What can the Knicks can expect from Mike Brown?

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00:00Is Mike Brown the guy that can take the Knicks over the hump and finally take them to the

00:04promised land? Let's talk about the Knicks new head coaching hire and the high expectations

00:09that come with the job with our New York Post sports columnist Mike Vaccaro. Mike, thanks for

00:14hopping on with us. They finally, finally have a coach. They got a draft pick, added some guys

00:20in free agency. Now they have a coach. They interviewed Mike Brown the last time the job

00:25was open, but they ultimately gave that job to Tibbs. He's coaching over 750 regular season games,

00:32has a 60% winning percentage, coached some NBA grades, and he's won two NBA coach of the year

00:38awards, but he's never won a title as a head coach. So great choice, safe choice, or the only choice

00:45for the Knicks? Look, I'll say it's a smart choice. I think it's going to surprise a lot of people

00:50when they look and they realize that he's won 60% of his games, and that's more than all but 30

00:56coaches who are going to coach the NBA. And sure, he coached LeBron James on some of those teams, but

01:01you know, he was the first guy to actually teach LeBron how to win, and he won a lot of games with

01:06the Sacramento Kings. Not a lot of coaches can say they did that. This is obviously a very good coach.

01:12Is he an upgrade from Tom Thibodeau? Look, we'll find that out, but it's certainly not a terrible hire.

01:19I think it's going to work well. He works well with veterans. Assuming that the bulk of the

01:24Knicks team that we see now is the one he's going to be coaching, I think he's a good choice for it.

01:29I do. But look, you can't say he doesn't know what the expectations are. I mean, the Knicks made

01:35it very clear on the day they fired Tom Thibodeau they expect to compete for a championship, and with

01:41the way the Eastern Conference is situated now, there's no reason why they shouldn't compete for

01:45a championship. But the thing that's going to be out there all next year is that the

01:48Knicks got to game six of the Eastern Conference Finals. Any kind of regression is going to be noted.

01:55They've also added some depth to the roster and free agency, and you mentioned how the

02:01Eastern Conference looks like it's wide open because of the injuries to Jason Tatum and Tyrese

02:06Halliburton. So that expectations in on Brown and on this team is at an all-time high.

02:12So is it safe to say that it's NBA Finals or bust for Brown in his first season? And if

02:18not, how long or how open is his window to take this team to the Finals?

02:24Look, I mean, I think we'll say that in the next two years, that's a reasonable expectation.

02:30Next year might be the best time to get there just because of the way the rest of the conference

02:34looks, so sure. And look, there's no reason why the Knicks shouldn't enter next year feeling

02:39that that's the expectation to get at least to the Finals. And look, they made a coaching

02:46change for a reason. They thought they plateaued under Tom Thibodeau, and they wanted to find

02:51a guy who's going to be able to take it to the next bridge. And look, if Mike Brown can't

02:55do that, then he's going to answer for that. But, you know, I mean, he's a guy who's been

03:01to the Finals. He's a guy who's won a lot of games. He's a guy who knows how to coach

03:05stars. It makes a lot of sense. The more you look at it, the more it makes sense, especially

03:11when you consider that they couldn't hire a lot of the guys that they were interested in who

03:15already have jobs. And of the remaining cast of characters, I think he was the best choice.

03:22Yeah, a lot of people saluting Leon Rose in the front office, not just for the coaching

03:26hire, but just for the offseason that they're having as a whole. Mike, thanks for hopping on

03:31with this. Anytime, Brandon. Good talking to you.