New York Knicks 2025-26 Season Prediction | Can Mike Brown bring a championship culture?

New York Knicks 2025-26 Season Prediction | Can Mike Brown bring a championship culture?

Welcome back to HQ Spotlight. New Knicks head coach Mike Brown has big plans for New York in year one. The former two-time coach of the year told reporters and fans he understands the history of this team. And he hopes to continue that tradition as early as 2025, adding quote, “Nobody has bigger expectations than I do.” As we know, the Knicks fell short of an NBA championship this year after snapping a 25-y year long Eastern Conference Finals appearance drought. Here’s more from the new man in charge at MSG. Our goal starting with Mr. Dolan to Leon to the players all the way down to the fans is to build a sustainable that sustainable winning culture that produces championships. That’s why I’m here. Back here with Ashley Nicole Moss and Tim Doyle. All right, Ash, you heard the man. He’s here to bring back the winning culture. What do you think? I love to hear it. I can’t wait for October. Let’s go. I’m ready to run through a brick wall. I’m so excited. I really like Mike Brown. We were talking about this off camera. I like the coaching tree he comes from. Papovic, Steve Kerr. I like the fact that he’s coached in several NBA finals as a head coach, as an assistant. He’s won as an assistant. There’s a lot of things that I like about him. And I also like that the Knicks had the opportunity to really just mold the type of coach that they wanted and make that abundantly clear in this coaching search. I’m sure the first thing was you got to go to the bench. You got to not ride these starters. We need more flexibility. We need more creativity. And the fact that they were able to set those parameters and find a coach who was willing to adhere to those, I absolutely love. Mike Brown’s also going to bring his own guys in. I don’t know if Rick Brunson’s going to like that, but it is what it is. Um, and I also like that Mike Brown is a coach that likes to practice. He believes in practice, and everybody knows this about Tom Tibido. He’s very, you know, eh about practice, and I think that that makes a big difference. I like all the things that Mike Brown brings to the table on paper. Now, it’s time to see how that translates actually as the head coach of the New York Knicks. I mean, that is spoken like a true New York Nickerbacher fan. I mean, run through a wall. I mean, I don’t know if it was that. No, no, no, no. Not that clip, but there were other clips where he was like, you know, listen, you wouldn’t understand. I waited a long time for this, Tim. Go ahead, Tim. You got to let her have her shine. You let me have my M sign in the A block. Let’s talk Knicks. What do you think about Mike Brown in the winning culture? I used to take the Long Island Railroad, get off at Penn Station, walk up the stairs with $20 in my hand. Okay. And that was bad parenting now that I look back on it because I was like 9 years old. So, I would been going to Nick Games for a long time. They made a mistake firing Tom Thibido. Okay, because they made a mistake because they had no one in place. Now, I said this when I was in Florida a couple weeks ago. It’s a lock. They’re going to hire Mike Brown. Now, three weeks later, he’s hired. And now, Ashley breathed. It’s okay. It’s It’s a good hire. The guy’s won championships as an assistant. He’s multiple time coach of the year. He’s been through the wars with the media. And that’s important when you coach the Knicks because I remember when I was at St. John’s the reporters would be there just begging to get a sound bite out of you just hoping you said something wrong. He’s not clamoring to hear from Tim Doyle. Absolutely. So he’s fortunate Jason Tatum’s hurt. Boston’s blown up. Hallebertton is hurt. He’s inherited Haley and Ashley. An amazing job. Yeah, it is quite amazing. Um I’m kind of with you, Tim. Like I thought it was a little premature to fire Tibs, but I also to Ashley’s point, I’m excited for what Mike Brown could bring to this table. However, um when you look at the leash that Tibs had, uh Tim, he got up five years and in that time he did some successful stuff there. When you look at Mike Brown and he talks about bringing that winning culture to the Knicks, how long is the leash for him? I think it’s two. I’m curious to hear what Ashley says because the expectation is championship robust. Like if they don’t make it to the Eastern Conference Finals this year, well, that’s not as far as they went the year before. So, you know, you hire someone to get you over the hump. So, yeah, I think this leash is going to be extremely short. Uh, is that fandum? I mean, he’s inheriting an absolute fantastic squad in the East that I think it’s them and the Cavs and then kind of everybody else. So, I think he’s got two years to win the championship. Ashley knows the contracts better than me. But right now, look at that roster. I’d put that roster up against anybody in the Eastern Conference. Yeah. I mean, I can see from the outside looking in why a lot of people thought the firing of Tom Tibido was premature. But as a Knicks fan, a lot of the things that ultimately led to him being fired, the Knicks have been dealing with for years. It’s just that because the Boston Celtics were kind of running the Eastern Conference or the Miami Heat, it flew under the radar, but the frustration was always there and that was there was so much talent on the bench and there was just no