[Edwards III] Brown didn’t ask for Thibodeau to be fired. Dolan did that, and the front office, led by Leon Rose, obliged…He didn’t sign Guerschon Yabusele…He didn’t trade five first-round picks for Mikal Bridges… Brown isn’t the reason Towns is having the worst shooting efficiency of his career
29 comments
Full excerpt:
“On the surface, many would point to the one thing that did change from last year’s squad to this year’s squad as the issue, and that’s Brown. However, Brown wasn’t seen as the problem through the first two months of the season when the Knicks were winning, essentially, every night and were the last team standing in the NBA Cup. He wasn’t the problem when he was giving young players such as Tyler Kolek and Mo Diawara real opportunities. That guy is still there.
Brown didn’t ask for Tom Thibodeau, who led New York to its best season in 25 years, to be fired. Dolan did that, and the front office, led by Leon Rose, obliged. They wanted a coach who would collaborate. Brown said before the game — a night in which he had a healthy roster for the first time, seemingly, all season — that he sent a lineup to their analytics group to learn the numbers, only to be told they hadn’t tried that group yet. He didn’t sign Guerschon Yabusele with their minimal financial flexibility this offseason. He didn’t trade five first-round picks for Mikal Bridges or trade part of their identity for Karl-Anthony Towns. Brown isn’t the reason Towns is having the worst shooting efficiency of his career at the rim and from 3 (when you factor in the volume).
Rose and the front office did all of these things, and though it worked out last season, the signs of what we’re seeing now have always been there. The Knicks didn’t push up against the second apron to barely beat the young Detroit Pistons in the playoffs or be down by 20 multiple times to the Boston Celtics. They expected to be dominant, and they’ve never been close to that at any point over the last 1 1/2 years. That’s where Thibodeau comes back into play. It appears he might have maximized this group and got every little ounce out of it. Yet, the suits in New York thought he was the only change needed.”
James Edwards sadly is not very good at his job. I’m not saying it because of this trash article but he’s a little too eager to dunk on the Knicks and glaze the Pistons.
reputable source?
Brown – you are the one that said we are doing perfectly fine during a 2-8 stretch and nothing major needs to change.
As fans, it feels like things absolutely need some changing. Are you sure you are using your pieces in the best way possible? At the very least, use a damn challenge during a game
Is the purpose of this article supposed to be absolving Brown and blaming the FO for the moves we made?
Whether you agree with Leons moves (Bridges and KAT trade) I’d say in large part they worked out. We went to the ECF last year and had a pretty solid start to the season. These last 3 weeks shouldn’t disregard the previous year and half.
Mentioning the Yabusele signing is super hindsight based off how he played last year. I don’t think anyone imagined how poorly he could have played this year. Considering we had no money to work with this past summer I thought we did pretty well in FA coming away with Yabu, Clarkson, and Shamet.
The biggest weaknesses that we had coming into the season was our lack of size which we all knew.
My biggest knock-on Leon and the FO I have had the past couple years was our approach in the draft. Our approach has seemed to kind of punt on the draft either through trading back or out of the draft for cap purposes. I think when the FO actually went into the draft with the intention of finding guys that can contribute, we actually hit (IQ, Grimes, and Deuce).
An actual quote from Brown was “Yea normally at half time we watch film and do all that coaching crap but the guys just need to play harder” He’s a fucking dog shit coach who was carried by Lebron for the majority of his career and by Jordi in Sac.
Thibs got fired because the players (mikal) wanted a players coach and now they’ve got it they’re all chilling putting in 50% effort.
You can’t just skirt by and place blame every where else but on the coach. He’s called out KAT nonstop and was claimed as the savior to unlock the offensive game. Our offense was good for a period of time but now it’s ass and the defense is worse.
There’s a LOT of guys right now going all in on shitting on the Knicks. There’s plenty of time left. That by no means things are gonna turn around because it’s looking beyond bleak and I think something needs to change. But at this point, they’re staking their professional reputation on the Knicks not figuring it out and they claim there’s a ton of behind the scenes locker room chaos. I hope somebody is saving all these articles and comments just in case of a turnaround lol.
We’d have Giannis right now if we didn’t trade 5 picks for a fourth option. But you know, Nova Knicks!! 🥳🥳
“Brown isn’t the reason Towns is having the worst shooting efficiency of his career and at the rim…Rose and the front office did all of those things.”
This point is trash and sounds like someone trying to pad an essay slipped in on the end of a list with some other valid examples. Leaving aside that it makes zero sense to blame the front office off all fucking people for a player shooting 10 percentage points lower out of nowhere, it is completely reasonable to infer that the offensive scheme, or at least the way KAT is being incorporated and used in that scheme is at least in part responsible for an elite offensive player who by all accounts is healthy wildly regressing immediately following a coaching change.
