Official Knicks Coaching Search Thread

[KnicksGadfly]

This is a pretty good article...more of a fan's view but I think it covers everything

https://www.postingandtoasting.com/2025/6/12/24448103/a-letter-to-knicks-fans-stressing-over-the-teams-coaching-search

Thankfully, Leon Rose, World Wide Wes, and the rest of the front office do not care about optics or PR moves. They’ve made that very very clear through their refusal to hold press conferences for the majority of their time in New York. What they have done through their tenure, though, is have a plan and turn every rock possible, even if the odds of said rocks leading to anything are slim to none. Again, if you believe that the Knicks are acting like headless chickens, have no plan, and are losing trust in Rose, I get it, because I can’t say that you are wrong. I have no proof of that.

I have just chosen, maybe naively, and ignorantly, to believe in Rose. I believe that all of this is just him and his team doing their due diligence. Because there’s literally only one cost of asking all of these teams about interviewing their coaches, which is the PR side of it all-which again, they do not seem to care about.

They care about casting as wide a net as possible and seeing if any big fish miraculously bite. That’s not to say that they expect any coaches of Ime Udoka’s or Chris Finch’s caliber to move. But why not try? What if they hadn’t asked any teams about their current coaches, and by some divine miracle, Jason Kidd ends up wanting out in a few weeks? Then reporters and fans would’ve slammed the table wondering why the Knicks didn’t do more research.

People have been quick to assume that Rose’s plan all along was to pry away one of these coaches. But I just have a very difficult time believing that this mastermind, who has pretty quickly turned the Knicks into a serious contender, had no other plan than to find a replacement on a competitor’s bench.

...

The worst part of it all is that there really was no winning with the media and certain sections of the fan base after the firing. I can say, with a pretty large amount of confidence, that in the alternate reality where the Knicks announce their replacement a day or two after the Thibodeau firing, a lot of the same media members and fans that are criticizing the Knicks now for taking too long, are also criticizing them for not doing their due diligence.

Since we're going with tweets, a bunch of tweets from the article

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

[sol537]

It's not that Leon is telling everyone what they are doing, it's FO people from other teams who are doing the leaking and then they also add in all the negative stuff to make it seem like the Knicks are doing something wrong.

It the business world poaching talent from other companies is seen as what you need to do to upgrade. In the social world if you only ask out people who are single you get a lesser quality of pool because the best are usually taken.

Again, it's been repeated by those who understand the dynamics at play here, no matter what the Knicks did they'd be criticized. Keep Thibs? Wrong choice. Fire Thibs? Wrong decision. Hire someone right away? Too soon. Go through process? They had no plan.

It's absolutely comical that everything gets filtered through an anti-Knicks bias and then the fans seem to cherry pick the voices that echo their agenda. It's been this way the whole time with Rose, but under his purview the team has gone from laughingstock to respectable contender.

Nothing is ever good enough when it comes to the Knicks, if they ever win a title it won't be good enough either. They'll find a way to criticize it and you know it would be absolutely what would happen. Chucky cheeze though never winning a ring himself would deride it in some way.

That’s what I’m saying
Why wouldn’t they ask? They have nothing to lose
You never know if Spo or Kerr or any coach wants out

Then they can begin their actual coaching search

The more the better

We're getting someone good at the end of this. Whether that's Kidd, Bryant, or Dan Hurley. Some of these lower tier interviewees will be offered assistant coaching positions, I'm sure. Let's build this back up.

[Guano]

we've gone from ball knowers to FO hiring practice knowers.

never change RealGM. I love this place

I struggled with deciding on where to get tires for my truck yet let me tell you on how the knicks should conduct a coaching search

[Madskillzz024]

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, half the team put the front office in this position to scramble for a new coach.

[knickstape4ever]

The media just hates the Knicks, I don't know why tho. It's not like this for the other major New York sports teams, and when the Knicks are good, it's good for basketball. just strange

[3toheadmelo]

Bruh I just read this… we might be cooked

I'm not gonna panic about a hire until it's a hire.

This is where im at

Get ready to rock a h00dwinked sig guan0

[knickstape4ever]

I'm not gonna panic about a hire until it's a hire.

This is where im at

Get ready to rock a h00dwinked sig guan0

I'll be rocking mine till we win a chip

[god shammgod]

i have no idea why some of you need to perform such mental gymnastics to paint everything as positive.

this isn't normal. everyone knows it. it could all be fine if they hire a good coach and the knicks succeed but it looks very funny right now.

[Capn'O]

I'm not gonna panic about a hire until it's a hire.

This is where im at

Get ready to rock a h00dwinked sig guan0

Man, you're really freaking out about this. Looks like it's back to the ECF for us next year.

[3toheadmelo]

i have no idea why some of you need to perform such mental gymnastics to paint everything as positive.

this isn't normal. everyone knows it. it could all be fine if they hire a good coach and the knicks succeed but it looks very funny right now.

Exactly. When was the last time you seen a team fire a coach after getting to the furthest they’ve ever been in the last 20 years and their top options to replace him are going after other team’s coaches? It’s extremely bizarre and it’s absolutely fair for us to be skeptical about this.

[mpharris36]

what's great is this will probably go along for a while since the last coaching decision was Thibs and he was the favorite and still that took a while. Now there doesn't seem to be a clear favorite so we can regurgitate the same pro/con talking points for months.

On top of that its the only open coaching position so we aren't competing with anyone.

[Pr0nzingis]

Read on Twitter

This. I find it amazing that ppl are crying\laughing about Knicks not having a coach line up when they fired Thibs, so stupid. Yes the FO should have searched for a coach during playoffs, yes nothing like a "Knicks makes Kidd interview request to mav" headline before game 1 of the ECF to improve your chances.

