Nov 14, 2022·edited Nov 14, 2022Liked by Jonathan Macri
This is a brilliant assessment, Jonathan. For the first time in awhile I feel I am losing interest in the Knicks. The poor play, the frustration, the inability to use the young players properly, the silent front office, the lack of intelligence on the court, the Julius Randle fiasco, the awful owner–it's really too much for the loyal and devoted fan base. The Knicks front office, for all of the hype they generate, really couldn't care less about the rank and file fans. The fish rots from the head, and we all know where that leads. Does Rose ignore the press because that's a condition of being hired? Probably. Read Henning's great book on the Riley Knicks and you can learn about the origins of the fall when Dolan interfered with Checketts' decision-making. There is an executive malfunction at MSG. There has been for decades now. As a former university president I know malfunction in organizational life when I see it. It starts and finishes with opaque communication, petty squabbles (see the Oakley incidents), and a lack of transparency. I do think some of the basketball minds at MSG know what they are doing, but I doubt they were given carte blanche to build this team for the future. Sometimes I think the only reason I watch is to listen to Clyde and Breen, and because every one in life has to hold on to hope. Without hope, where are we?
Is this season at MSG a staging of Waiting for Godot or Götterdämmerung? I wish the Knicks' organization could just build a team that plays winning basketball. But, the Garden always seems to be a place of midtown arrogance, corporate deceit, feudalistic intrigue, ownership's bruised ego, and Cablevision's atavistic greed. How's their MSG App going to sell? Maybe, this chapter of the Knicks Saga ends in Salt Lake City if young Will Hardy's spirited Jazz piss all over the Knick's in humiliating fashion and Danny Ainge pimp walks past the Knicks bench saying, "How you like me now, mothertruckers," or words to that effect suitable for a Mormon audience. Would be poetic: Johnnie Bryant, returns to his professional basketball home and rises from the ashes of the Knicks' devastation! Or, maybe, nothing happens and we just go on. Waiting...
Thanks JM and KFS. You are a Knicks universe bright spot. The drama never stops.
Thanks Jon. You are a good dude that doesn't want to see anyone get fired. The Knicks have a better roster then the Thunder. If we started Morrissey at the PF and someone named Jeremiah Robinson-Earl at C I don't think you would be as kind.
We are all crazy. It is not even 9 am and this will be the 17th comment. Thank you Jon for being the highlight of my Knick fandom at this point. Not a knock on you but I would hope to look forward and enjoy the actual games as well.
Leon Rose's first mistake was hiring a win now coach in the first place. We often bandy around the unlikely 4 seed that doomed the team. Well a smart front office hires a rebuilding coach when you have a bad team, not a win now coach. I wanted to get that out of the way. So where does the front office go from here.
Option 1: Triple down, say the reason that this season isn't going well is talent and the fact that DM trade didn't go down. Make a move to send the assets/picks to get better talent. Their will be no shortage of desperate teams. GSW(I think they trade poole, wiggins or green) or Minny (I think they trade towns or ANT). Jonathan can you look into what you think it would take to get ANT? He doesnt seem happy and that team is not playing well.
Option 2: Fire Thibs. Get a rebuilding coach. Make sure you get a coach that will play Randle and Obi at the 4/5.
Option 3: Trade Randle while keeping Thibs. Miami for Duncan Robinson or Lakers for westbrook.
This is some of your best stuff yet Jon. Great right, all truths. Exploring the complexities of the whole thing. I think you're totally right on all of it. Well done!
A big reason why we lost was because one team had SGA and the other did not. Yes, anger should be directed towards the coach, but big picture reality is that a new coach wont contribute more to winning than drafting the right player at least once in a while
Great post, Jon. As you said, if this regime fires Thibs it will put the spotlight where it truly needs to be at this point.
Why is RJ playing like a guy auditioning for his next team when he just signed his rookie extension? Could it that the entire league knows the Knicks were happy to dump him for Donovan Mitchell… and then inexplicably didn’t?
Why is Evan Fournier playing like a shell of himself? (See above.)
