KnicksGadfly wrote:3toheadmelo wrote:The Knicks had no plan when they fired Thibs. And you guys need to let go of the Bryant dream. They only want a veteran coach.
Via Marc stein
The Knicks have the league's only current coaching vacancy now that Phoenix has hired Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach Jordan Ott and, to this point, have moved very deliberately since Thibodeau's dismissal. They appear to have made the change with no locked-in succession plan and, to further confound many around the league, have almost exclusively been connected to candidates who have jobs elsewhere.
The Knicks, meanwhile, are said to be determined to hire an experienced coach to replace Thibodeau, who was fired after steering New York to its most successful five-season run of the 21st century but abruptly lost his job in the wake of an Eastern Conference Finals failure against Indiana when Knicks officials decided they needed a new voice and day-to-day leader to try to deliver the franchise's first championship since 1972-73. That approach would appear to rule out Cavaliers assistant coach Johnnie Bryant as a prime candidate, although Bryant previously worked on Thibodeau's Knicks staff and was a finalist for the Suns' head coaching job alongside Ott.
That's fine with me.
I think there have been two questions the Knicks had to answer.
1) Is Thibs the right coach?I think the answer to this has been no. Once this was determined, you had to let him go. I think some of us here wanted to keep Thibs until we identified the next coach...but that's really hard to do and I don't think that's practical. Imagine if Thibs was still under contract and rumors started leaking that the Knicks were looking to interview other coaches or shat...that's a really low move. A good coach hiring cycle takes time and energy...rumors were going to spring up regardless. The Knicks leaders thought Thibs was the wrong guy and we had to let him go...that was best for Thibs and hopefully best for the Knicks.
2) Who is the next coach?I'm actually more encouraged by the Knicks' approach this time around. If they had identified a dude and just hired him, it would have been really alarming to me. At the very least, even if they like a guy, they need to test that guy against other candidates.
The Knicks have a weird reputation as trade partners in the NBA as people who call up their counterparts and just throw tons of scenarios at them. I would prefer that scenario in this case...create a list of qualities you need in a coach, reach out to people that are good fits, do a good search, and then select the best guy. Take their time and get it right. If it turns out to be Bryant, at least we know that he went through the process. And if it turns out to be some other dude...same (although there are some names out there that make me want to vomit right now).
How they came to decision #1 though is the point of debate. Objectively, Thibs has overachieved on projections 3 of 5 years in terms of record and outcome. one year was clearly a bad fit with players and was in part due to the team not spending assets to improve (waiting for cap that was used to sign Brunson). The other year being this year where maybe we did not exceed, but we certainly met expectations though it did not look how it was expected to look.
The comp people make, Mark Jackson, did improve each of the 3 years he was there, but actually made it to the conference semis in year two then year 3 lost in the first round (though few more regular season wins).
The other comp that comes to my mind was replacing Carlisle with Larry Brown. Turned the team around, back to back 50 win seasons. Back to back ECF appearances. They make the move to Larry Brown (and added Sheed) and win the ring.
Now in those scenarios -- were the coaches fired due to higher ups thinking they peaked? Or was it due to the perceived other? I believe Larry Brown was a very intentional hire. If he was not available, then Carlisle probably keeps his job, possibly wins his first ring there instead of Dallas.
* We have a Brunson Burner™ * 
