The New York Knicks have swept the Cleveland Cavaliers and are headed to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999. A major part of that has been head coach Mike Brown, who found a way to take this team to the next level. And he's showing the Sacramento Kings how big a mistake they made.
Brown didn't show up in New York with a broken team to fix. Former general manager Scott Perry and former head coach Tom Thibodeau each put their respective stamps on the rebuild of the Knicks into a legit contender. They came pretty close to something big, but kept stalling out in the playoffs.
The Knicks were missing some components to take them over the top. As it turned out, signing Landry Shamet just before the season began and acquiring Jose Alvarado at the trade deadline helped a lot. Shamet in particular has had a huge playoffs, particularly in the Conference Finals.
Easily the smartest move the Knicks made was bringing in Brown. Thibodeau was a great coach, but he couldn't get New York to the next level. Brown has made changes, some big and some small, that have turned the Knicks into a postseason juggernaut. Whoever comes out of the west is in trouble.
Wow, did the Kings screw up with Mike Brown
It's not like this was in question, but it's become increasingly apparent how badly the Kings' organization failed when they fired Brown. He was only their head coach for roughly two and a half seasons, but was fired when their poorly constructed roster couldn't succeed.
The reality of that situation was that he had nothing to do with putting that imbalanced roster together. On top of that, Brown actually managed to take that roster to the playoffs for the first time in 17 years. Despite that, the Kings' ownership and front office pinned their failures on him.
Now, Brown is going to the NBA Finals with the Knicks, something that he could have potentially done with the Kings. A lot would have to change on the Sacramento roster for that to happen. Still, it's not hard to imagine that he could have been the right head coach to lead them through the rebuild.
If Brown and the Knicks win the NBA Championship this season, and they legitimately could, that would be the absolute end of the conversation. The Kings screwed up by firing him, leaving Sactown fans wondering what might have been had they hung onto such a high-quality coach.
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