[MrDollarBills]

what's great is this will probably go along for a while since the last coaching decision was Thibs and he was the favorite and still that took a while. Now there doesn't seem to be a clear favorite so we can regurgitate the same pro/con talking points for months.

On top of that its the only open coaching position so we aren't competing with anyone.

With the draft coming in 13 days and Summer league coming, I don't think this search will drag on for much longer.

This thread will be an interesting one to revisit post coaching search I think that while the optics are driving people towards jumping from the ledge, I have faith that Leon and Co have their ducks in a row.

[WaltFrazier]

These media guys have to have a new hot take every day that goes by. They're not all going to say, let's wait and see what Rose does, be patient. They have to have a take. But it's a process that will take weeks. Who care what Windy and Greeny say

I don't know why due diligence is a problem. Anyone with a brain watching the Knicks knew it was time for a change. The plan was to remove Thibs and built a pool of candidates. This narrative is pathetic.

Thibs a little better coach than you give him credit for, They could have done due diligence before they fired him—firing him 3 days into the offseason was just flat out stupid

Once a season is over, how long should a team wait? Till the draft and free agent window? I'd say no, earlier is better. The Suns let Budenholzer go right after the regular season. Nick Nurse was fired a few days after the play in game a couple of years ago. I think the Knicks timing was normal.
They did their due diligence/analysis ahead of time

[Capn'O]

i have no idea why some of you need to perform such mental gymnastics to paint everything as positive.

this isn't normal. everyone knows it. it could all be fine if they hire a good coach and the knicks succeed but it looks very funny right now.

We also haven't lost anything. No coach is off the market who was otherwise in it. I'm not sure what the benefit of these attempted coach poaches are but I don't see a meaningful drawback either.

Like all the "ahh let's panic there is no plan we're worse than the Isiah Knicks" crap is annoying. We're gonna interview a bunch of coaching candidates. That's the plan. And for some reason they tried to poach guys they couldn’t get first.

If the guy we pick sucks then we have a problem.

[GONYK]

i have no idea why some of you need to perform such mental gymnastics to paint everything as positive.

this isn't normal. everyone knows it. it could all be fine if they hire a good coach and the knicks succeed but it looks very funny right now.

We also haven't lost anything. No coach is off the market who was otherwise in it. I'm not sure what the benefit of these attempted coach poaches are but I don't see a meaningful drawback either.

Like all the "ahh let's panic there is no plan we're worse than the Isiah Knicks" crap is annoying. We're gonna interview a bunch of coaching candidates. That's the plan. And for some reason they tried to poach guys they couldn’t get first.

If the guy we pick sucks then we have a problem.

This process is neither positive nor negative. It just is

[KnicksGadfly]

i have no idea why some of you need to perform such mental gymnastics to paint everything as positive.

this isn't normal. everyone knows it. it could all be fine if they hire a good coach and the knicks succeed but it looks very funny right now.

Eh…I don’t feel like we’re doing mental gymnastics. I feel like I’ve gotten pretty good at spotting it over the years. The Kevin Knox and Obi Toppin picks were the most egregious examples recently. You have dudes who didn’t like them, start finding ways to like them because the Knicks FO started leaking that they were interested in those guys.

From the beginning, most of us didn’t want Thibs back. We were pleasantly surprised he was fired. I’m not in any panic as a result. We had to get rid of him to get to the next level. Not sure if we get there, but we had do it. Hopefully they make the right choice with the next coach. It’s nothing close to the Kevin Knox or Obi Toppin mental gymnastics imo.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

i have no idea why some of you need to perform such mental gymnastics to paint everything as positive.

this isn't normal. everyone knows it. it could all be fine if they hire a good coach and the knicks succeed but it looks very funny right now.

It's not a positive, it's not a negative, it's quite literally just net neutral.


Are we going to end up with a coach before next season? Yes? aight, worry about who it is after they hire them. ESPN eating good off some of yall.

[MrDollarBills]

i have no idea why some of you need to perform such mental gymnastics to paint everything as positive.

this isn't normal. everyone knows it. it could all be fine if they hire a good coach and the knicks succeed but it looks very funny right now.

We also haven't lost anything. No coach is off the market who was otherwise in it. I'm not sure what the benefit of these attempted coach poaches are but I don't see a meaningful drawback either.

Like all the "ahh let's panic there is no plan we're worse than the Isiah Knicks" crap is annoying. We're gonna interview a bunch of coaching candidates. That's the plan. And for some reason they tried to poach guys they couldn’t get first.

If the guy we pick sucks then we have a problem.

I understand trying to flex on Dallas. Screw them and Kidd was clearly unhappy.

But I do admit that the optics for reaching out for some of these other names...it looks messy. Not because Leon is doing his due diligence, but because now the media is clawing and thrashing for anything to paint this as a disaster when it's anything but, and you have media members and fans who are confused as to why Thibs got fired using this as a sign that the team is dysfunctional. Frankly we were pretty damn dysfunctional all year, and this is apart of the process of fixing it so we can take the next step and be viable contenders.

As soon as Shams started tweeting out every single thing about the Knicks inquiring about availability it made people panic. I understand.

But...as long as Leon and Co aren't panicking, I'm not worried. We don't know what the process is behind closed doors and what the plan is, and we won't know til the next coach is hired.

We gotta let things play out. I'm still praying for Bryant + veteran associate coach as the play.

[MrDollarBills]

ESPN eating good off some of yall.

ESPN has been concern trolling so hard. Alan Hahn literally got into a shouting match on the air yesterday because he was pushing back on the notion that the Knicks don't have a plan because Tom's replacement wasn't hired 24 hours after he got fired.

It's a lotta nonsense. But nonsense drives clicks.