Shams: New York Knicks Fire Head Coach Tom Thibodeau

[DimesandKnicks]

Lakers didn't fire him weeks before the playoffs though. Moving on is one thing, but the timing was off with that firing. No way you can convince me he was not run out. Jokic definitely signed off on it.

Folks, I really don’t think players have any say in FO decisions. Not even Jordan could keep Phil from getting the boot. This is a weird narrative that fans get behind that X player influenced Y coach getting canned

Hey man, this poster (Optms) **** on Jokic any chance he has, it is clinical condition. Don't bother to get into any discussion with him, it can't work.

[Andri]

Good move.

This team is much better than what Thibs was able to show. His tendency to overplay his core guys just doesn’t fit the modern game in 2025. Teams like the Pacers and OKC have proven that success comes from a strong 8-man rotation—something Thibs has never embraced.

To be fair, Thibs did help turn things around, but he’s not the coach to take this team to the next level. His rotation patterns and offensive schemes are outdated. Sure, KAT and Brunson aren’t elite defenders, but with OG, Bridges, and Hart on the wings, there's no excuse for how poor the team looked defensively. And offensively, aside from Hart, that core four has so much creative potential—yet Thibs could only manage Brunson isolations.

Every shortcoming the Knicks had could’ve been solved with better coaching.

Looking ahead, I hope the Knicks bring in a fresh, innovative coach. They’ve got a near-perfect starting five, and with flexibility around Robinson and Hart’s contracts, there’s still room to fine-tune the roster.

It can become a solid move depending on the new coach choice. I'm more hopeful about NYK now than before since they get rid of Thibs.

I am not very fond of Thibs, but how is a coaching problem that you second option is just not a second option, and really flawed as a winning-all player?

[DimesandKnicks]

It’s on Thibs as well. Why would you take out the lineup that gave you a 17 point lead and put in Brunson, who had 5 fouls at the time, at the 5 min mark in the 4th quarter? He was getting attacked the entire time.

whne someone doesn't understand their entire argument is based on the benefit of hindsight.

And a good coach recognizes things as they happen so there isn’t a need to look at things in hindsight. The problem with thibs is EVERY single game, every single season, we are pointing out things in hindsight from MONTHS back.

Fans were asking for different rotations, different guys getting looks, different lineups, an actual offense, stopping the drop coverage, less minutes on the starters, since NOVEMBER. We all knew what would happen in the playoffs because we go through it every year with this bozo coach.

It took him until down 0-2 in the ECF to play guys who could’ve been contributing all playoffs. And even then he didn’t play them enough or when he should because he just doesn’t understand the flow of the game.

Every single thibs interview is the same garbage “the game tells you what to do”. No you idiot the coach does. The coach tells you what to do. Former players who have played under thibs pointing out that he’s still using the same post up plays from a decade ago. Not allowing coordinators to have any real input on schemes and plays. Too stubborn to take teams to the next level.

Anyone who actually watches the Knicks and understands basketball knows how much thibs limited this roster. It’s clear as day

Agree 100 percent, I remember maybe the first playoff with Brunson was the first time I even recognized the Knicks running any plays when they started running pin downs for Brunson. Too many people who aren't even Knick fans in this thread talking

[DimesandKnicks]

You didn't watch every game over the last few years like us die hard Knicks fans did. The guy can't adjust on the fly, has antiquated outdated plays, buried the bench the entire year, and role player types in the league have been saying they would never sign with NY because Thibs would never give them any burn. Even retired players on Podcasts are talking about how old school and outdated his coaching is. Any above average coach in this league could have got this squad to the ECF's this year. Thibs did absolutely nothing in that game 1 loss when the Knicks were up 15 with a few minutes to go and blew it. No timeouts, nothing.

There’s always going to be complaints, the coach is the easiest guy to blame after a loss. If it’s not one thing it’s another. He ends up playing his bench more than he’s an idiot for not relying on his starters more. Results should be at the forefront.

No offense, but all of you guys who aren't Knicks fans who don't watch game after game, don't have the same perspective and knowledge of Thibs that we do. Nobody is expecting perfection from a coach, but almost every damn game the guy is doing something idiotic and us in the game threads are losing our minds over it. Time to level up, that's all.

Exactly

[DimesandKnicks]

Good move.