Why are IQ and Obi still getting 15 min a night, yet still some of our best players and at this rate some of the only guys who actually appear to be buying what this coach is selling? While some of it is on the couch, some of it is clearly on the front office who built this roster and didn’t consolidate when it was clear as day they needed to.
The part that someone else here mentioned that truly feels like malpractice is that Gerson Rosas was somehow the one negotiating the biggest trade of this regime’s tenure. What? Gerson Rosas? How? What is his role here? Leon Rose doesn’t trust his general manager Scott Perry to make the call? That feels like a problem!
Leon Rose seems like a smart and thoughtful guy, who has assembled a team of smart and thoughtful guys. Who all want different things. In hindsight, the writing was on the wall the very first draft/free agency this regime went through, when Thibs called Brock Aller “Hinkie”. That’s a clear and massive wedge between the intentions of the front office and the coaching staff from day one. It was on Rose to set a path and he never did. They’ve been trying to play it both ways since then. We’re stuck in the middle until we get someone who has a vision for this team and executes it, top down.
And, one more time - if the path they picked was amassing assets for a star trade, and one of guys who everyone in the league knew you would target and wanted to be here is basically assuming you will trade for him.. and you don’t… excuse me, you don’t allow Gerson Rosas to do it for you… it is a massive massive failure. And then you compound it by timing the RJ Barrett extension news in such a way that it’s clearly meant to be some kind of “booyah!” moment directed at Danny Ainge?? Not to mention a slight to RJ himself, who is supposed to be a building block. Or, wait, was that a trade chip? Shameful and embarrassing.
I will take some issue with the idea that a coaching change wouldn't make much difference with the state of the roster. It's possible that you are right. However, we have seen improvements after coaching changes. In 2019-2020, Mike Miller got the team to perform much better than Fizdale did. In 2020-2021, Thibs took basically Miller / Fizdale team + Derrick Rose to the playoffs.
What changes could Johnny Bryant as interim coach potentially make?
Shorten the rotation to 9 men (minutes): Brunson (30), RJ (30), Cam (30), Randle (30), Obi (30), IQ (30), Grimes (30), Mitch (20), Hart (18).
Emphasize 5 out / small ball to optimize Jalen Brunson. We've heard all about how the Brunson's, Leon & son, and Thibs have been connected at the hip forever. I have to believe Thibs wanted us to sign Brunson. We recruited Jalen as a free agent and hired his Dad as an assistant coach. Jalen plays best in a 5 out lineup where he can operate near the rim. Although he can shoot 3's, for his career he only takes about 4 3 point attempts / 36 minutes. That hasn't changed this year. Playing our best player with a traditional center who blocks his access to the rim is counterproductive. Presumably Rick Brunson has watched every game Jalen played in the NBA and has figured this out. Presumably he has told Thibs and Leon on multiple occasions. Thibs doesn't want to play 5 out / small ball. A new coach might.
Along the same lines, Obi is playing really well and deserves to be on the court. Julius actually has experience playing a full season at center for the Lakers. Playing Obi / Randle together in a small ball lineup would find minutes for Obi and potentially optimize Brunson. Unfortunately, Thibs is allergic to it. A new coach may play them together on a regular basis.
Cam was excellent yesterday and deserving of the star. He got his chance due to the Grimes injury and Fournier's poor play and is making the most of his opportunity. It's nice to see. But let's not forget that Thibs refused to play Cam for much of last season after the trade and had Berman go on a media blitz over the summer saying that he never wanted Cam and that the front office acquired Cam against his wishes. More time for Cam please.
Play Mitch with the bench when he comes back. IQ takes 8 3's per 36 minutes and throws lobs effectively. He and Grimes are good defenders. Don't play Mitch with Brunson.
Fournier and Rose are both on the wrong side of 30 and not on the same timeline as the rest of the team. Neither is playing particularly well. One reason for not making the Mitchell trade was to hold onto some of our young players, particularly Grimes. A new coach could bench Fournier and Rose to find more minutes for IQ / Grimes.
