Knicks better know what they're doing by firing Tom Thibodeau
The Knicks' Tom Thibodeau coaches against the Boston Celtics during the first quarter at Madison Square Garden on April 8. Credit: Brad Penner
Tom Thibodeau didn’t deserve this.
The Knicks coach didn’t deserve to get fired three days after the team finished their best season in a quarter century. He didn’t deserve to have the rug yanked from underneath him, after changing the culture and direction of a franchise that had been mired in dysfunction and failure for most of this century. Thibodeau didn’t deserve to go out this way, but he has.
The Knicks better know what they are doing.
I’m sure they have a plan. I’m not convinced it’s a good one. As much as I’d like to have faith in a Knicks management that brought in Jalen Brunson and is attempting to build a championship around him, after covering 14 different Knicks coaches in 23 years, it’s a little hard to get excited about the decision to fire a coach who got the team to the playoffs in four of his five years.
Knicks president Leon Rose said in a statement that the move was what the team felt was “best for our organization moving forward,” but did not go into further detail.
“Our organization is singularly focused on winning a championship for our fans,” Rose said. “This pursuit led us to the difficult decision to move in another direction. We can’t thank Tom enough for pouring his heart and soul into each and every day of being the New York Knicks head coach.”
Reading the statement, it’s apparent that the team is convinced that Thibodeau is basketball’s version of Buck Showalter. Showalter, like Thibodeau, stepped into a mess and made it respectable. Then, after the Yankees reached the postseason for the first time in 14 years, the Yankees replaced him with Joe Torre, who led the team to four World Series wins in the next five years.
Knicks fans can only hope that the team will find the NBA version of Torre, and fans will soon be celebrating their first championship since 1973. (Knicks fans don’t need four, like the Yankees. But one would be nice, thank you.)
So, in no particular order, is a list of names you could hear being announced at a Knicks news conference coming your way soon: Michael Malone, Jay Wright, Johnnie Bryant, Mike Budenholzer, Taylor Jenkins, Mike Brown and Danny Hurley. This non-exhaustive list includes proven NBA coaches, highly thought of NBA assistants and two college coaches.
Whoever is picked will face the monster expectation that the only way to improve upon this season is to get to the NBA Finals. Yes, think about that. The Knicks actually fired a guy who got them within two wins of the NBA Finals.
What’s more, the new coach won’t be taking over a team on the precipice of a dynasty like Torre did. This is a team with some definite roster flaws, problems that still need to be worked out.
The biggest flaw may be that the Knicks’ two biggest stars, Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, are poor defenders. The Knicks tried to compensate for that by adding Mikal Bridges and re-signing OG Anunoby, both considered elite defenders. That worked through the first two rounds of the playoffs, but frustration over Towns’ poor defense began to bubble over late in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals and was caught on camera when Anunoby and Towns exchanged words on the bench.
The Knicks have a problem that with ball-dominant Brunson running the offense, it often lacks diversity. It also limits other players’ opportunities, especially Towns. The Knicks need to find another starter who can play alongside Brunson but create some scoring opportunities for others.
Finally, what about a deeper bench? Thibodeau was criticized for playing his starters heavy minutes, but there was a reason for that. So much energy had been put into creating this starting five, that the Knicks really didn’t have much of a bench for him to use.
Despite these deficiencies, Thibodeau helped put together the most exciting postseason run in 25 years. The Knicks were the talk of the town after beating Boston in six games.
Yes, the Knicks wanted to go further in the playoffs, so now they have found a scapegoat for the fact they didn’t.
We’ll see how it plays out.
Tom Thibodeau finishes his five-year Knicks tenure as the fourth-winningest coach in franchise history:
1. Red Holzman 613
2. Joe Lapchick 326
3. Jeff Van Gundy 248
4. Tom Thibodeau 226
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