This team is much better than what Thibs was able to show. His tendency to overplay his core guys just doesn’t fit the modern game in 2025. Teams like the Pacers and OKC have proven that success comes from a strong 8-man rotation—something Thibs has never embraced.

To be fair, Thibs did help turn things around, but he’s not the coach to take this team to the next level. His rotation patterns and offensive schemes are outdated. Sure, KAT and Brunson aren’t elite defenders, but with OG, Bridges, and Hart on the wings, there's no excuse for how poor the team looked defensively. And offensively, aside from Hart, that core four has so much creative potential—yet Thibs could only manage Brunson isolations.

Every shortcoming the Knicks had could’ve been solved with better coaching.

Looking ahead, I hope the Knicks bring in a fresh, innovative coach. They’ve got a near-perfect starting five, and with flexibility around Robinson and Hart’s contracts, there’s still room to fine-tune the roster.

It can become a solid move depending on the new coach choice. I'm more hopeful about NYK now than before since they get rid of Thibs.

I am not very fond of Thibs, but how is a coaching problem that you second option is just not a second option, and really flawed as a winning-all player?

Offensively they treated him like an elite roll player offensively. We rarely ran plays for him, or ran plays at all.

[Wingy]

There’s always going to be complaints, the coach is the easiest guy to blame after a loss. If it’s not one thing it’s another. He ends up playing his bench more than he’s an idiot for not relying on his starters more. Results should be at the forefront.

No offense, but all of you guys who aren't Knicks fans who don't watch game after game, don't have the same perspective and knowledge of Thibs that we do. Nobody is expecting perfection from a coach, but almost every damn game the guy is doing something idiotic and us in the game threads are losing our minds over it. Time to level up, that's all.

Exactly

Hilarious. Literally every fandom across all sports has stuff about their own coach that -

A) the coach does all the time, and
B) the fan base can’t stand and constantly complains about

Not to say some of these gripes aren’t legit, but it applies holistically across every sport unless you’re the clear front-running, talent-stacked team (think OKC, recent prime Warriors) that’s mopping up.

[bronxknicksfan1]

Good move.

This team is much better than what Thibs was able to show. His tendency to overplay his core guys just doesn’t fit the modern game in 2025. Teams like the Pacers and OKC have proven that success comes from a strong 8-man rotation—something Thibs has never embraced.

To be fair, Thibs did help turn things around, but he’s not the coach to take this team to the next level. His rotation patterns and offensive schemes are outdated. Sure, KAT and Brunson aren’t elite defenders, but with OG, Bridges, and Hart on the wings, there's no excuse for how poor the team looked defensively. And offensively, aside from Hart, that core four has so much creative potential—yet Thibs could only manage Brunson isolations.

Every shortcoming the Knicks had could’ve been solved with better coaching.

Looking ahead, I hope the Knicks bring in a fresh, innovative coach. They’ve got a near-perfect starting five, and with flexibility around Robinson and Hart’s contracts, there’s still room to fine-tune the roster.

It can become a solid move depending on the new coach choice. I'm more hopeful about NYK now than before since they get rid of Thibs.

I am not very fond of Thibs, but how is a coaching problem that you second option is just not a second option, and really flawed as a winning-all player?

How is KAT not a 2nd option?

[druggas]

Lakers didn't fire him weeks before the playoffs though. Moving on is one thing, but the timing was off with that firing. No way you can convince me he was not run out. Jokic definitely signed off on it.

Folks, I really don’t think players have any say in FO decisions. Not even Jordan could keep Phil from getting the boot. This is a weird narrative that fans get behind that X player influenced Y coach getting canned

Reports stated that Dwight Howard was involved in the firing process of Stan Van Gundy. Who was the source? Stan Van Gundy himself which he was told directly from management.

That was just one case. Do your research at least.

Magic Johnson got Westhead fired after he won a championship.

[K N U C K L E S]

I know who they're gonna hire. They're not gonna hire anybody. Instead, they're gonna use a robot or AI head coach programmed with the attributes and knowledge from the best coaches in the history of coaching.

That'll actually happen one day.

[Andri]

Good move.

This team is much better than what Thibs was able to show. His tendency to overplay his core guys just doesn’t fit the modern game in 2025. Teams like the Pacers and OKC have proven that success comes from a strong 8-man rotation—something Thibs has never embraced.

