When the Knicks fired head coach Tom Thibodeau after the season ended many Knicks fans were upset and assumed New York had a clear replacement for the man who took them further into the playoffs than anyone had in the past 25 years.
As the weeks and weeks went by there was a growing speculation that the Knicks didn't have that replacement in place, but this week they finally named their new head coach.
Mike Brown is set to become the franchise's 32nd head coach and the word coming out of the Knicks camp is that he was their leading candidate all along. Brown has the winning pedigree they like and felt he was more than just a safe pick. The thought was Brown would appease both the players and fan base, but the initial reactions are mixed at best from the fan base.
Brown has plenty of positives. He has coached in 758 regular-season games with a .599 winning percentage. That is experience that very few candidates could offer. He also has peaked in the job with two Coach of the Year awards. He has also had a good relationship with some of the games biggest stars, which bolds well for the Brunson/Towns duo. He also led his last two offenses to two top 5 finishes in passes per game, while the Knicks were 12th worst in the league.
The flip side to Brown is also pretty alarming. This is a coach who has been fired four different times and very quickly at times. He didn't last a season with the Lakers and lasted just two with the Kings.
The job is a hard one for Brown because Thibs took them so far and they were so close to getting to the Finals that anything short of what they did this year will seem like a letdown. Brown has had a rough go in the playoffs. His only Finals appearance was almost two decades ago and for Knicks fans that's the only goal that would justify this coaching change.