After the sudden firing of longtime New York Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau, naturally, the conversations shift to who will replace him.
ESPN’s top NBA insider Shams Charania, who broke the news, has hinted at the Knicks looking to hire a coach who will be better at maximizing a roster that is built to win now.
“I’m not sure yet which direction they go, but you think about the issues that they probably had with them, you think about what Mikal Bridges said early in the year, and I think a comment like that rings true,” Charania said on “The Pat McAfee Show” shortly after he broke the news of Thibodeau’s firing. “Like a guy that you know might trust his bench more, a guy that might be a little bit more lenient based on his principles and what he wants to enact.
“I mean, clearly, the way Tom Thibodeau coached for better or for worse, he was very, very stuck in his way, but he had a way that he was going to operate. That’s what it was going to be. He was not going to change, and for better or for worse.”
Mikal Bridges-Tom Thibodeau Disconnect
In March, Bridges publicly said he asked Thibodeau to reduce the starters’ minutes and to play their bench more.
“Sometimes it’s not fun on the body,” Bridges said at the time. “But you want that as a coach, and also talked to him a little bit knowing that we’ve got a good enough team where our bench guys can come in and we don’t need to play 48 [minutes], 47.
“We’ve got a lot of good guys on this team that can take away minutes. Which helps the defense, helps the offense, helps tired bodies being out there and giving up all these points. It helps just keeping fresh bodies out there.”
Getty Mikal Bridges’s disconnect with Tom Thibodeau resurfaced after the head coach’s firing.
Thibodeau denied he had that conversation with Bridges, which quickly raised eyebrows. The Athletic reported on May 31 that Bridges’ public comments in March rubbed the coaching staff “the wrong way.”
“I think the direction they’re going to go in now is figuring out a guy that they know can build out the entire roster, the bench can work with,” Charania added. “The front office is a little bit more lenient based on what their strategies are, and not so. Thibs has success — his way or the highway.”
The Knicks’ bench averaged the fewest points and minutes this past season. Thibodeau, 67, would have started his three-year extension next season.
Leon Rose on Firing Tom Thibodeau
The Knicks made the firing official with a prepared statement from Knicks president Leon Rose released on X.
“Our organization is singularly focused on winning a championship for our fans. This pursuit led us to the difficult decision to inform Tom Thibodeau that we’ve decided to move in another direction,” said Knicks President Leon Rose. “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. He led us not only with class and professionalism for the past five seasons, but also to tremendous success on the court with four playoff berths and four playoff series victories. Ultimately, we made the decision we feel is best for our organization moving forward. Tom will always be a part of our Knicks family and we truly wish him nothing but the best in the future.”
Thibodeau leaves the Knicks as their fourth all-time winningest coach with 226 wins, trailing only Jeff Van Gundy (248), Joe Lapchick (326) and two-time champion coach Red Holzman (613).
The Knicks made the playoffs in four of Thibodeau’s five years at the helm. He is also the first coach to guide the Knicks to consecutive 50-win seasons since Pat Riley in the 1994-95 season.
Despite Thibodeau’s remarkable run as the Knicks head coach, lifting the perennial lottery team into a consistent playoff contender, his shortcomings led to his firing.
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