By admin 
The New York Knicks era before Tom Thibodeau’s arrival in the summer of 2020 can easily be described as the worst phase in the history of a franchise that desperately craved big results and trophies. Missing the playoffs seven consecutive times since 2013 led to a historically bad streak that desperately needed change.
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With Thibs’ arrival, everything changed. In his very first season, the team finished fourth in the East and returned to the playoffs. Once Jalen Brunson arrived, the team became a staple at the top of the East, culminating in the ECSF and then their first ECF appearance in 25 years.
The growth was gradual, and everything was going according to plan. But just when everything was supposed to culminate in a new title run, it was announced like a bolt from the blue that Mike Brown was the new Knicks head coach, even though the team was playing great basketball. And now, with the benefit of hindsight, Karl-Anthony Towns reflected on the main difference between the two great coaches.
“I mean, both the coaches did an amazing job. One took us to the Eastern Conference Finals, and we just came up short,” KAT
“The other took the same team that Thibs did an amazing job with, was able to watch from afar and see what he could do from his coaching style, his personality traits, to help us. And we found a way to win a championship, but that’s not a testament to Thibs not being the guy or Thibs not being good enough.”
“He’s always been good enough. He has a championship to show for as well. Thibs is an amazing coach, an amazing person too, and to see his growth as a person from when I was with him in Minnesota to when I got here to the Knicks has been amazing, and it’s made us even closer. And, man, Thibs gets a lot of credit for this, man,” he added.
Brown was ideal to shake things up
The problems that were evident during Thibs’ tenure were a clear distrust of the bench, putting too much pressure and heavy minutes on the starting five, and an overly predictable offense that relied far too heavily on Brunson alone.
In the eyes of the Knicks front office, the defensive mastermind had reached his ceiling with this generation. They felt there was simply a limit Thibs couldn’t overcome, and that Brown would be ideal for shaking things up.
The exact opposite of his colleague, a man who has proven himself to be an offensive specialist, reshuffled the deck significantly in his very first season. He changed the offense’s identity and gave importance to several bench players, which the Dominican center saw as key.
“I mean, just he built off of what, on an amazing foundation that Thibs had, and then he built off of that and added his own swag and flavor to it. So, I think he did a great job of finding the right combinations that worked. Landry Shamet was huge in the playoffs, and shout out to Ariel Hukporti too, man,” Towns stressed. “He had some big moments when we really, really needed him, and Mitchell Robinson, and Jose Alvarado.”
“And you could go down the list, Mohamed Diwara, all these people had an amazing impact on the game, especially Tyler Kolek during the year when JB got hurt, played some amazing basketball,” he added. “So I think Mike did a great job of just finding at the right time and the right place where he needed to put certain players into the game and not put them in the game. Shout out to him, amazing chess game he played.”
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The front office nailed the timing
However, not everything looked so bright until the playoffs started. That’s when Brown pulled an ace out of his sleeve and let Towns serve as the offensive hub, resulting in the second-highest offensive rating in playoff history for teams playing at least 10 games in a single postseason run, according to StatMuse.
Additionally, with a +15.5 net rating, they set a record and played truly incredible basketball, simply outplaying their opponents as a team, even though they weren’t among the top-tier contenders heading into the season.
And as great as Thibs’ results truly were, and as much as he didn’t deserve to be let go after everything he achieved, Brown winning the Larry O’Brien Trophy in his very first season on the Knicks bench is the best confirmation that the front office nailed the timing for a change.
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This story was originally published August 12, 2026 at 1:10 AM.