Tom Thibodeau's been unfairly branded, and it's the kind of label that's hard to shake

Boston Globe

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But in New York, he's being unfairly blamed for the organization's shortcomings. It was team president
Leon Rose
who traded five first-round picks for
Julius Randle
and
Donte DiVincenzo
— to the Timberwolves for the skilled, not always gritty
Towns and
Jalen Brunson
are marvelous offensive players, but porous on defense. With two starters who struggled defensively, that placed pressure on the other three and Indiana took full advantage.
The Celtics didn't beat the Knicks because they blew the first two games with poor offensive execution and 3-point shooting. Indiana didn't have that issue, and it was apparent from the first two games of the series the Pacers were the better team. That wasn't Thibodeau's fault.
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Perhaps there are better coaches out there, and perhaps the Knicks will find one who will lead them to their first championship since 1973, but Thibodeau was well prepared and his players played hard for him. Did he deserve another year to work with the Towns-Brunson combination and devise ways to improve defensively? Yes.
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As has been proven with the firings of
Two days later, Thibodeau was fired.
'I get asked frequently about these things. I always say shocked. Sometimes you get numb and you're not shocked,' said Indiana coach
Rick Carlisle
, president of the National Basketball Coaches Association. 'The Knicks have such a unique situation, with so much attention and such a large fan base and such a worldwide following, it's one of the most difficult jobs to take. The guys that have been most successful,
Red Holzman
,
Pat Riley
,
Jeff Van Gundy
.
Rick Pitino
had a short run but a very effective run. There were a lot of lean years. Thibs went in there and changed so much.
'So you look at all that, then what happened yesterday ... When I first saw it, I thought it was one of those fake AI things. No way. There's no way possible. I know how the players feel about him, too. So there's not much else to say.
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'Teams and ownership can make these decisions unilaterally, and it's their right to do that. . . . Tom will certainly be fine. I don't think he's going to have any problem finding his next job. It's just going to depend on when he's ready to jump back in again. I have great respect for Thibs. I go back with him a very long way.'
The coaching profession has changed dramatically in the past decade. Players earn so much, they very rarely take the ultimate blame for a team's shortcomings. In Cleveland last year, the Cavaliers were so afraid
Donovan Mitchell
would sign elsewhere, general manager
Koby Altman
Kenny Atkinson
took over and won 64 games. The Cavaliers were co-favorites along with the Celtics to reach the Finals before they were
The Knicks ending wasn't shocking. They pretty much ran their course against a deeper Pacers club that appears to be a team of destiny after their
But the Knicks will attempt to unseat an already established coach such as Dallas'
Jason Kidd
or Houston's
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Reputations are difficult to shake in the NBA, and Thibodeau being a coach that lacks the skills and acumen to get his teams to a championship level is a tag that will stick. That's unfortunate. The Knicks were not picked by any prognosticator to reach the Finals this year. This was the first year with Bridges and Towns. The club lost key center
Isaiah Hartenstein
to free agency and, while Brunson is a sparkling player, he does have the tendency to squeeze the life out of the offense with his isolation style.
But coaches are hired to be fired and every NBA coach realizes that. Thibodeau will be a popular choice as a top assistant if he chooses, and he knew coaching the Knicks likely wouldn't end well unless he won a championship.
Like the previous 22 coaches before him, he didn't, so he's gone.
The Knicks fired Tom Thibodeau after his team's exit in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Adam Hunger/Associated Press
SILVER TONGUED
Commissioner chats
about Celtics, Finals
NBA commissioner
Adam Silver
touched on
Glen Taylor
to a group
Silver said the Celtics sale is getting closer to fruition and offered some specifics on the transition from
Wyc Grousbeck
to
Bill Chisholm
.
'I'd just say that the Boston Celtics deal I don't think of as a staged deal. They're still in the process of completing it. It's really more about a phase-out of current ownership,' Silver said. 'I think Bill Chisholm, who is the incoming owner, he's got to sort of straighten out some affairs in his life and his business. He's currently located on the West Coast. I think he's a huge admirer of Wyc Grousbeck and the way he's been running that team.
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'Obviously their results speak for themselves. What he's working out with Wyc is an opportunity for him, as I said, to learn the business from Wyc, then step in as the principal owner, the Governor of the team. There would then be no switching going forward. I think in the situation in Minnesota, yes, as I said before, I mean, it's not ideal to have those kinds of staged transactions. But also you learn it's nice to state these principles, but there we were in the middle of a pandemic, and Glen Taylor was in the process of selling his team. We all agreed to something that seemed to make sense in the moment.'
The biggest issue at this year's Finals are the finalists themselves. The Pacers and Thunder play in two of the league's smaller markets and neither has won an NBA championship. (No,
Silver made an astute point. The NBA is the only league where fans are concerned and consumed about television ratings. When the Diamondbacks faced the Rangers in
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Would the NBA prefer the Knicks or the Celtics reach the Finals? Perhaps, but the Pacers and Thunder offer hope to small- and medium-market owners that they can win if well managed.
'I remember when I first joined the league,
David [Stern]
used to joke early on in his tenure, David Stern, as commissioner, he said his job was to go back and forth between Boston and LA handing out championship trophies,' Silver said. 'I think it was very intentional. It didn't begin with me, it began with David and successive collective bargaining agreements, that we set out to create a system that allowed for more competition in the league, with the goal being having 30 teams all in position, if well managed, to compete for championships. That's what we're seeing here.
'I've said before, the goal is that market size essentially becomes irrelevant. I'd say the reason I wanted to talk a little bit about technology earlier, in part, it's the successive collective bargaining agreements, and thank you to the players because I think they all recognized we had an interest in serving the fans. Fans in every city want to see their team be competitive.'
