Month: July 2020

I just thought it was funny that this was the most subdued New York Post article about the Thibodeau hiring. It really reads like the Post is saying, “Please, we need a new inside source! Look at the fawning press we can offer you!”

Here’s Marc Berman:

New Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau grew up in New Britain, Conn., and still owns his old house — 85 miles from the Knicks’ practice site in Tarrytown.

During his introductory Zoom press conference Thursday, Thibodeau referred to his new position as his “dream job.’’ He said it four times.

“This is a dream come true for me,’’ Thibodeau said. “This is my dream job. … Maybe part of that, I grew up in Connecticut. My father, my family, we grew up as Knicks fans. I’ve been there before, I have a great understanding of New York. I think we have the best city in the world, best arena and the best fans. I was there throughout the ’90s and that was an incredible experience.’’

For the first time in nearly eight months, the Knicks officially have a permanent head coach. They announced it on the first day of the NBA’s 22-team restart, as the Knicks try to restart their dead franchise that has missed the playoffs seven straight years.

Larry Brown once called the Knicks his “dream job’’ and left after one 17-65 disaster. Thibodeau is a former assistant coach from the 1990s glory days who went on to become a marquee coach with the Bulls and even broke Minnesota’s 13-year playoff drought in 2018.

But now Thibodeau may face a bigger task with James Dolan’s moribund Knicks. Asked how he can turn around a perennial mess, Thibodeau didn’t shy away from mentioning a championship, which the team hasn’t won in 47 years.

“You don’t make major jumps without going through each step,” he said. “So I think the first step is to establish the work ethic and how we want to play. There’s a lot of work to do. One of the most important things when you’re studying a team is just to look at efficiency, and when you see your [net rating] is a minus-6.54, you realize there’s a lot of work. And hopefully we can get the players to play for each other and start building those habits.

“Of course the ultimate goal is to bring a championship back to the city, where it’s synonymous with winning and championships, and that’s in New York.’’

Knicks president Leon Rose will be on the hook if Thibodeau’s old-school ways don’t work. Rose, his former agent at Creative Artists Agency, said there was “a comfort level’’ in hiring Thibodeau because of their long-term relationship.

Rose called the 62-year-old Thibodeau “the perfect candidate for this job from the standpoint of he’s going to demand accountability, he’s going to have development and he’s going to create a winning culture.”

“We hired not only a great basketball coach but an elite coach,” Rose said. “His principles and goals embody everything Knicks basketball represents.”

Thibs defended his Minnesota experience as, “It was more of a total rebuild, a team that had not won a lot for a long time. So I think you take from each experience, but each experience is different.” Ah, yes, Minnesota, with Karl-Anthony Towns and then Jimmy Butler in year two, was more of a “total rebuild,” different from this gig. Good point, Thibs.

He then described the three reasons he wanted this job so bad, and at least here, it made some sense, and wasn’t “No, no, Minnesota was a total rebuild. That’s much different than the Knicks right now for…reasons”), as he noted, “The three main reasons why this job was so appealing to me was the current roster that we have now is young and talented and there’s room for growth. That’s exciting to me. Secondly, is to work for Leon and Wes [William Wesley], two people I’ve known for an extremely long time. And thirdly is all the draft picks that have been acquired and also the cap space. We have many different ways to improve the team.” If you were to come up with reasons to want to coach the New York Knicks, that would be what you’d say, right? So can’t quibble with Thibs there. That was fine.

The whole press interactions by Rose and Thibs were fine. They said all of the right things.

We’re now a couple of months away from seeing what Rose will actually do with this team.

This story is actually older than the most recent Thibs hiring story, but all the other new stories are either hagiographies about how great the Thibs hire was or hit pieces about how bad the Thibs hire was, and I think we’ve already exhausted our debates about Thibs before COVID-19 even hit, let alone now, so I didn’t feel like posting any of those articles. So how about a “Should the Knicks trade for Player X?” article. Those are sometimes fun.

From the great Ian Begley:

Before Leon Rose took over as Knicks president, he was a top player agent at CAA. Because of Rose’s past role, there’s been plenty of speculation about the Knicks trading for a player with CAA ties.

The New York Post reported earlier this month that Suns star Devin Booker was the player to “watch out for most” as a potential trade target among Rose’s former clients.