creativity to utilize it amongst other things. So, I agree with with Tim though. For me, I said three if I’m being generous, but realistically it’s probably two on paper. And a big chunk of that is because look, the Eastern Conference is wide open next season. And if you are the New York Knicks and you don’t get at least the Eastern Conference Finals with a just conference that’s in complete disarray, then we’re having a real conversation not only about the head coach, but also about the roster. Yeah, we’re going to get to some season predictions in just a minute, but before we do so, we know that we are in this situation to your point, Ashley, because they couldn’t get over the hump. So, uh, when you talk about, uh, lessons being learned from that Eastern Conference Finals run, there was a lot of good, there was some bad. What lessons do you think are the biggest that they took away from what we saw in the playoffs? I think the biggest lesson is not to ride your starters in the regular season. And I think the biggest lesson also is that a good coach is able to draw up plays and make things happen. a great coach is able to adjust on the fly and that is what you’re looking for going into this season because some of the best coaches in the NBA and this is why I speak so highly of Eric Spolstra are the coaches who are able to make adjustments not only game to game but minuteto minute quarter to quarter and when you are in a series you don’t have the cushion of an 82 game season so if you lose one you got 81 more to figure it out no it’s the first to four in a sevengame series and you need a coach who’s able to adjust. I think the biggest thing that the Knicks learned was that they were at a disadvantage when it came to their head coach being able to make adjustments in comparison to other coaches like Rick Carile who was absolutely out coaching Tom Tibido. And I think that is the biggest point of of stress that they put on Mike Brown when doing these conver when having these conversations where you need to be able to coach and the coaching is not just going to be in an 82 game season. When we get to the postseason, we need you to coach like you have never coached before or you are not our guy. Yeah. and managing Jaylen Brunson because you know if all three of us were the Knicks coach and it’s in the fourth quarter and we called the timeout you know what we would all say get Jaylen Brunson the ball so you got to manage that because of course you want him with the ball but he can’t be with the ball all the time second quarter third quarter and I just felt like the Knicks leaned on him so much there was so much pressure on the guy so to Ashley’s point and by the way Ashley’s have been agreeing with me a lot this is a very rare segment we shared Hairspray down in Florida And ever since then, we’ve been able to connect. We’ve been able to connect on a new level. But it’s going to be actually expanding the roster. Think about to tho is he trust his starters. They played too many minutes. He’s going to have to play some other guys and develop that bench, especially trust that bench. That’s one thing Rick Carile did that Tom Dro did not. He was able to get deep on his bench and kind of pick the right guys out. We saw it throughout the playoffs. Obie Topphen, TJ McConnell, multiple guys throughout that playoffs that he was able to turn to. The Knicks had no bench. Mike Brown’s got to learn how to use that bench. All right. I would with you though, Tim. I did notice that we were agreeing a lot. I’m not used to seeing that. There’s a lot of back and forth usually. Generous today. I will say that there’s a little bit of disagreement when it comes to our season predictions here. I’m going to give Tim first word so that you can get final word on your team. So, Tim, how do we expect year one under Mike Brown to go? I think they play the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals. And if the Cavs are healthy, the Cavs are better. So, I think it’ be a fantastic series. Um, but that’s kind of what I’m looking at in the East. So, I’m gonna say Eastern Conference Finals, they match up with Cleveland and lose in a great series. I’m actually going NBA Finals. I think this is the year the Knicks get it done. I think with the East being wide open, I don’t necessarily trust the Cleveland Cavaliers. I think that in an Eastern Conference scenario, with the Knicks making the adjustments to their bench, obviously Jordan Clarkson add some scoring help with that second unit, a more um unified minute management from Mike Brown. And I think the New York Knicks absolutely can take down the Cleveland Cavaliers to advance to the NBA finals. And that is what I’m calling for right here. Okay. You know, when I when I was young, they used to call it beer goggles. Like, oh, you got your beer goggles on. Like as this is the year goggles. Yeah. She puts them feel it in my bones. Tim, this is We got to go. Tim, producer James is in my ear saying we ain’t got no more time for this. We appreciate it. This has been a fun one. Uh Tim, you should rock those shades more often, though. It’s a good look for you here. Uh, and how about this, Ash? When we look at the odds in the Eastern Conference, it is your New York Knicks sitting at plus 270 at the top. Those Cleveland Cavaliers though right on their tails at plus 280

Ashley Nicole Moss and Tim Doyle join CBS Sports HQ Spotlight to preview the 2025-26 season for the New York Knicks.

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