Turning on Leon Rose lmao
This reads like Mike Brown’s PR is trying to control the narrative
Can The Athletic get this guy off NY and bring Katz back?
He doesn’t care about the Knicks, he’s a Pistons fan at heart.
Katz loved the 2024 Knicks and gave really good insights, the players seemed to love him too.
– Firing Thibs: You still can debate right or not, the Mike Clown is to blame for his bullshit.
– Yabusele is a fucking mid level exception guy, if he was good then yeah it would help but that doesn’t solve the core issues, also you can blame Brown for not properly using him.
– Still with the 5 picks bullshit.
– “Brown isn’t the reason” hell yeah he is. Or at least partly.
This is why The Athletic has become so bad. They just take some hyperbolic angle and go full send. Remember when Jalen made 1 single comment – half in jest – at the end of the NBA Cup about Kolek and The Athletic wrote an entire article about how Kolek saved the Knicks?
Brown’s struggling with the roster – blame whoever you want. Sample size is small, but he’s struggling. That’s as deep as it goes for now. No need for these dramatic comparisons, sweeping generalizations, superlatives or doom and gloom. I don’t know why everything these days needs to be extremely good or extremely bad – but here we are. What a boring time to be alive.
Bring back Fred
May not be his fault, but it is his responsibility to lead this team in the right direction. If the team is spiraling, the coach of the team is supposed to figure out why and address it. Period. ESPECIALLY, when the team came off a ECF appearance, started the year 23-9 and won a league-wide tournament.
There is far more evidence of this team being very good under Thibs and the first 32 (33) games of this season. Why would he get zero blame for the last 11 games?
I agree with all that except for Brown being the reason Towns is shooting poorly. Towns clearly doesn’t want to play for Brown.
Im about ready to block this subreddit y’all are all so dramatic.
This team has been shit most of my life, but this team is constructed well.
We are still 7 games above 500 and can easily go on a rally.
Take a chill pill and let’s just see what happens
>Brown didn’t ask for Thibodeau to be fired.
Really hope this is an AI article. If it isn’t this is probably the single dumbest beginning of a story ever.
This is getting ugly 😭
Nice try, Mike.
No one said those things were browns fault, but as the head coach, it’s his job to coach this squad and bring out the best in the players we have. The guys aren’t responding and look defeated out there and he isn’t inspiring any confidence.
One or two more loses and I can’t see how he doesn’t get canned.
Brown was always a mediocre coach. This hire was malpractice
He didn’t have to take the job. He didn’t make the mess but he did take the mess.
Maybe Edwards is part of the Brown PR machine, but its obvious that a huge chunk of the problem is coaching, especially for a team that just came off an ECF run
Making cross court passes, over passing, over reliance on 3 point variance, trying to force KAT to be like Sabonis, too big of a rotation, etc. We’re getting killed on turnovers by passing lane steals, guys are struggling to get hot and playing out of their skill set, and they’re getting killed in transition because they’re gassed playing high pace which lowers your defensive ceiling as a style already.
Thibs had us playing the best ball with a grinding pace that made opponents uncomfortable, while heavily limiting turnovers and focusing on rebounds. He also never threw guys under the bus for the media, argued with the refs, and actually used challenges. Drop coverage was an issue with 3 point defense, but I think it looks alot better if we had a healthy Mitch for most of the year playing to his strengths. He obviously wasn’t perfect, especially with adjustments and rotation size, but he never had a losing streak this bad
KAT, Mikal, Josh, and now even Leon and JB are getting hate, but the biggest change from last years success is coaching. Every team Brown has coached for has had the same complaint
Tom Thibodeau was not the problem. The problem is and always has been James Dolan. He should not have fired Thibodeau. Now he is scrambling because when the Knicks get shellacked in the playoffs everyone will know he is to blame and not Thibs. Thats why he is scrambling to get a trade done, any trade. That way people will say the knicks didnt reach as far in the playoffs because the front office made a mid season trade and not that James Dolan fired a good coach and hired one that is not as good.
I give him everything but the last one. Brown IS in fact a big reason KAT is underperforming
Well his coaching staff is supposed to help players with their shooting efficiency
Yeah Leon always gets off clean
KAT is in his 10th or 11th year? My worry is, “is he in a slump or is he in the twilight of his career?” He’s a big that doesn’t post up. What’s the shelf life on that?
Also, coaching can absolutely impact shooter efficiency and how somebody is performing in the offense. Why is Bridges still cooked? He got his new coach so….where he at?