Following Donovan Mitchell’s public frustration with teammate Rudy Gobert, there was fan/media speculation about Mitchell, a CAA client, getting traded to New York. But there are plenty of factors that suggest that neither Miller nor Booker will be traded anytime soon.

Mitchell is eligible for a max contract extension from the Utah Jazz this summer and would be a restricted free agent in the summer of 2021. Booker has four years remaining on his current deal in Phoenix.

Usually, a team doesn’t even consider trading a young star player until he gets close to free agency.

So if we’re speculating about potential trades, it’s more realistic to look at top players who are approaching free agency.

The 2021 free agency class is formidable. If you include players with player options for either 2020 or 2021, the list of free agents next summer (or fall) includes Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard and Victor Oladipo. The potential free agent class of 2022 is strong, too. Players who could be free agents that summer include Paul George, Bradley Beal, Zach LaVine, Aaron Gordon and Jrue Holiday.

We bring that up because those players are more likely to be traded than a player like Mitchell or Booker. And it’s worth noting that both the Knicks and the Nets are among the teams who have been monitoring LaVine’s situation in Chicago. Per SNY sources, both teams have done background work on LaVine to be prepared for the possibility that Chicago ends up listening to trade offers on the 25-year-old guard.

LaVine averaged 25.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.5 steals last season for the Bulls. He hit 38 percent of his 3-point attempts and 49.7 percent of his two-point attempts.

It’s fair to say that the Bulls, who have a new team president in Arturas Karsinovas, have yet to find a long-term solution on the coaching sidelines nor have they been successful in surrounding LaVine with talent in recent years. If that instability continues, would LaVine look to leave Chicago when he hits free agency? If so, the Bulls would probably be open to trading him instead of losing him for nothing.

This is what teams like the Knicks and Nets are keeping an eye on with LaVine and the Bulls. Beal and the Wizards, to a certain extent, fit the same profile. With regard to New York and Brooklyn, both teams have the assets to swing a trade for a young, talented player like LaVine.

The Knicks have seven first-round picks over the next four drafts and some young players who are attractive to opposing teams. The Nets have young players on team-friendly contracts (Caris LeVert, Spencer Dinwiddie, Jarrett Allen among them) and are believed to be in the market to trade for a top player to play alongside Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. The New York Daily New previously reported that the Nets had internal discussions about Beal, a player who can test free agency as early as 2022. You can add LaVine to the list of players that they are monitoring.

It will be interesting to see how both New York teams approach the trade market in the coming months. Similar to free agency in 2019 – when the Nets signed Durant and Irving — they may find themselves competing for the same players.

No thanks on Lavine, but I’ll give Beal this much. He’s one of those guys who you could at least flip for good players if you ever did trade for him. In other words, he’s the type of player that every team could use. Because of that, he would cost too much for it to make sense for the Knicks (especially since they could just sign him in 2022), but I just want to note that there is a huge difference between Bradley Beal and Lavine. Studs like Beal are never going to be like Julius Randle where you acquire them and then it’s like, “Oh, I guess people didn’t actually want this guy, huh?”

From the no-longer-suspended Woj at ESPN:

The New York Knicks and Tom Thibodeau are finalizing a five-year deal to make him the franchise’s next head coach, sources tell ESPN.

Knicks president Leon Rose and agent Spencer Breecker of CAA Sports were working Saturday to complete contractual terms, and a signed agreement is expected in the near future, sources said.

There’s a popular children’s book by Louis Sachar called Sideways Stories from Wayside School, about a bizarre school and the odd students who go there. One of the earliest chapters tells the story of Joe, a kid who seemingly doesn’t know how to count, but ultimately always arrives at the correct answer in the end. Like the teacher puts down eight potatoes and asks Joe to count them and he replies, “Seven, five, three, one, two, four, six, eight. There are eight potatoes, Mrs. Jewls.”

I was reminded of that story during the Knicks’ offbeat process that led to them ending up with the coach we all knew they were going to hire if they could back in March. We got to the eighth potato somehow, even if it was all over the place getting there.

I still think Atkinson was the preferable choice, but Thibs is, at worst, a competent coach, which is a big step up from most of the recent Knick coaches. And, more importantly, he isn’t Jason Kidd, so this is fine news.

It’d be funny if the rumor that Alan mentioned the other day about the Knicks waiting for Woj to get off suspension so he could break it was true.