Can the NBA be financially successful when the Lakers, Knicks, Celtics, Bulls, Warriors, Mavericks, and 76ers are left out of the Finals? The Spurs, Magic, and Pistons are among those building teams to compete for championships in coming years. The Trail Blazers, Grizzlies, and Nets are putting together young rosters to eventually do so.
'There is, I don't know, roughly 700,000 [people] in Oklahoma City, I think around 900,000 in Indianapolis. Not such small markets,' Silver said. 'Even if there were another million people or so in a city, when you're talking about a global market in a sport like the NBA where we're being followed by billions of people around the world, those incremental changes become pretty meaningless.
'I can't say standing here that I'd envision we would have seven different champions over seven years. I would only say the goal isn't necessarily to have a different champion every year. As we said, it's to have parity of opportunity. Hats off to Oklahoma City and Indianapolis, two incredibly well-run franchises, top to bottom, that deserve to be here. Whichever team were to win, if they were to repeat, I wouldn't then be saying this, therefore, isn't working because I didn't go to a different city to hand out the trophy. I'd be saying that's the system we wanted to create, as long as there's a level playing field.
'What we're focused on is on the process that goes into building the team, not the outcome. So the outcomes will be whatever they are.'
'Obviously their results speak for themselves," NBA commissioner Adam Silver said of the Celtics' ownership group.
Nate Billings/Associated Press
WILD ASCENTS
Carlisle came from
out of nowhere
While
Cooper Flagg
is already perhaps the most heralded player to come from Maine, Indiana coach
Rick Carlisle
played two years for the Black Bears before transferring to Virginia and being drafted by the Celtics in 1984. Carlisle grew up in Lisbon, N.Y., in the north central part of the state bordering Ontario.
They don't produce basketball players in Lisbon. They produce hockey players. That didn't dissuade Carlisle, who had a friend,
Hal Cohen
, from nearby Canton who served as his basketball role model.
'He was the greatest player to ever come out of the North Country,' Carlisle said. 'He got a scholarship to Syracuse University. He got a scholarship to a big-time basketball program. I grew up playing with him all the time, competing. It was one of the reasons that I ended up having a chance to get a Division 1 scholarship.'
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As Carlisle noted, he had to go to Worcester Academy for a year to get it, and his lone Division 1 offer came from Maine.
'Through a series of connections and relationships, was able to transfer to University of Virginia and play with
Ralph Sampson
for a year. That changed my life forever,' Carlisle said. 'Had great coaching and a lot of things that were very fortunate. Ended up getting drafted by Boston in a round that no longer exists in the draft. A lot of things fell my way. But I worked hard, too.
'You know, seeing Hal Cohen do that was something that gave a lot of people, a lot of guys in the North Country, a lot more belief about being able to go to higher levels, not just in basketball, but other sports.'
Carlisle has built a roster in Indiana without a top 15 starter.
Tyrese Haliburton
has approached that level in the past few seasons, while
Pascal Siakam
may be the most underrated player of this generation. Carlisle said the NBA is becoming more of a team league than a star league, evidence by a Finals of deep, talented rosters.
'It was
Larry [Bird]
and
Magic [Johnson]
, then it was
Michael Jordan
for a few years. Things are changing,' Carlisle said. 'The roster construction seems to be evolving in a slightly different direction, if not a pretty significantly different direction. There are always going to be stars. Identifying with teams may become more of a significant thing than just the star aspect of it.
'It's such a dynamic business and it's so quickly changing. It can change in a moment, much like a playoff series can. I just think the league is so healthy right now because there are so many young, great young players that have personality, that are such great promoters of the game simply by virtue of how they play the game, with their joy, with their love,' he added. 'It's moving away from an isolation league to really more of a team-type game. Oklahoma plays that way. We try to play that way. So, time will tell.'
Layups
The Celtics have until June 29 to pick up the nonguaranteed club option on guard
Drew Peterson
. Davison's contract will be guaranteed for 2025-26 if he's on the roster by next Jan. 10. Because the Celtics are in the second apron, they cannot aggregate contracts to make a trade, meaning they could not throw in Davison's contract as a sweetener of a bigger deal ...
David Adelman
was
Jamal Murray
, who did not report to camp in premium shape after looking sluggish during his Olympic stint with Team Canada. Murray eventually turned into the player who has been the Nuggets' second-best scorer, but got off to a painfully slow start, especially from the 3-point line. Murray is beginning a four-year, $207 million contract as the Nuggets look to remain relevant in both his and
Nikola Jokic's
prime. Denver doesn't have much salary wiggle room or free-agent opportunities since it is approaching the second apron with Murray's bump in salary …
LeBron James
has a player option for 2025-26 that he's fully expected to exercise as the Lakers prime for a championship-contending season. The club is seeking an impactful center and have several expiring contracts they can use to nab a big man.
Rui Hachimura
,
Dorian Finney-Smith
,
Maxi Kleber
, and
Gabe Vincent
all are entering the final years of their contracts, while
Austin Reaves
, who could be their most attractive player, is owed just $27 million over the next two years on a reasonable deal. The Lakers will have to decide whether they are going to use rookie
Dalton Knecht
, who got off to a rousing start and then was nearly traded to the Hornets, in any offseason deals. Knecht was a part of the rotation as a knockdown 3-point shooter, but then was relegated to the bench after a slump. He played just four minutes in the Lakers' first-round playoff series against the Timberwolves, and could be an attractive piece for a younger team looking for a shooter.
Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at