Shams: New York Knicks Fire Head Coach Tom Thibodeau

[Zeno]

Knicks getting these existing coaches paid! I bet all 5 have new extensions because of this. Any chance this is just Rose doing agent friends favours in the event they are likely declined.

[Capn'O]

Knicks getting these existing coaches paid! I bet all 5 have new extensions because of this. Any chance this is just Rose doing agent friends favours in the event they are likely declined.

That certainly seems to have been the case with Kidd.

[Longranger]

They should try to poach Ty Lue while they’re at it.

[DaGawd]

Surprised we haven't heard many college names yet.

Dan Hurley was everywhere last year, and he is a Northeast guy. He runs a guard centric offense. So many solid options in the coaching field these days, especially in college, that it's wild to hear all these current coaches are the targets.

Malone is the obvious guy, especially given his relationship and offense around his centers in Cousins and Joker. He could do a lot for Kat, and think Brunson is the perfect player for that dribble hand off package. We'll see though, I don't think he wants a job as unstable as any coaching job in NY would be. I also have a feeling like he might go the IT and Stevens route and become a front office guy if something opens up for a team with a solid ownership group.

Jenkins is a solid option too, but idk. He doesn't really have a lot of PO experience. I think he would do a lot for their defense though, and again would do a lot for their off ball scorers.

I think we are going to see a top assistant get the job, most likely someone willing to keep Papa Brunson on as a lead assistant. I think we are all making a big stink about nothing, and this job is clearly Johnnie Bryant's. Him getting looked at by other teams is clearly what led to the firing of Thibs.

hurley said he’s out according to a report, didn’t wanna rock the boat again in his program after the lakers fiasco

[BlacJacMac]

Knicks should offer Spoelstra double whatever it is the highest paid coach is being paid.

He has 7 years left on his deal. Knicks can't offer him anything unless Riley agrees to it.

[kg01]

They're gonna hire Lloyd Pierce after the finals. The intro presser will dismiss all the swings 'n misses and will try to sell him as their #1 choice all along.

[NyKnicks1714]

People have completely lost sight of how ridiculous this firing was. The Knicks made it to the ECF and lost in 6 games, when most people had them losing to Boston. They overachieved this year, period. And if it wasn't for a crazy sequence of events in Game 1 that he was not responsible for, that series could have turned out differently. And as of this moment, the Knicks played Indiana better than OKC has through three games.

Historically coaches would never get fired after a season and postseason like that. On rare occasions coaches have been fired after losing in the Conference Finals, but that was only because their teams genuinely underachieved.

Now a lot of fans are saying things like "he had to go". WTF, no he didn't. We're just so desensitized to coach firings these days, since the standard for job security is now apparently 2 championships. If there's conflict or disagreement between the coaching staff and the players, you sit them all down and tell them to work it out. Let everyone voice their concerns and find solutions. See if you can build on this season's success next season. If it's still truly not working out, you can fire him then.

And spoiler alert: Whoever the Knicks hire will be fired within 3 seasons.

[___Rand___]

It is interesting Knicks are having this public repudiation by different coaches' organizations. It is HIGHLY UNUSUAL for a team to go after a sitting HC of another team in this fashion - out in public. I think Knicks' front office has an agenda in this line of pursuit. They have another candidate in mind. A candidate with less than stellar record. Whom they will hire after an exhausting humiliating public search and say "look, we tried to get the best coaches out there, but they are simply not available. This is the best available coach we can hire. We will try to win a championship with him or her."

[Moose]

It is interesting Knicks are having this public repudiation by different coaches' organizations. It is HIGHLY UNUSUAL for a team to go after a sitting HC of another team in this fashion - out in public. I think Knicks' front office has an agenda in this line of pursuit. They have another candidate in mind. A candidate with less than stellar record. Whom they will hire after an exhausting humiliating public search and say "look, we tried to get the best coaches out there, but they are simply not available. This is the best available coach we can hire. We will try to win a championship with him or her."

This doesn't really make sense. There are a few available coaches that would be seen as good enough hires.

Unless they go totally off the map, they are going to get someone they can easily spin as quality.

