The Mike Brown era will carry over a few things from the Tom Thibodeau era in New York. Both are no-nonsense, veteran coaches who care deeply about establishing identities on their teams. But one important aspect that Brown (or at least the front office via Brown) seems insistent on implementing is collaboration, something that perhaps wasn't so common in Thibs' time at the helm.
On The Athletic NBA Daily podcast, The Athletic's Knicks beat reporter James Edwards III talked about the possible changes from Thibs to Brown:
"I think one thing that's big for New York is collaboration. Working with the front office, working with the coaching staff. I don't necessarily think that was Thibodeau's strong suit, right?"
"If you ever watched... when the Knicks called a timeout... most coaches would deliberate with their assistant coaches, and then go into a huddle... [Thibodeau] would never talk with his assistants. And it's not that he disliked his assistants, I think it was just... 'this is what we're doing, this is my show.'"
Even with the comparative success Thibs saw in the playoffs, Knicks fans often (and mostly fairly) criticized him for refusing to make changes during games and in playoff series. Thibs liked to do things his way, and if Brown is willing to make changes on the fly that help the Knicks break through the glass ceiling, then bring on the collaboration.
More hands working together is (almost) always a good thing! More eyes on a problem make it easier to solve, for the most part, so more collaboration on Brown's staff could pay dividends. Or it could provide marginal changes that don't really lead to wins. I don't know! But when the expectations for a new coach are this high, small changes might be all he can really do; fundamental changes aren't needed for a Knicks team coming off its best season in 25 years, so I understand why it feels important for Brown and the Knicks to nail down the little things going forward.
The Thibs Show, if you will, was still ultimately a success. You can nitpick, but when a coach lifts a team to its best season since people were concerned about Y2K, I don't think it's a stretch to say that things worked.
Mike Brown is under heaps of pressure as Knicks coach
In the past three seasons, the Knicks went to the second round thrice and the conference finals once. They've won 50 games each of the past two seasons and have finished in the top five of the East four of the past five years.
It's not often that a coach gets hired and their baseline for success is the ECF at least, but that's the case with Mike Brown. President Leon Rose said the Knicks are, "Singularly focused on winning a championship for our fans," after Thibs was fired, so you don't need to read between the lines to realize that Mike Brown's expectations from the higher-ups are to do just that. 50 wins and a playoff series win won't cut it.