Getting the Kings to the two seed is like coaching the Bulls or Warriors dynasties. 

As a 2 seed. That’s GOAT coach type of shit.

I wasn’t upset Thibs was fired, he was a dinosaur in terms of tactics and rotations. It’s more I didn’t expect Brown to be THAT much better, but yeah, let’s be honest here. If Thibs were coaching this team, we absolutely wouldn’t be in the Finals. Last year’s ECF run with him involved a bit of luck and winning by the skin of our teeth, whereas this year’s Finals run was almost all skill and throughly dominating opponents.

Proud to say I was all in on the thibs firing from day one even before we knew who his replacement was. The man was just too damn stiff for modern basketball, bless his heart

Nah man, didn’t you hear Shaq? Everyone just had to step up, coaching doesn’t matter!

I think even us who ardently wanted him gone respect the hell out ot what he had done for us. Thibs raised the floor But there was a ceiling there still. He has had years to develop a basic understanding of rotation and not burning out players every single damn game. He knows how the media talks about his flaws for 15 years now. So that is on him.

Things could have spiralled for Brown after his second stint with the Cavs, but he humbled himself, developed and implemented. Therein lies the difference.

I remember last year when he was fired and I was one of the people saying that Knicks fans should be careful what they wish for and that this was a knee-jerk move that was gonna set the back rather than propel them forward, but I was definitely wrong

I think we got as far as we could with Thibbs so I understood firing him despite the success, we hit the Thibbs ceiling. What I will say is I never thought Mike Brown would be the guy to get us through that ceiling. When the team was down 1-2 to Atlanta I was ready for him to be one-and-done… extremely happy to say I was wrong.

Coaches can also be the right fit for the right group of players at the right time. Brown has largely known which buttons to push and which ones to leave alone

Knicks were elite outside of a 2-9 run after the NBA Cup.

Mike brown also experimented a lot with lineups - a lot of our deep bench guys had much bigger roles during the season.

I really think if we didn’t go so far in the cup we would have been close to the 1 seed

Seeing what he’s done now, I fully believe he was trying to save Point KAT for a possible Boston series to try and surprise them, but broke it out after Atlanta went up 2-1. (And Boston lost round one anyway.)

One of the most underrated things Brown has done that’s completely changed how the Knicks play compared to Thibs, beyond simply cutting minutes and making rotations less rigid, is his willingness to adapt and, more important, listen to his damn assistant coaches. The transformation of KAT into a playmaker and defensive juggernaut these playoffs came from a combination of team assistants and KAT himself. It’s beyond admirable and so refreshing given Thibs has usually just hired yes men to surround him and reinforce his coaching style

Auerbach, Riley, Spo still ahead of Brown. But he’ll get there once the titles start coming

Wemby should literally never be taking the ball up the court or in the triple threat at the logo. If I were a spurs fan he would drive me insane, dunk the damn ball

Totally agree. He already expends so much energy on the defensive end. Hope the Spurs make adjustments to the offense to fully utilize his height, and not do the Knicks a favor by having him dribbling and driving like he’s not 8 feet tall

TBH I think battling for position down low is more tiring than isos up high. Still, a more varied offensive game, where he’s more effective catching the ball close to the basket and even against strong, physical defenders, that’d definitely take his game to the next level.

His interior problems against physical defenders start before he catches the ball. These defenders outmuscle him fighting for position, so he can’t catch it in the spots he likes, and when he does get a pass down low he doesn’t have much of a post game.

Against weaker, less physical defenders, he can just cut to the basket, nobody puts a body on him, and use his height/length/coordination to catch the ball going downhill for easy dunks. But he can’t do this against strong, physical defenders.

That means against guys like KAT and Mitch his game is limited to playing like a guard, both catch and shoot 3s and face up isos starting very far from the basket. He’s good at this, has legit guard skills, so it’s not the end of the world, but yeah, if he could be effective in the paint against KAT/Mitch types, it’d make his offence way more consistent. I think he’ll get there with time, and at that point, league fucked, but for now it’s a weakness.