From Stefan Bondy:

The Knicks coaching search has turned messy with Jason Kidd emerging as a frontrunner after contract negotiations with Tom Thibodeau stalled, a plugged-in NBA source told the Daily News.

Kidd, an unquestioned Hall of Fame player, is viewed by the Knicks as a conduit to attracting free agents, but there are also people in the organization who are skeptical of his coaching ability following underwhelming stints in Brooklyn and Milwaukee. As a result, the Kidd hire would come with the caveat of the front office picking at least some of his assistant coaches.

“It’s basically to save Kidd from himself,” the source said.

Thibodeau has long been considered top choice but a source said James Dolan has thus far been unwilling to agree to his contract requests. It’s still possible the sides reach an agreement, but it would require a concession. Given the reservations about Kidd — who has a history of short stays and ugly breakups — retaining interim coach Mike Miller is another possibility if Thibodeau doesn’t re-emerge.

Miller went 17-27 last season after taking over for David Fizdale, impressing team president Leon Rose along the way.

According to a source, potential handpicked assistant coaching candidates for Kidd include Kenny Payne, Rod Strickland and Mike Woodson — all who have close ties to Knicks executive William Wesley.

Well, that all sounds perfectly awful.

Now I have to root big time for Thibs to get the job.

This team, this fucking team.

From Ian Begley:

An update on where things stand with the Knicks coaching search: per league sources familiar with the matter, New York is not in contract negotiations with any candidate and has not made a contract offer to any of the candidates it has interviewed.

The Knicks are continuing to do their due diligence and there is a strong likelihood that they will have conversations with multiple candidates next week, per SNY league sources.

It remains likely that the club will hire a coach by the end of the month, prior to the NBA resuming its regular season in Orlando.

“They’re still exploring their options,” a league source familiar with the Knicks’ process told SNY.

Agents and coaches with a vested interest in the Knicks’ search have long believed that Tom Thibodeau is the coach most likely to be hired by Knicks president Leon Rose. The Knicks have interviewed 11 candidates for the job. All candidates are believed to have interviewed twice over Zoom calls.

Sports Illustrated reported that Kenny Atkinson interviewed with the club on Monday. That was believed to be Atkinson’s second interview.

The idea that the Knicks haven’t made a contract offer to any candidate suggests that Thibodeau’s hire isn’t as much of a foregone conclusion as the coaches and agents referenced above thought. That they may be talking to candidates again next week also tells you the Knicks haven’t fully settled on Thibodeau.

This team is so weird.

None of this makes any sense.

If Thibs is, indeed, the automatic choice, how do you not even offer him a contract? If Thibs is not the choice, then why is it taking so long to offer one of these other dudes a contract? How can they possibly not know who they want to coach the team after multiple interviews with multiple candidates?

From Marc Berman:

While five of the Knicks’ 11 coaching candidates are in the Orlando bubble game-planning for the NBA restart, others such as Tom Thibodeau are waiting on Knicks president Leon Rose’s decision a different way.

Thibodeau, considered the leading candidate, is passing away the time poring over Knicks game film as he awaits a possible job offer, according to an NBA source.

It is characteristic of Thibodeau, known for having his teams as well-prepared as any coach.

It’s known one of the things that most intrigues Thibodeau about coaching the Knicks roster is molding young shot-blocking center Mitchell Robinson into an even better defensive player.

A decision probably will come next week as interviews have been completed, but owner James Dolan still must be consulted and sign off on it. It has been six weeks — and countless hours of interviews — since the Knicks began the search.

Thibodeau’s second interview lasted three hours as did those of many others. That’s plenty of time to talk philosophy — as the 62-year-old did on a recent podcast hosted by ex-Bull and current player agent B.J. Armstrong.

How weird is this story? So, the dude’s studying Knick game tape? What the what? How is he not the coach then? And with so many good coaching gigs either definitely available this offseason or very possibly available, why in the world would he want the Knicks job so badly?

But if the guy is studying Knick game tape, then I would imagine that he wants this job for some reason. It’s so darn weird.

But whatever, I can live with Thibs. He’s no Jason Kidd.

And hey, if famed coaching expert, BJ Armstrong, recommends him, then he must be good, right (seriously, how hard up are you for a story when it’s “Hey, what does BJ Armstrong think about the Knicks coaching options?”?).

