The 2025 NBA coaching carousel is complete, as ESPN's Shams Charania has reported that the New York Knicks are expected to hire two-time Coach of the Year Mike Brown, who takes over for the fired Tom Thibodeau.
Thibodeau led the franchise to its best stretch of success since the 1990s — winning at least one playoff series in three straight seasons and advancing to the conference finals to culminate his five-year run with the team he grew up rooting for — was not enough for him to get a chance to end New York's 26-year Finals drought and 52-year championship drought next season.
Now, Brown, who was fired by the Sacramento Kings amid a losing streak in late December, will walk into the Knicks job with sky-high expectations.
Brown was the final move in what's been a busy summer for off-the-court moves across the league. The Phoenix Suns fired Mike Budenholzer after the first year of a five-year contract, eventually hiring Cleveland Cavaliers assistant Jordan Ott as their new coach. The Denver Nuggets moved on from Michael Malone, along with general manager Calvin Booth, with less than a week to go in the regular season. Denver removed the interim tag on coach David Adelman in May. Denver's decision to fire Malone came less than two weeks after the Memphis Grizzlies fired longtime coach Taylor Jenkins. Memphis has since removed the interim tag on coach Tuomas Iisalo.
Here's our annual look at the NBA's coaching carousel, with the pros and cons of the jobs and what lies ahead for each new coach.
2024-25 record: 51-31
New coach: Mike Brown
Previous coach: Tom Thibodeau
Lead executive: Leon Rose (hired in 2020)
Positive: Ready-to-win roster, finances
This is the kind of job that coaches dream of. New York has a roster
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