Despite enjoying the most successful tenure of any Knicks head coach this century by a mile, Tom Thibodeau was relieved of his duties following a six-game Eastern Conference Finals defeat by Indiana.
According to Ian Begley and Alex Smith of SNY.tv, Thibodeau will not be given a role in president Leon Rose‘s front office going forward. The three-year, $30MM contract extension he inked with the team last summer has yet to kick in, but the team will simply eat that money.
Thibodeau brought the Knicks to four playoff appearances during his five seasons in charge, posting a 226-174 regular season record and a 24-23 playoff record.
There’s more out of New York:
- In another SNY.tv story, Begley says he doesn’t believe the Knicks’ next head coach will be made to hold onto assistant Rick Brunson. However, Begley wonders if firing Brunson – the father of Jalen Brunson – might get the new coach’s relationship with the team’s All-NBA point guard on the wrong foot. The elder Brunson worked under Thibodeau throughout Thibs’ stint with the team.
- Although Rockets head coach Ime Udoka has been floated as a possible next Knicks coach, a team source confirms to The Athletic’s Kelly Iko (via Twitter) that Houston does not intend to make him available. That’s also what Marc Stein reported when he first identified Udoka as someone who would be of interest to the Knicks.
- Two-time champion UConn coach Dan Hurley has indicated he has no interest in taking the Knicks gig, per Dom Amore of The Hartford Courant. “Not another summer of that,” Hurley said, alluding to the Lakers’ 2024 pursuit of his services. Sources tell Dan Burges of The New Haven Register that the Huskies aren’t seriously worried about the possibility that Hurley would leave.
As a Knicks fan, I want nothing to do with Dan Hurley.
I agree. I would say the same about any college HC with no NBA background. That’s a (coaching) project, at best, and not appropriate for this job at this time.
So that’s a no on Jay Wright…?
If he’s interested (BIG IF), they’d have talk to him. But I wouldn’t try to bribe him out of coaching retirement. To the contrary, more than any other candidate, he’d have to show he REALLY wants the job, and has the energy to tackle the enormous transition from college to the NBA at this stage of his life. Knowing he won’t have a year or two to acclimate before expectations kick in. I guess I’m skeptical that he’d really have any interest.
I do not understand the obsession with Jay Wright. Without question, he is one of the greatest college coaches of all time. But, nova was at its best when he was regularly running four guard lineups. That won’t fly in the nba. The Knicks were just exposed in the playoffs because they were too small. I’m not taking anything away from a great coach, but I just think any nba team that lures him out of retirement is taking a huge risk
The 4 guard alignments were earlier in his career. His NC teams (and his last FF team) had more conventional lineups. 4 guards wasn’t ideological. Nova’s natural recruiting footprint contained more guards than anything else. Once he elevated the program’s recruiting profile a bit, his recruiting was more balanced.
Knicks were exposed because they were too small? They had two centers playing at the same time.
That’s what his talent dictated. I’m sure that wouldn’t be the case if he took on the Knicks. A good coach adapts to the players, like Popovich. Others run systems, like D’Antoni. I think Wright is a good coach.
Yeah Brad Stevens was horrible.
Seriously? LOL. You really think that’s what I said or implied?
Stevens, when hired, was very young (30’s), and took over a rebuilding situation which gave him plenty of time to acclimate to the NBA before there was any expectation of winning. He didn’t have a winning season until year 3.
Wright is a 63 year old college lifer, retired for 3 years, and would be asked to take over a team which fired the prior coach for only getting to the ECF.
If your brain processes these two very different hires as equivalents, then you should avoid basketball discussions. You’re not up to them.
I am pointing out that your statement was not correct by using sarcasm and an example.
Nice post though.
Yup, just an extremely successful championship caliber coach that, by some estimation that you can’t quantify, wouldn’t be a good coach for your Knicks. Seems logical
Quantify? LOL. It’s not quantitative in nature. You obviously have no clue what coaching is, or what coaches do, so there is no point in going further.
Who’s to say they just won’t promote Rick Brunson to HC?
That is what I am thinking. NO evidence, but I kind of think it is Brunson, bc a new coach will want Brunson gone, if they are smart.
Why are none of these media pundits saying it? I would even bet money behind the scenes they said “we’ll see if Thibs can win a title here and if he can’t then its Jalen’s dad’s time.”
I dont know anything. Pure speculation. But any coach that takes the Knicks job has so much going against them right from the get go that keeping a distraction like Brunson’s dad is difficult.
But I could see that being the case that Dolan is dumb enough to think Rick B could coach and that Jaylen wants him as coach.
Great point, CF. Agreed on all.
No offense to you, CF, but when you find yourself agreeing with Davey, you should take a step back and re-evaluate. The reason no one is mentioning it is because it’s a silly idea that is not going to happen. You think they fired Thibs to promote one of Thibs’s guys who is also the father of their star player? Laughable.
You know there’s a thing called search engines. And they can pull all the info you need to understand the rumors better. You should try it sometime.
There are stories out there. That Knicks management is not all that happy with Rick Brunson. And Rick is a Thibs guy for years. I doubt Rose would ever hire Rick as coach. Especially now
Michael Malone is from Queens NY. He knows NY sports scene. And understands the Knick Mythology. By far the best hire at this time.
Knicks had 4 rookies on bench last year. And a bench Thibs didn’t trust much.
Knicks starting 5 was one of worst defensively. Perimeter D was awful.
Any coach who takes the job. Will have to fix this.
Malone is the coach who helped Jokic become
“The Joker”. Rose has to be hoping he can help KAT. Now with Thibs gone. I don’t see Knicks moving Towns. So how will they upgrade this team. The window is now. Knicks have to retool this team to contend. Imo Thibs is gone cause he and Rose disagreed on how to do that. So now we will see how Rose will do it …..
One can argue that Pepsi made Joker who he is based on what he’s shared.
It’s a toss up on who the next coach of the Knicks. My choice of Stan VanGundy or Taylor Jenkins.
SVG shouldn’t be involved in basketball at any level.