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Temperature Rising On Tom Thibodeau’s Seat?

November 14th 2022 at 1:51pm CST by Rory Maher

The temperature is rising on Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau‘s seat after Sunday’s blowout loss to the Thunder, in which New York gave up 145 points at home, according to Ian Begley of SNY.tv. The Knicks’ effort has been lacking multiple times in the young season, leading to questions about Thibodeau’s ability to get through to his team, Begley writes.

“I thought (Sunday) was just a readiness (issue). We just weren’t ready,” Evan Fournier said. “Noon game, whatever. I don’t know. But lack of intensity, just not doing what we’re supposed to.”

After Thibodeau led the Knicks to the East’s No. 4 seed in 2020/21 with a 41-31 record and won Coach of the Year, the team faltered in his second season, finishing with a 37-45 record.

According to Begley, owner James Dolan gave president Leon Rose permission to decide Thibodeau’s fate just before the All-Star break last season after the Knicks blew a 28-point lead to a Nets team playing without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. Obviously, Rose decided to retain Thibodeau, but it put his future performance under more scrutiny.

At 6-7 thus far in 2022/23, New York’s record isn’t egregious relative to external expectations, but the Knicks had higher hopes entering ’22/23 than a possible play-in berth, in part due to moving some draft assets to free up cap space to sign Jalen Brunson to a lucrative contract in free agency (Thibodeau was a proponent of trading for Donovan Mitchell as well, Begley adds). People with knowledge of the situation told Begley in the offseason that the team’s early-season performance would be “critical,” with Thibodeau “under a microscope early on.”

As Begley writes, not all of the Knicks’ struggles are on Thibodeau. They don’t have the most talented roster, and there aren’t many defensive-minded players for a coach with well-known reputation for prioritizing defense.

“The thing that sits with me is the disappointment of losing,” Thibodeau said after Sunday’s loss, per Steve Popper of Newsday (subscriber link). “We have to look at every game and say, ‘OK, what do we have to fix, what do we have to prioritize?’ . . . But I know if we’re relying on trying to outscore people that’s not going to work. Our margin of error is small, we have to play with great intensity on every possession.”

Still, changes are likely to come in some form if the team struggles on its upcoming five-game road trip, whether it be via a trade, in the front office or with Thibodeau being replaced, Begley notes. The Knicks have a brutal schedule over that stretch: road games at Utah, Denver, Golden State, Phoenix and Oklahoma City.

Something feels off with the Knicks, according to Fred Katz of The Athletic. The starters are struggling again, the bench isn’t performing as well as last season, the pieces are ill-fitting and the effort comes and goes. Katz argues the Knicks should make a consolidation trade because they have too many rotation players but not enough standout performers.

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