Quiet Night

The Knicks take a project in the second round. Plus, a walk down memory lane with Mike Brown.

Good morning! The Knicks made a draft pick! Let’s talk about it.

News & Notes

The Knicks went into last night with the 50th overall pick and some minor speculation that they may try to move up. They never did, instead opting to trade down one spot to 51 in exchange for the draft rights to Luka Mitrovic, who has an equivalent chance of playing in the NBA as you or me. Why go through the trouble? Because Brock Aller is a sick, sick man.

As for the guy the Knicks took with the 51st pick, say hello to 20-year-old, 6'8" French wing Mohamed Diawara.

Per Ian Begley, Diawara will play for the Knicks in Vegas but its unclear whether he’ll sign any kind of a contract with the team this season. Given their cap concerns and proximity to the second apron, it shouldn’t surprise anyone if he’s stashed overseas for at least a year. That’s probably for the best. The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie had Diawara outside his top 100 and he profiles as something of a project.

One fun fact: Diawara is friends with his fellow countryman Pacome Dadiet.

If nothing else, it should be fun to see them on the floor together in summer league.

What Can (Mike) Brown Do For You?

We start off our column to end the week with a couple of questions about the coaching situation, first from Vince N…

Based on comments by Nico and Ian, one would think we are back to Jenkins and Brown being the odds-on favorites to land the job. Do you have a preference between the two, and if so, what does one of them bring to the table that would tilt the scale?

…and second from Earnest Monk:

If you had to make a pick now, who is coaching this team to start the ‘25-26 season? I don’t think Kidd will be able to get out his contract, especially knowing how Nico Harrison is. I think it’s between Brown and Jenkins (I prefer Jenkins).

Choices, choices…

When the early batch of names came out in the aftermath of the Thibodeau firing, I think I had the same reaction as a lot of people.

When I heard about Jenkins, it was “young coach, smart guy, maybe learned some valuable lessons in Memphis, got a raw deal, had his legs cut out from under him.” Several weeks later, I haven’t changed my thinking on any of that, although I have started to wonder why the Grizzlies so blatantly undercut Jenkins the summer before they ultimately let him go. When something is just off about a team, there’s no way to know for sure how to divvy up the blame pie. Often, it’s not any one person’s fault, even if the coach takes the blame for most of it.

(See: Knicks, New York, circa early June 2025)

Which brings us to the topic of Mike Brown. Again, when I heard his name, I don’t think my reaction was all that unique:

Competent coach, definitely second tier, has had so many opportunities, never got over the hump, high floor, low ceiling, is this really the best we can do?

But the longer I do this, the more I’m trying to examine my own assumptions and biases. Why do we think of a two-time Coach of the Year as so uninspiring? What is it about his .599 winning percentage - 8th best among coaches who have at least 750 career games under their belt, seven of which are or will be in the Hall of Fame - that is so misleading? What can’t he do that this team needs?

With these questions in mind, I went back over his well-documented resume with a fine tooth comb to see if I could get some answers. Let’s go in reverse order, starting with…

Sacramento (‘22-23 to ‘24-25)