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One week after adding several first-timers to their list of head coaching candidates, the New York Knicks are back to looking at veteran coaches, according to NBA sources.
Leon Rose and his front office will interview current Warriors assistant Mike Brown, who sports a sterling 347-216 record over parts of eight seasons as head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers.
Brown has a strange reputation among NBA observers. His record is beyond reproach, but he also had the incredible luck to coach prime LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. He was fired from the Lakers just five games into the 2012-13 season, returned to the LeBron-less Cavs for a lackluster 2013-14 campaign, and hasn’t gotten a head coaching job since.
Not content to only interview Brown (plus like nine other candidates), the Rose will also interview former Knick Jason Kidd.
Like Brown, Kidd has been the head man at two different franchises. He took over the Nets job after retiring in 2013, and then moved on to coach the Milwaukee Bucks. He was fired midway through the 2017-18 season and is currently an assistant with the Lakers.
Kidd also doesn’t have a great reputation as a head coach, but the team might have an ulterior motive for hiring him.
Sources close to Kidd have said that he would have interest in this job (he played for Dolan and Knicks in last successful season for NY) - and some teams interested in Kidd think that he could provide a link to the prize of next year's free agent class, Giannis. https://t.co/dlaYw7Oa1m
— Steve Popper (@StevePopper) June 22, 2020
Ugh. Let’s hope this isn’t the case. Let’s just hire a good coach, and worry about the free agent shit when the time comes, for once.