Knicks In Disarray

When news broke that the Knicks had fired Tom Thibodeau, it came as a shock... even if you consider that Thibodeau's future with the team had been debated for months. As is often the case whenever a coach is dismissed, stories of disfunction and disapproval leaked out for the world to see. But almost as quickly, the shock turned to ridicule. It appeared that the Knicks had fired their coach with no idea of who would replace him.

At times like this, it's important to remember that more than one thing can be true at once: the Knicks no longer wanted Thibodeau to be the coach. And they had no specific successor in mind. Like any team with a coaching vacancy, the Knicks will now go through the process of doing research on prospective hires, and conducting interviews with those they consider viable candidates.

Fortunately for the Knicks (and whoever becomes their next coach) the roster is full of talented players. The next coach will need to figure out how to make all that talent work, especially given some of their shortcomings. Maybe this is giving the Knicks too much credit, but it's also possible that they had always wanted to conduct a broad coaching search. Speak with different coaches who have different philosophies: different from Thibodeau, different from each other, maybe even different from what the Knicks' front office had in mind. After all, they are looking for someone who is able to take the current collection of parts and turn them into a championship team. They didn't think Thibodeau was the coach for that. Why not hear out as many other coaches as you can?

It also seems that most people have lost sight of one important fact: until Leon Rose holds a press conference to explain his search process, or introduces the Knicks' new coach, every single thing that has been written is a rumor. "Unidentified team source". "League insider". "Sports talk radio host looking to fill three hours a day".

That's not to say that anyone is lying, or that anyone is completely wrong. It's just that in this vacuum -- Knicks fire coach! Knicks ask permission to speak to other coaches! Knicks are denied! -- a lot of speculation happens. I agree that Thibodeau was the best Knicks coach in decades, but also agree that he had his limitations. I'm not willing to argue that the Knicks made the wrong choice until after they hire a new coach. Even then, it will be difficult to judge their success until next year's Eastern Conference Finals. Will the Knicks be there again? Or will Knicks' fans be pining for the "good old days" when Coach Thibs prowled the sidelines? Only time will tell.