Tom Thibideau out as Knicks coach!

[IthacaMatt]

Tibs inability to utilize a bench is a legit reason to can him if your goal is a championship.

What bench? He didn't have a guy like Donte DiVincenzo to come off the bench this year. They gave up too much to get Bridges. He didn't even have Mitchell Robinson until the end of the year, and look what a difference he made in the playoffs.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Would Hurley be a deterrent to top free agents?

Hurley's screaming would last about a week in the NBA.

 

[IthacaMatt]

If they can't talk Jay Wright out of retirement, I don't see this being a good thing.

 

[UnknownOrange]

Rick Pitino doesn’t have to change his commute!

 

[IthacaMatt]

Rick Pitino doesn’t have to change his commute!

That would move the needle.

 

[Toga]

Knicks announce Isiah Thomas as their new HC.

 

[Zelda Zonk]

Knicks announce Isiah Thomas as their new HC.

Charles Oakley as first Assistant.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

What bench? He didn't have a guy like Donte DiVincenzo to come off the bench this year. They gave up too much to get Bridges. He didn't even have Mitchell Robinson until the end of the year, and look what a difference he made in the playoffs.

So it’s just bad luck that he’s never had a bench ever in his history as a coach? This issue predates his current tenure

 

[IthacaBarrel]

Funny that Mike Francesa is stating that it was a Leon Rose decision and Mad Dog claiming that it was a Dolan decision and both are standing by their sources!

 

[Knicks411]

Funny that Mike Francesa is stating that it was a Leon Rose decision and Mad Dog claiming that it was a Dolan decision and both are standing by their sources!

Can you imagine if they were on the same show????

I am in favor of this move

 

[IthacaBarrel]

Can you imagine if they were on the same show????

I am in favor of this move

HA!! Would have been a great debate for sure regarding this

 

[Symphony Steve]

After the regular season, I thought the only way Thibs would be fired this year would be if they lost to Detroit in the first round. Kinda shocked it happened after getting to game 6 of the ECF, but I do think I agree with the move. If the ultimate goal is to win a championship, I don't think Thibs is the guy to do that. He has a .466 career playoff winning percentage, with over 100 total games. That's abysmal and I'd like to think there is a strong correlation between that and the way he runs his starters into the ground every year.

Problem is, in order to win a championship, you have to get back into position to do it.

Thibs got them in position to do it. When you look at the collection of weaknesses on the team, Brunson's D, Towns' carelessness, lack of bench, if anything they overachieved.

Meaning, the next coach would have to get them to over-overachieve.

Me? I'm betting on regression. Especially considering their lack of salary cap flexibility, and no draft choices before 2050.

 

[Knicks411]

Thibs insisted on playing a starting lineup that clearly didnt work well past the point where he should've switched things up, he didnt experiment with 5 out lineups that would've maximized the strengths of Towns. I dont know if the next guy will be the answer but I am willing to bet whoever it is will try more stuff

 

[shandeezy7]

Problem is, in order to win a championship, you have to get back into position to do it.

Thibs got them in position to do it. When you look at the collection of weaknesses on the team, Brunson's D, Towns' carelessness, lack of bench, if anything they overachieved.

Meaning, the next coach would have to get them to over-overachieve.

Me? I'm betting on regression. Especially considering their lack of salary cap flexibility, and no draft choices before 2050.

Oh, I absolutely don't believe that Thibs was the cause of all their problems. They have two starters that play 35+ minutes per game that may be two of the worst defensive players in the league - and they are on the court together A TON. That's tough for any coach to overcome. I don't think there's any guarantee at all that replacing Thibs will be a successful move, but I also really don't believe he's a coach that can win you a championship.

 

[RyanCuse44]

Please take Hurley and send UConn on a down slide with their hoops program where they belong.

 

[MikeSU02]

Thibs insisted on playing a starting lineup that clearly didnt work well past the point where he should've switched things up, he didnt experiment with 5 out lineups that would've maximized the strengths of Towns. I dont know if the next guy will be the answer but I am willing to bet whoever it is will try more stuff

This was not my own point, but read and agreed with it -- we don't have the cap to just sign a deep bench. Knicks need to be able to do the "come to the biggest market in the NBA on a one year deal, be featured, be on a winning team, jump for a longer term/more money the year after somewhere else" appeal.

No bench player is going to be want to be underpaid AND never play.

 

[shandeezy7]

This was not my own point, but read and agreed with it -- we don't have the cap to just sign a deep bench. Knicks need to be able to do the "come to the biggest market in the NBA on a one year deal, be featured, be on a winning team, jump for a longer term/more money the year after somewhere else" appeal.

No bench player is going to be want to be underpaid AND never play.

That was my thoughts exactly when my buddy defended Thibs not playing his bench, saying that who there was worth playing? EXACTLY. You made my point for me. There's no bench depth because who the hell would want to come play off the bench for a coach that's not gonna play you more than 10 mpg, regardless of how well you're playing? Like you said, maybe guys would do it if they paycheck was good, but mediocre pay and no playing time? No one worth anything is signing up for that.

 

[Knicks411]

This was not my own point, but read and agreed with it -- we don't have the cap to just sign a deep bench. Knicks need to be able to do the "come to the biggest market in the NBA on a one year deal, be featured, be on a winning team, jump for a longer term/more money the year after somewhere else" appeal.

