The Knicks almost reached the NBA Finals last season, but they lost in six games to the Pacers. That feat wasn’t enough for coach Tom Thibodeau as he got fired in the offseason and was replaced by Mike Brown. So, why did the Knicks fire a coach who had just led them to their first Conference final presence since 1999-00? In my opinion, they did that in order to attempt a style change so they can be more modern on offense.
With the arrival of Karl-Anthony Towns, it was expected that the Knicks would be one of the best offensive teams in the league and… that happened as they were #5 in offensive efficiency, in order to be a top 10 offense in the league for the third season in a row. However, the NY team were once again a slow paced team (only #27 in seconds per possession) and they were also one of the teams (#27) with the lowest amount of vol% 3pts attempted. That did not prevent them from being an elite team on offense, but this kind of style simply isn’t appreciated in the NBA these days.
It is also well known that the teams coached by Thibs don’t rotate a lot which forces their starters to play heavy minutes the whole season. The reasoning behind that is that Thibs believes that this way allows starters to form extra chemistry that helps the team long term. However, that did not happen with the Knicks as their KAT – OG – Bridges – Hart – Brunson starting lineup was outscored by 3.2 points during the playoffs.
For this season, roster wise, the Knicks will maintain their structure as their core remains the same. Only Clarkson and Yabusele joined the team to be role players. The biggest change will come in the coaching department with Mike Brown stating that he wants the team to play fast, similarly to what he did at Sacramento with the Kings.
SAC 2021/22: 14.0 sec/poss | #5 ranked
SAC 2022/23: 13.6 sec/poss | #1 ranked
Sacramento indeed played faster under Brown, however the Kings were already used to playing at a fast pace, so nothing similar to the kind of pace the Knicks are used to adopting in their games since Brunson became their main ball handler.
In a season where the Eastern Conference has gotten weaker due to some key players suffering severe injuries, the Knicks have a great chance this season to finally return to the NBA finals. The key factor will be how long Mike Brown will need to implement his system and whether this roster will manage to adopt it successfully.