To be fair, Thibs did help turn things around, but he’s not the coach to take this team to the next level. His rotation patterns and offensive schemes are outdated. Sure, KAT and Brunson aren’t elite defenders, but with OG, Bridges, and Hart on the wings, there's no excuse for how poor the team looked defensively. And offensively, aside from Hart, that core four has so much creative potential—yet Thibs could only manage Brunson isolations.

Every shortcoming the Knicks had could’ve been solved with better coaching.

Looking ahead, I hope the Knicks bring in a fresh, innovative coach. They’ve got a near-perfect starting five, and with flexibility around Robinson and Hart’s contracts, there’s still room to fine-tune the roster.

It can become a solid move depending on the new coach choice. I'm more hopeful about NYK now than before since they get rid of Thibs.

I am not very fond of Thibs, but how is a coaching problem that you second option is just not a second option, and really flawed as a winning-all player?

How is KAT not a 2nd option?

My bad, I meant a 2nd option in a team with ring aspirations, that is what Knicks seems to target to be, being the explanation given for Thibs' firing

[Ssj16]

I know who they're gonna hire. They're not gonna hire anybody. Instead, they're gonna use a robot or AI head coach programmed with the attributes and knowledge from the best coaches in the history of coaching.

That'll actually happen one day.

I don't think this will exactly happen because I feel that humans still want the human connection, even though it will be possible for AI to replace coaches and refs.

What will happen soon enough is that coaches and refs will leverage AI in their decision making.

[bronxknicksfan1]

I am not very fond of Thibs, but how is a coaching problem that you second option is just not a second option, and really flawed as a winning-all player?

How is KAT not a 2nd option?

My bad, I meant a 2nd option in a team with ring aspirations, that is what Knicks seems to target to be, being the explanation given for Thibs' firing

Team was 2 wins away from the Finals in his first season here as a 2nd option. With a coach that didn’t even utilize him properly. Next season, the East is wide open. A Finals appearance isn’t out of the question with him.

[Ice Man]

What's this about KAT not being used properly? He has been in the playoffs 4 straight years, 3 with Minnesota and 1 with NY, and this post-season was his 2nd best offensively of those 4 years. KAT was better in 2022, but in 2023 and 2024, under a different coach and on a different team, he scored less than he did this year, and he scored with less efficiency too.

[DimesandKnicks]

What's this about KAT not being used properly? He has been in the playoffs 4 straight years, 3 with Minnesota and 1 with NY, and this post-season was his 2nd best offensively of those 4 years.

If NY had won, fans would retroactively invent Carlisle mistakes. But since Indy won, they are doing so to Thibs.

They literally didn’t give him the ball, and he shot too few threes. And they stopped running PNR with him in Brunson which was apparently like the second best PNR combo in the regular season.

When Brunson is in the game they just stick him in the corner like he’s a role player

[Optms]

Folks, I really don’t think players have any say in FO decisions. Not even Jordan could keep Phil from getting the boot. This is a weird narrative that fans get behind that X player influenced Y coach getting canned

Reports stated that Dwight Howard was involved in the firing process of Stan Van Gundy. Who was the source? Stan Van Gundy himself which he was told directly from management.

That was just one case. Do your research at least.

Dwight Howard put his hand around Stan and said it wasn't true, maybe managment was lying. Again, considering the ego's that FO have I highly doubt that they're conceding to players and what they want, again, especially considering the greatest player of all time didn't get what he wanted.

And even if that's true, thats like...one example

I just gave you a report that contradicts your statement and you are now calling the FO or the coach liars.

Yes, players do get their coaches fired. Or at the very least, management isn't firing a coach without running it by the star player first. Look at what happened in LA with Bron, Ham and Redick. Straight denial at this point.

[Capn'O]

Its the circle of Thibodeau. He gets a mediocre team to overachieve. Fanbase and front office are convinced their mediocre players are really stars if they just had a more player friendly coach. Thibs gets fired. Team slides back to mediocrity or worse.

Fred Hoiberg is available. I wonder if the Knicks go that route.

It could be Hoiberg... or Phil after Collins. You've seen both sides of this.

Like you said, I have seen both sides of this. Knicks fans sound exactly like Bulls fans from 2014 or so claiming that their players are much better than they are if Thibs would just do XXX right. A lot of its a carbon copy with Thibs continually getting his PG to play way over his head (Rose, DJ Augustine, JLIII, NateRob and now Brunson).

