Despite their deepest playoff run in a quarter-century, the New York Knicks parted ways with head coach Tom Thibodeau over the summer. For the 2025-26 season, New York brought in Mike Brown as the new head coach of the franchise.
While many believe Brown will help re-energize the Jalen Brunson-led team, two of the franchise’s top stars had dissenting viewpoints regarding their coaching change over the summer.
Speaking in an interview with Time Magazine, Karl-Anthony Towns said he was surprised by the news and didn’t want the ‘instability‘ that comes with a rotating cast of head coaches.
Meanwhile, in a recent interview with the New York Post, Miles McBride expressed his excitement to play under a new coach, saying the team was ‘stagnant‘ with Thibodeau over the past few seasons.
Towns And McBride Have Different Thoughts
Towns had previously played under Thibodeau on the Minnesota Timberwolves, and after being traded to the Knicks right before the 2024-25 season, the center said he was excited to reunite with his former coach. But even after the season ended in a series loss, Towns believed Thibodeau wasn’t in danger of losing his job.
“I didn’t know what was happening,” Towns said. “I just knew that I left to finally get some R & R, and I’m hearing the news, so obviously I was surprised, like the rest of the world.”
The big man said after Thibodeau was let go, he didn’t want the instability seen earlier in his career to follow him to New York.
“I’ve always had instability in my career,” Towns said. “You always think the best, and you also expect the worst. So you never know.”
He then added his eagerness to work with Brown, but remained steadfast that the Thibodeau firing caught him off guard.
Opposingly, McBride didn’t share Towns’ sentiment on Thibodeau. Speaking with the Post, the guard said he is ready for the team to implement a new style of offense.
“Last year, we might’ve gotten a little bit stagnant, and the last couple years,” McBride said. “And I feel like what [Brown’s] been preaching is just being able to play with pace, and it’s not just the guy with the ball.”
McBride, who averaged a career-high 9.5 points per game last season, took time to praise Brown, who has only been with the team for a few months.
“He’s giving us the foundation, and we’re just going to work off of it,” McBride added. “So I’m really excited to see all our creativity with each other that we’ve been working on these last couple months.”
Bridges Contract Extension
While the topic of Brown coming in to lead the Knicks will remain a storyline throughout the entire season, New York’s summer was also highlighted with the contract extension of Mikal Bridges. The franchise sent five first-round draft picks to the Brooklyn Nets for the wing player, and signed him to a four-year, $150 million deal in July.
Writing for The Athletic, John Hollinger addressed Bridges’ extension as an offseason move that should come under more scrutiny.
Bridges will make $33.5 million in 2026-27 and $41.5 million in his age-33 season (2029-30) on this extension, and he’s coming off a season where he was fine but certainly not a star,” he wrote. “One can also reasonably wonder if the Knicks were reacting to the sunk cost of trading five first-round picks to acquire Bridges in the first place.”
Hollinger added that the small-forward position is the fastest-aging in the NBA, and while Bridges remains a key player, he’ll be taking up a big part of their salary cap in the coming years. New York now has all of their starting five from last season under contract for at least the next two seasons.
Brunson and Josh Hart both expressed their joy for Bridges after news of his deal was announced, saying they were happy he and the team were able to agree on a contract that keeps him in New York.
Brunson Has High Hopes For The Knicks
Looking towards a Brown-led future, Brunson recently discussed the keys for the Knicks to have a successful season.
“Hopefully we don’t have that mindset going into the season where we think we’re just going to jump back into the Eastern Conference Finals,” Brunson said in an interview with GamesHub. “We need to be able to go through this process again and continue to get better and to fight to get over that hump.”
New York reached their best finish since 2000 last season, but even with the coaching and roster changes, Brunson believes the team chemistry is strong enough to go even further in the postseason in 2025-26.
“I think we’ve been taking steady steps every year,” Brunson added. “The best part about our team is the chemistry we’ve grown and we’ve created. A lot of people help us on this journey, and to be able to be where we are now, it’s nothing to be satisfied about.”
Along with the addition of Brown for Thibodeau, New York brought in Jordan Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele, along with a few other reserve players, to complete their roster for the 2025-26 season. With their core still together, and taking up a bigger chunk of the salary cap than ever before, the Knicks expect to be a top contender in the Eastern Conference next season.
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