After a few misses, the New York Knicks are finally close to hiring an external candidate to join Mike Brown’s coaching staff.
According to SiriusXM’s NBA Radio host Frank Isola, the Knicks and Brown are closing in on a deal with Los Angeles Clippers assistant coach Brendan O’Connor, citing a league source.
“O’Connor worked as a Knicks assistant under Larry Brown and has close ties to Knicks executive William Wesley,” Isola wrote on X.
Wesley, known as “World Wide Wes,” was a power broker behind the scenes during Brown’s coaching stints in Detroit and Philadelphia.
Stefan Bondy of the New York Post confirmed Isola’s report and added that O’Connor will serve as the defensive coordinator and not an associate head coach.
The Knicks are still looking to hire a league veteran to become Brown’s lead assistant after demoting Rick Brunson, who was Tom Thibodeau’s associate head coach last season.
Brendan O’Connor is an NBA Lifer
Getty Former New York Knicks head coach Larry Brown with Brendan O’Connor sitting on the back.
Before his short-lived stop in New York in 2005, O’Connor was with Brown on the Detroit Pistons championship team in 2004. O’Connor started his NBA coaching journey as an advanced scout for the Pistons in 2000 under George Irvine and later on under Rick Carlisle before Brown elevated him to the bench.
After New York, O’Connor reunited with Eric Musselman, who first gave him his first coaching break at the defunct USBL, in Sacramento for a season. Then he rejoined Brown for several years in Charlotte before joining Brooklyn with P.J. Carlesimo.
In 2013, Rivers hired him as an assistant coach with the Clippers, where he has been for the past 12 years.
In a 2023 interview with Ball 603, O’Connor said it’s hard to leave the Clippers, who have a champion coach in Tyronne Lue and a great owner in Steve Ballmer.
“It would have to be a really good situation for me to leave here,” O’Connor said at the time. “It would be great to do all the things you want to try. But I love the position I am in right now.”
Who’s In, Who’s Out From Tom Thibodeau’s Staff
The Knicks previously targeted New Orleans associate head coach James Borrego, Dallas Mavericks assistant Jay Triano, former Knick Pablo Prigioni and others for an assistant position under Brown, according to SNY’s Ian Begley, but failed.
The Knicks were granted permission to speak with Prgioni. But the Argentine coach opted to remain with the Timberwolves, citing family reasons, according to Begley.
“They will presumably continue to look for an assistant to help on offense even if they add O’Connor to help guide the defense,” Begley added.
Aside from 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.
Allen and Brown were not retained by the Kings after the past season. They will join holdovers Rick Brunson, Mark Bryant, Maurice Cheeks and Darren Erman in Brown’s staff in New York, according to Begley.
The Knicks will no longer bring back assistant video coordinator Nick Thibodeau, Tom Thibodeau’s nephew, along with assistant coaches Othella Harrington, Daniel Brad and Dice Yoshimoto, Scotto added.
New York Post’s Stefan Bondy also reported that longtime Thibodeau assistant Andy Greer will not return.
Yoshimoto and Greer had been with Tom Thibodeau in his coaching stops in Chicago, Minnesota and New York.
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