The Knicks Just Fired Their Best Coach in Decades. Are They Back to Being the Knicks?

Wall Street Journal

2 days ago

Tom Thibodeau has been sacked as head coach of the New York Knicks following a season in which he led this comically forlorn franchise to the edge of the NBA Finals for the first time in a quarter-century.
I used to feel happiness for whomever got fired as a Knicks coach—finally, they are free from this cave! Fly away! This time, it's hard not to feel bad for Thibs, a grinding lifer who transformed one of the most thankless jobs in sports.
You can look at the team's decision a couple of ways. I'll do the optimistic rendering, naturally followed by the irritated, pessimistic one.
This Shows the Knicks are Serious. An optimist may choose to see Thibodeau's ouster as a signal that New York's front office believes the team is close to a championship, and only a few key changes are needed to get them over the hump. Under this theory, relieving Thibodeau—a former head coach in Chicago and Minnesota who was hired by the Knicks for the 2020-21 campaign—is a painful but necessary move.
It's painful because Thibodeau was undeniably successful: He built the Knicks into an overachieving unit that finished in third place in the Eastern Conference, and knocked off both Detroit and defending champion Boston in the playoffs. He wrung the best out of imperfect lineups and gave the freedom to Jalen Brunson to become a generational New York superstar. He carved Josh Hart and OG Anunoby into warriors. Thibodeau also coached Karl-Anthony Towns for 18 playoff games without opening a bottle of bourbon on the sideline.
Thibodeau isn't for everyone. He's a no-nonsense obsessive who always looks like he can't find his rental car. He isn't going to get a job hosting the 'Today' show, although I would totally watch that. Instead he gave the Knicks an identity to match their city: tough, resilient, hard to kill. His team, Brunson especially, is beloved. Thibs's resistance to change could be maddening, but Madison Square Garden rocked in a way it hadn't since the Ewing/Starks days.
As for why his firing is necessary…well, the Knicks must feel they are ready to go up a level, and didn't think Thibodeau was the guy to get them to take the leap. Maybe they've been ready to do it for a while, and then this playoff run made the optics weird.
Much has been said about Thibodeau's stubbornness about using rookies and bench players, which led to him milking a ton of minutes from his starters. This led to injury worries, plus some frustrating moments in the playoffs, especially when Thibodeau needed to dust off his bench versus the frantic Indiana Pacers.
Moving on from Thibodeau signals a change in approach, which presumably means utilizing the bench more and keeping the team fresher into May and June.
But still! They just won 51 regular-season games and went deeper in the playoffs than any Knicks team in eons! They reached the postseason in four of Thibodeau's five seasons! Do you realize how sad this team was not long ago? Do you remember the soul-crushed atmosphere in the Garden, the easy punchlines about ownership and ineptitude? Do you think Kylie Jenner was going out on a date to watch THAT? Absolutely not.
Under Thibs, New York found hope again. Do you see how old those Clyde Frazier and Earl Monroe championship banners are in the rafters? They're old enough to still be reading a sports column in a newspaper.
Which leads to this natural but nagging worry:
This Shows the Knicks are Still the Knicks. This is the fear: that maybe the Knicks maxed it out this season, shocked a Boston team that didn't take them seriously, and might not be as close to a title as they appear. The Celtics aren't looking like a huge threat as long as injured Jayson Tatum is out, but Indiana's clearly arrived, the Cavs should be solid, Detroit's rising, and Orlando might be ready to get serious. (I'm choosing to completely ignore the Western Conference and the loaded Oklahoma City Thunder, which might fire Indiana into the sun when the Finals begin on Thursday.)
Maybe the Knicks are being irrational here, dismissing a coach who knew how to win basketball games, and will now do what irrational teams do, which is to find a shiny new replacement who will struggle to match the prior coach's success. The Knicks have historically craved big names, and you can expect some to surface soon. Whoever's hired will say the right things, and hit the right notes, but it doesn't mean anything until next year, when you find out if they can find a way to stop Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam.
Here's the panic: Maybe this spring was as good as it got. Maybe the Knicks are heading backward, moving fast and breaking up a good thing. There will be intense pressure on who comes next—not just as coach, but to supplement Brunson, Towns and the overworked starters. There will be agony if it doesn't work.
New York City, a hard-to-please town, got used to losing a lot of basketball games. Tom Thibodeau taught it how to win again.
Write to Jason Gay at [e-mail]