The New York Knicks continued to beef up Mike Brown’s coaching staff with another “great offensive mind” with the addition of T.J. Saint, SNY’s Ian Begley reports.
“Saint, head coach of the Pelicans G League team, will aid [the Knicks] on the offensive end. He’s viewed in NBA circles as a bright offensive mind; Squadron had the G League’s top offense in the 2023-24 regular season. In addition to coaching with the Pelicans, Saint has coached at the University of Georgia, with the Detroit Pistons, at Butler University and Belmont University,” Begley reported on X on Aug. 11.
Saint joined the Eerie Bayhawks (now the Birmingham Squadron), the Pelicans’ G League affiliate, during the 2019-20 season. He finally got his coaching break after serving as the director of basketball strategy at the University of Georgia during the 2018-19 season. In 2020, he was promoted to associate head coach and eventually took the head coaching job two years later.
Saint climbed up the coaching ladder, starting as a video coordinator for the Pistons from 2014 to 2018. He was ultimately promoted to head of video coordinator, while also having player development responsibilities. He had covered everything to prepare himself for a coaching job, from scouting and personnel reports, as lead coach for pre-draft workouts, a coach for the free agent mini-camp and an assistant coach for the Pistons’ summer league team.
Saint will help Chris Jent, the new Knicks associate head coach, to map out the team’s offensive strategies that will maximize their top-heavy roster. The Knicks ranked no. 7 in offensive rating under Tom Thibodeau last season.
Chris Jent Returns to Knicks
Getty Head coach Chris Jent of the Charlotte Hornets looks on in the first half of a 2025 NBA Summer League. He is will join the New York Knicks as the associate head coach under Mike Brown.
Saint’s hiring came just three days after the addition of Jent.
Jent was on Brown’s coaching staff in Cleveland from 2006 to 2009. He recently guided the Charlotte Hornets to the NBA Summer League title in Las Vegas — the first championship of any kind for the franchise.
As a player, Jent had a brief stint with the Knicks during the 1996-97 season. He appeared in only three games, averaging 2.0 points.
Jent also won a championship as a player with the Houston Rockets in 1994, ironically, against the Knicks.
The 55-year-old Jent has been working as an assistant coach in the NBA since 2003. He once coached the Orlando Magic in an interim capacity during the 2004-05 season and logged a 5-13 win-loss record. His other head coaching experience was in the NBA D League (now G League) with the Bakersfield Jam (now the Motor City Cruise) during the 2015-16 season.
Jent was the most experienced assistant coach on the Hornets staff and will leave for New York for a much-deserved promotion.
New Assistant Coaches
Former Los Angeles Clippers assistant coach Brendan O’Connor will helm the Knicks’ defense under Brown.
“O’Connor worked as a Knicks assistant under Larry Brown and has close ties to Knicks executive William Wesley,” SiriusXM’s NBA Radio host Frank Isola previously reported.
Wesley, known as “World Wide Wes,” was a power broker behind the scenes during Brown’s coaching stints in Detroit and Philadelphia.
Aside from Saint, Jent and O’Connor, the Knicks will also be adding two of Brown’s former assistants from the Sacramento Kings, Charles Allen and Riccardo Fois, according to Hoopshype’s Michael Scotto.
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