[DaGawd]

People have completely lost sight of how ridiculous this firing was. The Knicks made it to the ECF and lost in 6 games, when most people had them losing to Boston. They overachieved this year, period. And if it wasn't for a crazy sequence of events in Game 1 that he was not responsible for, that series could have turned out differently. And as of this moment, the Knicks played Indiana better than OKC has through three games.

Historically coaches would never get fired after a season and postseason like that. On rare occasions coaches have been fired after losing in the Conference Finals, but that was only because their teams genuinely underachieved.

Now a lot of fans are saying things like "he had to go". WTF, no he didn't. We're just so desensitized to coach firings these days, since the standard for job security is now apparently 2 championships. If there's conflict or disagreement between the coaching staff and the players, you sit them all down and tell them to work it out. Let everyone voice their concerns and find solutions. See if you can build on this season's success next season. If it's still truly not working out, you can fire him then.

And spoiler alert: Whoever the Knicks hire will be fired within 3 seasons.

what if it’s beyond talking and figuring it out? the conflict is most likely the same thing thibs has routinely been criticized for in all his stops but he never really shows any urgency to address.. playing starters too heavy in minutes and refusing to use his bench. at a certain point you just are what you are if you’re constantly showing a reluctance to change and adapt. it’s his way or no way at all which was stated when he got fired

[Effigy]

So the Knicks fired the only coach who has been able to consistently win for them and they had no plan for who to replace him with. That is so Knicks. Good luck with Mike Brown.

[TheAlchemist]

Am I missing something?

Why not Michael Malone? Like..

[Magic_Johnny12]

This seems more and more as an ego firing.

Regardless of your opinion of Thibs, he exceeded expectations and did what most coaches couldn’t.

To do this and not have a sure fire backup plan already in place is actually crazy and shows the incompetence of the franchise.

Knicks will Knicks

[JujitsuFlip]

Am I missing something?

Why not Michael Malone? Like..

He is literally Thibs lol

No identity on offense and a tight player rotation.

I believe Thibs was about as useful a wet paper bag but hiring Malone would make zero sense.

[davidv2001]

If the Knicks’ front office was sold on the idea of hiring Johnnie Bryant or someone with a track record of success in college like Jay Wright, they wouldn’t have reached out to NBA teams of five head coaches under contract. That’s especially true when one of those five was Billy Donovan, who hasn’t sniffed Thibodeau’s success as an NBA head coach.

[NyKnicks1714]

People have completely lost sight of how ridiculous this firing was. The Knicks made it to the ECF and lost in 6 games, when most people had them losing to Boston. They overachieved this year, period. And if it wasn't for a crazy sequence of events in Game 1 that he was not responsible for, that series could have turned out differently. And as of this moment, the Knicks played Indiana better than OKC has through three games.

Historically coaches would never get fired after a season and postseason like that. On rare occasions coaches have been fired after losing in the Conference Finals, but that was only because their teams genuinely underachieved.

Now a lot of fans are saying things like "he had to go". WTF, no he didn't. We're just so desensitized to coach firings these days, since the standard for job security is now apparently 2 championships. If there's conflict or disagreement between the coaching staff and the players, you sit them all down and tell them to work it out. Let everyone voice their concerns and find solutions. See if you can build on this season's success next season. If it's still truly not working out, you can fire him then.

And spoiler alert: Whoever the Knicks hire will be fired within 3 seasons.

what if it’s beyond talking and figuring it out? the conflict is most likely the same thing thibs has routinely been criticized for in all his stops but he never really shows any urgency to address.. playing starters too heavy in minutes and refusing to use his bench. at a certain point you just are what you are if you’re constantly showing a reluctance to change and adapt. it’s his way or no way at all which was stated when he got fired

If he was truly explicitly given an ultimatum to stop playing his starts heavy minutes, and he refused to concede anything going forward,then fine, but I doubt that happened. The organization should have been having conversations with him about what it would take for him to play his bench more, about improving their depth to allow for it. Give him half of next season at least. Immediately firing a coach after he coached his team that deep into the playoffs when they were supposed to lose in the 2nd round is crazy.

