{"id":1986915,"date":"2026-06-12T14:15:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T11:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1986915"},"modified":"2026-06-12T14:15:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T11:15:29","slug":"the-bounce-mike-browns-chaotic-journey-to-the-verge-of-an-nba-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1986915","title":{"rendered":"The Bounce: Mike Brown\u2019s chaotic journey to the verge of an NBA title"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Bounce Newslette<\/b>r<\/strong>\u00a0\":basketball:\"<\/span>\u00a0| This is The Athletic\u2019s<\/em> daily NBA newsletter.\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

The next time we speak to each other, we may have a new NBA champion. The Knicks are on the cusp of breaking their 53-year championship drought. It would be the first \u201cdouble\u201d in league history, with New York winning the NBA Cup and<\/em> the Larry O\u2019Brien trophy. James Dolan would have to put a banner up for both.<\/p>\n

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What a journey<\/h3>\n

Mike Brown\u2019s adaptation should be appreciated<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m always fascinated by the assumption that coaches are who they are for the rest of their careers. Yes, sometimes that ends up being true. Coaches can be tyrants. Coaches can be stubborn. Coaches can be limited in how they adapt. But solid coaches will find ways to adjust to whatever is best for their team.<\/p>\n

Legendary San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is a good example of this. Did you know that he abhorred the 3-point shot? And yet, he still worked it into his game plan \u2014 early and often \u2014 because it was best for the team. He talked about it early in the 2018-19 season when he was discussing the prevalence of 3s<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve hated the 3 for 20 years. That\u2019s why I make a joke all the time (and say) if we\u2019re going to make it a different game, let\u2019s have a 4-point play. Because if everybody likes the 3, they\u2019ll really like the 4. People will jump out of their seats if you have a 5-point play. It will be great. There\u2019s no basketball anymore; there\u2019s no beauty in it. It\u2019s pretty boring. But it is what it is, and you need to work with it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

That takes us to the Knicks\u2019 Mike Brown, who at one point was viewed as a limited NBA head coach.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

During Brown\u2019s first coaching stint, he had incredible success with a young LeBron James (yes, he was young once) and the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2005-10. The Cavs were 305-187 (.620) with a 42-29 playoff record (.592) under Brown, including a finals appearance in 2007 (they were swept). The knock on Brown\u2019s coaching was that he had a genius mind for defense but ran uncreative offense. Any success on the latter end of the floor was credited to James, and the playoffs were used as examples of that.<\/p>\n

His offense was stagnant, iso-heavy and too predictable. In his next spot, with the Los Angeles Lakers from 2011-13, Brown was fired after a lockout-shortened season (41-25) and five games into his second season. He wasn\u2019t the proper voice with the gravitas to command a team full of stars in L.A.<\/p>\n

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He returned to Cleveland for a season and was then replaced by David Blatt when LeBron came back to the organization. Brown spent the next six seasons under Steve Kerr with the Golden State Warriors. Three titles later, he got his shot to be the latest coach to try to pull the Sacramento Kings out of the cellar in 2022-23.<\/p>\n

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And he did. He installed an expansive and high-octane offense, and the Kings immediately started winning. Brown led them to 48 wins (an 18-win improvement), the West\u2019s No. 3 seed in the 2023 playoffs (their first postseason appearance in 16 years) and the best offense in the NBA. After the Kings went full-on Kings mode by firing him a season and a half later, Brown got the Knicks job.<\/p>\n

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In his first season, he has them one win away from the championship<\/a>. As my friend Nic reminded our group chat, Brown has experienced so much chaos in his coaching career:<\/p>\n