Though it's been nine months since the New York Knicks made the decision to relieve Tom Thibodeau of his duties as head coach, there's a large batch of fans and pundits who still find themselves scratching their heads at the move.
James Dolan's resurfaced remarks making their rounds on X only reinforce this persistent confusion.
During an appearance on WFAN back in early January, the Knicks owner went on record saying, "We want to get to the Finals, and we should win the Finals... Getting to the Finals, we've absolutely got to do."
After making it to their first conference finals since the 1999-2000 season just last year, it's no surprise that the expectations for 2025-26 are the highest they've been since the turn of the century.
However, given that this season is now publicly viewed as "title round or bust" by Dolan himself, the fact that this front office opted for what can only be seen as, at best, a lateral move going from Thibodeau to Mike Brown makes this particular situation all the more bewildering.
Knicks keeping Tom Thibodeau would have been more of a win-now move
When it was first announced that Brown would be taking over as head coach of the Knicks, the signing, as Stephen A. Smith put it, lacked "sizzle."
While big-time names like Jason Kidd and Michael Malone were both rumored to be on the ball club's radar as possible successors to Thibodeau, the addition of Brown was far from the flair and flavor many were expecting.
Yes, he's a two-time Coach of the Year with experience leading a team to a Finals in the past (2007 with the Cavaliers), but, for the most part, his tenure in such a position has been marred by sub-third round playoff exits despite having some of the best talents in the game at the time (LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Domantas Sabonis, etc.) and being fired in all of his head coaching stints.
Outside of the title-round appearance (which many presume Thibs could have achieved had Derrick Rose stayed healthy during his Chicago Bulls days), the resumes of the two head coaches are painfully similar, a point widely cited as a reason to question the hiring of Brown in the first place.
However, with Dolan's desire to win-now, the coaching shakeup becomes all the more perplexing.
Though there are examples that go against the grain, for the most part, the switching of a team's headman generally results in some growing pains in the first year.
With the new Brown regime, said growing pains persist here late in the campaign, taking the form of an incredibly putrid offensive rut for Mikal Bridges and an openly confused Karl-Anthony Towns regarding his role within the system.
Say what you will about Thibodeau, but, under his watch, Towns posted arguably the best season of his career in 2024-25 while Bridges was able to play himself out of slumps due to the former coach's approach -- something ESPN's Tim MacMahon believes Brown should consider adopting himself.
This same Knicks core had an already established familiarity with Thibodeau's system, while the coach had public backing from the team's undisputed leader and best player, Jalen Brunson.
With all this in mind, Dolan saying that New York "absolutely" has to clinch their first NBA Finals berth since 1999 makes the idea of the team moving on from Thibodeau without replacing him with someone objectively superior in the coaching ranks that much more questionable.
If the objective is to win now, where's the logic in moving on from a guy who has only managed to win and exceed expectations since arriving back in 2020?