From Mike Vorkunov (behind a paywall, but come on, it really isn’t that expensive to get a subscription):

If Thibodeau were to get the job, it would continue an emerging theme during Rose’s first spring as the team president. Though the Knicks have been generally lauded for their front-office hires, the people Rose has brought in have also had longstanding relationships with him. He and Wesley have been friends for decades from their South Jersey beginnings. He has strong existing relationships with Aller and new assistant general manager Frank Zanin. Thibodeau, along with his successful résumé as a coach, could benefit from that closeness with Rose and other members of his front office. Wesley reportedly represented Thibodeau when he worked for CAA. It is not unusual for executives to hire people they have known awhile, and Rose is doing so in his first offseason on the team side after 20-plus years as a player agent.

The Knicks still have another critical hire to make in the front office. Craig Robinson left the organization, a league source confirmed, to take over as the executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. Robinson had been the Knicks’ VP of player development since 2017, when he was hired by former president Steve Mills.

Robinson’s exit had been expected for months. He was a holdover from the Mills regime, and his contract was set to expire next month. The Knicks had already been putting out feelers for someone to replace him before he left.

Whoever the Knicks hire to take over player development will have an important job. The roster is filled with young and talented players but who have shown limited or stilted growth in their careers. Strong player development has been the backbone of contending teams, and the ability to find and develop late picks and undrafted players into contributing rotation members or starters has powered teams such as the Raptors, Spurs, Bucks and others. The Knicks also have had uneven results from their top-10 picks, leaving them at risk of attaining little value from years atop the draft.

It would be nice to have player development be an asset here instead of a detriment.

From Ian Begley:

Former Knicks coach Mike Woodson interviewed for the club’s head-coaching vacancy on Friday, sources said.

Friday was Woodson’s second interview with the club. Woodson and all other candidates had initial interviews with the Knicks last month or in the first week of July.

The Knicks’ second-round interviews are expected to conclude in the coming days. It is unclear if any candidates will be asked to interview a third time.

New York plans to make a decision its next head coach before July 31, when the NBA resumes its regular season in Orlando.

It’s interesting that they are planning on dragging this out for another 20 days.

Speaking of dragging things out for seemingly eternity, we’ve consciously uncoupled with one of our commenters, bobneptune.

Ian Bagley did a mailbag at SNY and he had an interesting question about what he would do if he were made GM of the Knicks with a relatively long term contract:

@Bennie_Blanco: Play the GM role and tell us what moves you would make to improve next season
How many years do I have on my contract? If I have long-term job security, I’m using my picks to draft players, continuing to try to find a strong young core to build around and one that’s attractive to free agents. If I’m on a short-term deal, I would, selfishly, take more of a ‘quick fix’ approach to try to get this team in the playoffs ASAP so I can keep my job.

For argument’s sake, let’s say I have a five-year deal with a team option for the fifth season.

In that case, I’d look for a lead guard who can knock shots down with my lottery pick. I think this type of guard can benefit Robinson and Barrett. I’d also look for a perimeter shooter/big man who can shoot later in the draft (New York has a late first-round pick and early second-round pick).

Again, I’m thinking of benefitting Barrett and Robinson – and balancing out my roster – with these selections.

I’d use my cap space this summer to do one of the following: trade for an unwanted contract and acquire draft picks/young players in the deal; overpay for a young player in free agency by offering a big-money, short-term contract; if OKC will agree to a deal that doesn’t include future draft picks or Barrett/Robinson, trade for Chris Paul and see if he is open to restructuring his contract (if it’s allowed under the next CBA). Getting Paul on the roster will jumpstart the Knicks’ effort to build a winning culture and benefit New York’s young players exponentially, I think.

No one on my roster would be totally off limits in trade talks. If the opportunity to trade for a young, ascendant star presented itself, I’d be open to packaging picks/young players to get the deal done.

Lastly, depending on how the offseason goes, I would sell my roster on the idea of trying to make the playoffs in 2020-21. This, ideally, would engender a winner’s mentality among the young Knicks. But I wouldn’t be upset if we ended up in strong lottery position again in 2021, when the draft is expected to include several talented players.

I think some of those ideas are a bit contrary to each other (“I’d take on players for draft picks, but also trade for Chris Paul’s gigantic contract without getting anything in return”), but for the most part, I think Begley’s take on the future of the team is reasonable enough.

What do you folks think about his ideas?