History will forever suggest that the New York Knicks needed a coaching change to win an NBA Championship. After Tom Thibodeau helped the team reach the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 25 years, he was fired. Mike Brown was chosen to replace him. And in the new coach's first season with the clipboard, the Knicks ended the championship drought that had been weighing on them for 53 years.
In the years leading up to that ring, though, New York had a steady list of basketball priorities that became apparent every time they played. Thibodeau, known as more of a traditional head coach, helped the Knicks make vast improvements as defenders and rebounders throughout his tenure.
The Knicks' offense under Brown was more versatile. The team used more of its depth over the course of the regular season, collected valuable data about their players, and used it to determine what trade-deadline additions would be necessary for a title push. But they also had the fifth-highest offensive rebounding percentage, and best defensive rating, in the playoffs. Brown didn't ditch Thibodeau's cornerstones. New York wound up needing the knowledge of both coaches — Brown's own spin on Thibodeau's foundations — to get over the hump.
Thibodeau's tenets got the Knicks ahead of the curve
Teams, and their players, have access to more data than ever regarding the game of basketball. What kind of shot is a certain player best at? When, and how often, should they take it? Is it worthwhile to bet that the extra point from behind the 3-point line, even though the shot is half as likely to go in, is worth gambling away an open dunk?
As a result, players that can actually execute on this knowledge are becoming incredibly valuable to teams looking to win games. Jayson Tatum, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, and Brunson are excellent examples of elite decision-makers with NBA Championships. Tyrese Haliburton hasn't reached that mountaintop, yet, but falls into a similar category.
Potentially the most negative outcome possible of an offensive possession is a turnover. Teams do well to avoid them. On Yossi Gozlan's Third Apron Podcast, co-host Sam Quinn highlighted Thibodeau's work instilling that principle in New York — and how an old-school tenet ushered the Knicks right into the modern era of basketball.
"They were at the forefront of where I think the NBA was going strategically over the last half-decade or so. They, under Tom Thibodeau specifically, were really early on the offensive-rebounding priority and the low-turnover priority. Something that Thibs got a lot of criticism for was his offense not having a lot of ball movement, being very, very stagnant....The Knicks had like a two or three year head start over everybody," Quinn explained.
Thibodeau liked his team to work both opposing defenses and the clock. In crunch time, the Knicks effectively played a "prevent offense" designed to keep the basketball away from their opponents as much as possible.
The coach's Knicks teams, like Brown's title-winning roster, also had both Josh Hart and Mitchell Robinson in significant roles. The result was an offense built entirely around the gravity of a number-one option, like Brunson or Julius Randle before him, with complementary players in the mix whose primary goals are to secure additional scoring chances for their group.
Brown's Knicks were more willing to put points on the board. They infamously ran up the score, numerous times, throughout the postseason as they mercilessly blew teams out of their own buildings.
Quinn went on to say the team's coaching change was the "correct" move. He even credited Brown for the "heater of all coaching heaters" in the 2026 NBA Playoffs — the coach earned it with moves like keeping Josh Hart in the team's starting lineup and knowing exactly when to deploy Jose Alvarado. The analyst just made sure to tip his cap in Thibodeau's direction before leaving the flowers at Brown's door.
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