AROUND the NBA:

[DallasMaverick]

The Knick who impressed me the most in the Finals, vs my expectations, was not Brunson. It was Mike Brown. I had thought he was mostly a meh coach who got lots of chances because of his history as a SA assistant, and then would get fired when each place figured it out.

But he made some really inspired adjustments in the playoffs, both of them to unlock the offense. Against ATL iirc, he went to KAT as the offensive hub which let Brunson play off the ball. Against PHI too. To some degree KAT was the focal point, doing the passing, more than Brunson.

In the Finals, in games 1-2, Brunson was not that good on offense. Somehow they won anyhow, but he was being overwhelmed and worn down by the SA defense pounding on him all the way up the court, and his offense was very subpar. So Brown took him off being the guy pushing the ball all the time, mainly with Alvarado, and it let Brunson have the energy to score in buckets again later in the series. I think that was a somewhat minor tweak that was very very sharp, and made a big difference.

So, because of a few good decisions, he vaulted from an average-to-below-average journeyman head coach to a bright, shiny expert superstar coach.

We fans are incredibly fickle. Incredibly influenced by recency bias. Incredibly drawn to assigning a single source to wins and losses.

I laughed out loud when I saw Kendrick Perkins' take that the Spurs needed to basically rebuild.  After narrowly missing an NBA championship?  Really??

If not for a couple of mental lockups, inexperience and youth, we could easily be proclaiming the Spurs as the current and future dynasty of the NBA right now.

Calm down, guys!!