After firing head coach Tom Thibodeau in the early stages of the offseason, Mike Brown enters his first season for the New York Knicks under plenty of pressure.
Thibodeau did what he had to do in New York, taking the team to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 20-plus years. Thibodeau is a good, perhaps not great coach, but other factors went into the Knicks' decision.
According to reports, there was turmoil in the locker room, and that's the last thing any team in the NBA wants to deal with.
However, because that happened, one can only wonder if it's possible that the Knicks could find themselves in a similar position with Brown. According to James L. Edwards of The Athletic, that's the only way he could be let go after a year.
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Even if the Knicks have a disappointing season, he noted that it’d be very unlikely to see them get rid of Brown because they're still paying Thibodeau.
“Barring locker-room turmoil or just some disaster of epic proportions in the win-loss column, I think there’s a 0.1 percent chance that Brown is let go after this upcoming season if New York doesn’t win the title. The expectations placed on him are heavy, but everyone who created these expectations — a.k.a. his bosses — also have to be somewhat realistic.
“The Knicks are still paying Tom Thibodeau for multiple years. I just can’t see an owner being willing to pay two coaches tens of millions of dollars to, well, not coach and then have to turn around and hire another coach,” he wrote.
Switching coaches left and right typically never ends well in the NBA, as seen by a few teams around the league. For a Knicks team that found success last year, but is still knocking on the door to win it all, the last thing they want to do is have no continuity.
Getting rid of Brown instantly wouldn't be wise, to put it lightly.