Minnesota traded the Knicks KAT because he is a loser and as always, Thibs squeezed something out of him.

https://www.espn.com/nba/team/stats/_/name/ny/new-york-knicks

That's a 42 win team right there that just won 51 games and went to the conference finals. NY's problem against Indiana was its roster, not its coach.

This is projection by Bulls fans getting PTSD from the last time y'all were any good. Knicks roster has some deficiencies but we're not in the same place the Bulls roster was when Thibs left where he was a piece a duct tape holding the furnace together. Butler was rising but;

Rose was no longer Rose.
Noah was no longer Noah.
Pau was long in the tooth.

Other than Butler, the wheels were coming off the wagon. In contrast,

Both Brunson and KAT came to the Knicks as core options on a WCF team
Bridges and Anunoby were both key starters on playoff teams
Hart was the glue holding Portland together
Deuce and Mitch could contribute anywhere - Thibs helped both players a LOT.

Knicks have players that were part of winners elsewhere, are still in their primes, are not coming off career altering injuries, AND who Thibs helped develop. Thibs built this project up. Take him off the team that played against Atlanta and we wouldn't have sniffed the play-in. This is a different group that, in large part thanks to Thibs, will be in the playoff mix regardless of the coach. This is a team that started bumping up against Thibs' limitations. Where you start wondering when the next catastrophic injury is going to come. Where you wonder why players that management brought in for him can't get in the game. Where you wonder why he sticks to his game plan that's clearly not working until he's forced to try something else. Thibs is amazing at getting full capacity out of marginal players. He's great at building winning culture. He's actually really good at player development. He's not an elite playoff tactician and he wears his guys down.

There's substantial risk in moving on from him. Thibs would steer this ship to 50 win seasons for the next few years, health providing. He's a very good coach and to make this move work the Knicks have to hire an elite one. I do admire Knicks management for trying though. Unlike the Bulls case, Leon Rose just _put_ his head on the chopping block by firing Thibs because the Knicks would otherwise have continued to roll along. In your case, GarPax made the move to save their necks.

[Johnny Bball]

It’s on Thibs as well. Why would you take out the lineup that gave you a 17 point lead and put in Brunson, who had 5 fouls at the time, at the 5 min mark in the 4th quarter? He was getting attacked the entire time.

whne someone doesn't understand their entire argument is based on the benefit of hindsight.

And a good coach recognizes things as they happen so there isn’t a need to look at things in hindsight. The problem with thibs is EVERY single game, every single season, we are pointing out things in hindsight from MONTHS back.

Fans were asking for different rotations, different guys getting looks, different lineups, an actual offense, stopping the drop coverage, less minutes on the starters, since NOVEMBER. We all knew what would happen in the playoffs because we go through it every year with this bozo coach.

It took him until down 0-2 in the ECF to play guys who could’ve been contributing all playoffs. And even then he didn’t play them enough or when he should because he just doesn’t understand the flow of the game.

Every single thibs interview is the same garbage “the game tells you what to do”. No you idiot the coach does. The coach tells you what to do. Former players who have played under thibs pointing out that he’s still using the same post up plays from a decade ago. Not allowing coordinators to have any real input on schemes and plays. Too stubborn to take teams to the next level.

Anyone who actually watches the Knicks and understands basketball knows how much thibs limited this roster. It’s clear as day

So instead they sit Brunson and never put him back and lose too? Then what do you say? It is ONLY hindsight. This issue, this item, it's beyond stupid to criticize putting your best player back in the game. Just realize what you are doing at least.

[Johnny Bball]

The players got him fired. I remember several Knicks starters complaining about how many minutes they logged over the season.

Brunson and OG talked about him with great respect and I suspect Hart does too. I don't think you're right that they got him fired.

[Johnny Bball]

How is KAT not a 2nd option?

My bad, I meant a 2nd option in a team with ring aspirations, that is what Knicks seems to target to be, being the explanation given for Thibs' firing

Team was 2 wins away from the Finals in his first season here as a 2nd option. With a coach that didn’t even utilize him properly. Next season, the East is wide open. A Finals appearance isn’t out of the question with him.

They are going to do all they can to try and move off KAT.

[Mr B]

So the Knicks and Brunson are begging for Jason Iidd to be their coach. Kidd still has 2 years on his deal in Dallas. So if the Knicks want Kidd it’s going to cost them.