New York Knicks 2026-27 NBA Season Lookahead

In retrospect, how much of a difference do you think it made going from Tom Thibodeau to Mike Brown to get to this point?

So I've been using this analogy that when Tibbs showed up, The Knicks were just a full on abandoned like lot.

Right.

Just a bunch of garbage, abandoned whatever, like cars.

And it's a full junkyard with no roots or soil that you could build anything on.

And he just had his work cut out for him.

and he took that abandoned lot and ripped up the foundation and replanted all the good nutrients right and then poured the cement poured the concrete and laid the foundation for you to build something on it and it's so essential to what the knicks were building uh into getting to where they got to then the next like all right what are you gonna build on it and For a while, I was like, he built a nice four-story office building, which is fine.

There's nothing wrong with a four-story office building.

And the way I always finish the analogy was like, then they needed Mike Brown to come in and build a skyscraper.

And I got to give a shout out to Jonathan Macri, who actually adjusted it a little bit.

and was like that that's now john also may think the gap between mike brown and tibbs isn't as wide so maybe his perspective is a little different but it's more that he built a brownstone like a wonderful brownstone in brooklyn right and then they needed mike brown to come and build the penthouse which is the most important floor it's the one that everybody talks about when they go to the building it's the one that if you get to go and be in that penthouse it's the one that you'll remember forever but the every floor below it was built by the one before him so to actually make this as a basketball analogy like there's a world where tibbs is the head coach and they win the finals last year i absolutely think that's in play Do I think they have the highest point differential ever? And would they have gone 16-3 in the playoffs last year? Is the regular season solely about data collection where nobody except Jalen Brunson plays more than 35 minutes a game? I just don't think that was in them.

And I think they needed someone that was whatever the gap is that you think is between Mike Brown and Tom Thibodeau.

It's it.

It was enough that it made the run look as dominant as it was and made the regular season two and nine stretches and losses to the Pistons be damned.

as smooth as it was they got to the finals the healthiest they've been in years and then of course Mitchell Robinson after load managing him all year hurts his hand um but yeah I Mike Brown was the perfect pivot from Tibbs in like let's readjust what the regular season was let's like be flexible and collaborative enough to make changes mid-series before it gets too late.

Let's take away the rigidity, which was always Tibbs' biggest flaw.

And, you know, let me use the tools that I've attained over years of coaching LeBron James and Kobe Bryant and being on those Warriors staff to build the penthouse that Knicks fans are going to remember forever.

So,

yeah, that's the pivot, I would say.