No bench player is going to be want to be underpaid AND never play.

I dont think it is just that, but even within the players he relied on there wasnt a lot of mixing and matching. This is a combo of stuff I stole from people and I looked up myself.

The knicks starting 5 played 2,550 possessions together this season (regular season and playoffs, non garbage time, per Cleaning the glass). They were barely positive (net rating of about 2.2). The second most common lineup was the Minnesota starting 5, they played 1,788 possessions together (net rating of +7.3). So he played a bad starting lineup 40% more than any other 5 man unit in the league.

If you go to cleaning the glass and look at the best 5 man lineups the Knicks had all season, one player appears in every one of the 5 best 5 man lineups the team had. It was Deuce McBride, who of course wasnt a starter.

Related to this, the guy refused to play a 5 out lineup and really weaponize the shooting ability of KAT. They played 383 possessions during the regular season with anything I would call 5 out spacing (most common lineup was Payne, McBride, Bridges, OG, and Towns). In those lineups they were a +7.3 with a 126.4 offensive rating.

To take it a step further, what I would consider the best version of their 5 out lineup (Deuce in for Hart) played 82 possessions all regular season. +5.5 with a 130.5 offensive rating. It played 16 possessions during the playoffs, +50 with a 175 offensive rating. (I dont want to get too wrapped up in the playoff stats, the sample is so small, they may have been in when there was fouling going on, etc).

The last one, during the regular season KAT and Brunson played 3925 possessions together. 85% of those possessions included Josh Hart! (Ok this is kind of related to the one above)

 

[Zelda Zonk]

Problem is, in order to win a championship, you have to get back into position to do it.

Thibs got them in position to do it. When you look at the collection of weaknesses on the team, Brunson's D, Towns' carelessness, lack of bench, if anything they overachieved.

Meaning, the next coach would have to get them to over-overachieve.

Me? I'm betting on regression. Especially considering their lack of salary cap flexibility, and no draft choices before 2050.

Getting Tatum to self-injure was pretty key toward getting into position.

 

[shandeezy7]

Getting Tatum to self-injure was pretty key toward getting into position.

Ehh that series was 3-1 before the Tatum injury.

 

[Newhouser]

Hart plays too many minutes on a championship level team. Also he, OG, and Bridges are not the shut down defenders they were made out to be. One has to go - OG is too good to trade, Bridges cost a fortune to obtain...Hart is it, the only question does he cost us Deuce or Mitch in the process.

We need a real 2 who can take the ball out of Brunson's hands more than every once in a while. Question is will the current regime allow that and be able to swing it.

 

[sutomcat]

I always thought the worst thing that could happen to a Syracuse/Knick Fan was seeing Pat Ewing drafted (and playing there for more than a decade).

If Hurley gets hired, it might be even worse. Ugh.

 

[Eric15]

Knicks announce Isiah Thomas as their new HC.

Not saying this as a joke... did Isiah Thomas have a stroke? When I see him on NBATV, half his face looks frozen.

 

[shandeezy7]

Not saying this as a joke... did Isiah Thomas have a stroke? When I see him on NBATV, half his face looks frozen.

NBA Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas reveals Bell's palsy diagnosis

The 63-year-old shared the news on an episode of “The Mark Jackson Show” on YouTube.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[BillSU]

Here is the reason the Knicks are so bad:

James Lawrence Dolan[1] (born May 11, 1955) is an American businessman, and the executive chairman and chief executive officer of Madison Square Garden Sports and Madison Square Garden Entertainment, and executive chairman of MSG Networks

Dolan is one of six children of Cablevision founder Charles Dolan and his wife, Helen Ann Dolan,[3] and nephew of Cleveland Guardians owner Larry J. Dolan.[4] He is of Irish descent.[4] After originally pursuing a career in music, Dolan eventually switched to a major in communications at SUNY New Paltz and began working for Cablevision in various capacities including sales before eventually being dispatched to Cleveland by his father to manage the launching of a sports radio station. In 1995, he was made CEO >of Cablevision.[5] Throughout his early adult life, Dolan battled drug and alcohol problems and was reportedly known for having a volatile temper. In 1993, he went to drug rehabilitation at the Hazelden clinic in Center City, Minnesota.[6]<

New York Knicks

Like the Rangers, the Knicks performed abysmally in the early 2000s. Unlike the Rangers, they have yet to fully recover, which fans mostly blame on Dolan's management missteps.[16] Although the Knicks made the NBA Finals in 1999, they did not post another winning season until the 2012–13 season. Furthermore, the Knicks did not make the playoffs at any point between the 2003–04 and 2010–11 seasons, which both ended in the first round with four-game sweeps of the Knicks. In 2007, NBA Commissioner David Stern criticized Dolan's management of the Knicks, saying "they're not a model of intelligent management."[17][18]

>In 2007, Dolan was named as a defendant in a sexual harassment lawsuit submitted by a former Knicks executive, Anucha Browne-Sanders. Browne-Sanders accused Dolan of firing her out of spite after she complained about sexual harassment from Isiah Thomas. The court ruled in favor of Brown-Sanders and Dolan had to pay $3 million of the $11 million settlement. MSG was responsible for paying the remainder of the settlement.[19]<