I was screaming at the TV on why Wemby was playing so high in the key and dribbling on point so much. And why Dylan Harper isn’t getting more of Fox’s minutes. Fox has been cheeks these playoffs.

Posting up is quite tiring too though. And id  guess it’s harder for wemby given his center of gravity is high and he’s not that big. He’s not built like Shaq 

Unbelievable player. Him, Castle and Champaigne crashing the boards kept the Spurs in it. Knicks can’t leak out this series like in 6’ers and cavs. Box out, 2 rebounders near the key not good enough

Harper was immense in game 1 but if you want to make him a focal point like Fox, the Knicks will just put OG or Bridges on him. Harper was able to get his in transition or in the half court on Shamet and Brunson but 2nd half they def adjusted and had Bridges on him. More responsibility, more attention.

Pulling for the Knicks bc of Brown. He’s paid his dues. He’s the 1st to admit his early success was cuz of LBJ. He’s a POP disciple and has always been defensive minded. Didn’t get a fair shake with Lakers or Kings. Plus about 4-5 teams are still paying him so he’s winning off the court too. 🤭 I like the Knicks in 6. Said it b4 the series bc Spurs coach is not seasoned enough for this stage. And I wanna see the student beat the teacher even though POP is not coaching. 🤞🏽🤞🏽🏆

His number 1 weakness is his poor decision making/shot selection. It’s been happening the entire playoffs. It looks great when he makes them but when he doesn’t it just kills the Spurs offence. I don’t think that’s gonna change all of a sudden.

rude awakening? idk, it seems like the regular season matchups has been a good prediction.

okc lost to spurs just like in regular season. spurs losing to knicks. but this is the playoffs, it will also boil down to coaching

Lmao bro this is the nba finals and everyone knows how good Wemby is. Acting like NY suddenly will forget Wemby’s skill set lol. Rude awakening shitty ass take

He was unfairly maligned in Cleveland because of the expectations of having LeBron and winning a ton of games with bad rosters, but he’s also just got much better.

That was also almost 2 decades ago. That’s a long time.

He almost definitely learned a ton in Golden State all those years, the way the offense is being run feels very similar

Mike was an assistant for Pop then Rick Carlisle, then Kerr

I mean Brown was also under Pop. More so than Kerr…

also speaks very well to steve kerr that brown has found so much success after leaving the dubs

Totally agree.

Even more emphatic to /u/ThatThonkingBandito point is if you rewatch, the VERY FIRST PLAY after this timeout is Brunson going 85 feet straight to the rim for an easy finger roll. That does not happen so easily to get Brunson going with Wemby on the floor.

Shit man I can’t even fathom how we turned it around like this. I was buggggin after game 3 vs hawks

Yeah man, winning 12 in a row in the playoffs, just anyone does that. Yeah man. Totally man. Totally. You know? It happens all the time man.

No shit? Today I learned. Thanks bro

Worth noting it was also a use it or lose it timeout. Teams are limited to a max of two timeouts after the final tv timeout.

I hate this timeline

Haha, I’m just wrong a lot and loyal. I mean I also wanted to keep Randle.

Same. I liked thibs a lot but watching him get outcoached in the pacers series last year was when I knew he’d reached his ceiling with the org. & happy cake day!

He’s great at raising the floor of a bad team to something that can make the playoffs but he’s not the guy you want going deep into a playoff run

We could do a lot worse in terms of coaching. Retreads typically don’t typically win championships as well

The culture is a big part of it. The insane fight and resilience in this squad is all Thibs

These colors dont run

Pretty rarely? Lol. Happens every game at least once. That’s not rare

There’s a marine layer of everyone else’s carbon dioxide that Wemby’s face is just swimming through.

They’re analytically 3 wins away from winning it all