[___Rand___]

It is interesting Knicks are having this public repudiation by different coaches' organizations. It is HIGHLY UNUSUAL for a team to go after a sitting HC of another team in this fashion - out in public. I think Knicks' front office has an agenda in this line of pursuit. They have another candidate in mind. A candidate with less than stellar record. Whom they will hire after an exhausting humiliating public search and say "look, we tried to get the best coaches out there, but they are simply not available. This is the best available coach we can hire. We will try to win a championship with him or her."

This doesn't really make sense. There are a few available coaches that would be seen as good enough hires.

Unless they go totally off the map, they are going to get someone they can easily spin as quality.

That's what I'm saying - it doesn't make sense that they are publicly going after coaches with current jobs and getting rejected. They are setting the fans up for a less than ideal hire.

[Butch718]

This change was needed.

He was out-coached by Carlisle. They had their entire team healthy for this playoff run and losing 4-2 to the Pacers is not an accomplishment, but a huge disappointment.

Glad this organization is serious about winning and not letting sentimentality get in the way of decision making. Thibs is the type of coach to make your team competitive again, but doesn’t have the flexibility or the intuitive in game decision making in high pressure situations. The first 2 games were lost by the slimmest of margins, and that’s where top tier coaching matters the most.

Thanks Thibs for making this team respectable again, but a new voice was definitely needed.

You mean the same Pacers team that's giving OKC a very hard time right now ? By that token , I guess Daigneault should get fired too!

Oh I love how you waited to pull this out when you literally couldn’t point out any of the awful decisions Thibs made in that series to cost them the first 2 games of that series.

There’s literally no point trying to debate with fans like you.

[JonFromVA]

People have completely lost sight of how ridiculous this firing was. The Knicks made it to the ECF and lost in 6 games, when most people had them losing to Boston. They overachieved this year, period. And if it wasn't for a crazy sequence of events in Game 1 that he was not responsible for, that series could have turned out differently. And as of this moment, the Knicks played Indiana better than OKC has through three games.

Historically coaches would never get fired after a season and postseason like that. On rare occasions coaches have been fired after losing in the Conference Finals, but that was only because their teams genuinely underachieved.

Now a lot of fans are saying things like "he had to go". WTF, no he didn't. We're just so desensitized to coach firings these days, since the standard for job security is now apparently 2 championships. If there's conflict or disagreement between the coaching staff and the players, you sit them all down and tell them to work it out. Let everyone voice their concerns and find solutions. See if you can build on this season's success next season. If it's still truly not working out, you can fire him then.

And spoiler alert: Whoever the Knicks hire will be fired within 3 seasons.

We never know everything going on behind the scenes and we need to be careful not to over-value the Knicks beating the Pistons and a wounded Celtics team. In the end they lost to the Pacers two years in a row.

The Knicks can definitely do worse than Thibs, and they still need to improve and/or develop their bench.

And fwiw, people who are supposed to know said Bridges is not the type to speak out about a coaching decision unless he felt he'd already done everything else he could.

[coldfish]

People have completely lost sight of how ridiculous this firing was. The Knicks made it to the ECF and lost in 6 games, when most people had them losing to Boston. They overachieved this year, period. And if it wasn't for a crazy sequence of events in Game 1 that he was not responsible for, that series could have turned out differently. And as of this moment, the Knicks played Indiana better than OKC has through three games.

Historically coaches would never get fired after a season and postseason like that. On rare occasions coaches have been fired after losing in the Conference Finals, but that was only because their teams genuinely underachieved.

Now a lot of fans are saying things like "he had to go". WTF, no he didn't. We're just so desensitized to coach firings these days, since the standard for job security is now apparently 2 championships. If there's conflict or disagreement between the coaching staff and the players, you sit them all down and tell them to work it out. Let everyone voice their concerns and find solutions. See if you can build on this season's success next season. If it's still truly not working out, you can fire him then.

And spoiler alert: Whoever the Knicks hire will be fired within 3 seasons.

+1. Knicks firing Thibodeau and hiring Mike Brown would be a hilarious self own.