firing Thibodeau and hiring Mike Brown.

According to Bleacher Report's Dan Favale, this shift changes the Knicks' mindset to be more offensively driven, especially with Brown's resume.

"The ball-and-body movement principles he’s become known for largely since he spent time as an assistant with the Golden State Warriors should serve the current version of the Knicks extremely well," wrote Favale. "Brown’s teams generally have players finishing more often off cuts and operating at faster clips.

"During his two full seasons at helm in Sacramento, the offense ranked third and fifth, respectively, in transition frequency. New York has not placed inside the top 10 of time spent on the break in…decades. Brown’s offensive pacing spills into the half-court, too. Through 2022-23 (first) and 2023-24 (sixth), the Kings finished near the top of the league in average possession time, according to Inpredictable. Meanwhile, last year’s Knicks were dead last in the same category."

This should be a nice breath of fresh air from Thibodeau's style, as many times, Brunson or Karl-Anthony Towns would get the ball and make a play on their own out of an isolation. With Brown's offense and the updated firepower they brought in with Jordan Clarkson, this offense should be humming compared to last season, when they struggled to stay consistent at times.

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 7, 2025, where it first appeared.