Nov 14, 2022·edited Nov 14, 2022Liked by Jonathan Macri
Hubris leads to one's demise. This is how I currently perceive the Knicks.
From an FO perspective, the FO has exhibited incredible amounts of confidence in its plan. The FO is confident that it made the right coaching hire to take this team forward; confident that it invested in the right pieces; confident that it had assembled the assets to make a star trade; confident that when said star came available, that he would eventually come into the FO's waiting arms; and confident that a team that clearly has a mediocre roster would be able get to the playoffs.
From Thibs' perspective, he remains confident in his older philosophies working in a modern league; confident that the players would continue to listen to him no matter the results or how much he screamed at them; and confident in the wrong players to carry the team out of the abyss.
And yet, mostly all of these confidences have proven misplaced. It just looks toxic. The inner politics seem absurd.
And a quick note on the RJ/Brunson benching. I think Thibs benched them because he believes that they will be determined to bounce back from it and come back stronger. He most likely does not have the same faith in Randle to do so. If this is his line of thinking, I think we can all agree.
Nov 14, 2022·edited Nov 14, 2022Liked by Jonathan Macri
Amen. Thibs isn’t a bad coach when he has a well-designed balanced roster, but this poorly designed roster exposes all his shortcomings. If the upcoming road trip goes as badly as I expect, I don’t think Thibs will survive all the booing that will greet the team when they return home. Which is fine by me since firing Thibs is the first step on the way to an unplanned tank. The real culprits here are Rose & Company, who have done little but tread water and clearly have no clue how to build a modern, competitive roster. How big of a dumpster fire do the Knicks need to become before Dolan cleans house (or better, sells the team)? My fear is that Rose will scapegoat Thibs, survive another year, and refuse to blow up the roster because that would be admitting he’s been a failure. In an ideal world Rose gets fired and the Knicks hire a bright young protege of one of the top NBA executives (trying to poach a superstar exec is a fools errand) to oversee the roster tear down and rebuild. Fingers crossed the Knicks suck enough to: (1) get Rose fired and (2) fall into at least the mid-lottery and have decent odds of getting a good player. I hate rooting for my team to lose, but I don’t see any other path to purging the current front office. What’s the over/under on when the fire Leon chants start at MSG?
I think we are all in agreement that something needs to change, and it’ll probably be the head coach, but realistically what is the move another coach makes that Thibs hasn’t? Is it something as simple as moving Fournier to DNP status, and finding 10 more minutes per game for Toppin?
It just seems like with the roster constructed the way it is, there isn’t a lot different that a new head coach can do. Nobody is going to come in and bench Randle, so what are we really expecting from Johnny Bryant or whoever else would take on the job? I think really the ire should be pointed at the front office for putting together a collection of trade pieces rather than focusing on building a team.
Thibs is the wrong coach for this team. Randle is the wrong fit for this team. Fournier is... Fournier. The spot light damn sure should be on the front office and it should be glowing bright. The too many cooks in the kitchen approach clearly has fallen flat which is leaving this sailboat in the middle of the ocean without any wind. If this front office doesn't fire Thibs and swing a trade with Phoenix to get Randle out then this will be another wasted year for the kids and we'll enter 2023 with no direction, no clarity on IQ or Obi (how can they not be angry at everyone at this point?), and with a draft pick around #10 in a historical draft. If only Knicks flipped Randle in 2019 instead of trading for Rose... Feel like that was the worst thing that could have happened to this franchise and got us to where we are today, and wherever the bottom will be for this season. Why do we do this to ourselves every year Macri?? Why?!
It is ironic that Thibs is the one on the hot seat as after the first season of this administration he as their best decision, plus this administration has done nothing but kick the can down the road and not give him many real assets . The Rose team has essentially ignored the draft -- either trading down or out with most of the first round picks they had -- to ignoring the perfect opportunity to tank but not doing much else.
Don’t get me wrong. Thibs should be fired. But so should Rose and Wes and Aller and Perry. They all should be sent packing. should also be sent packing. And then, instead of hiring an ex-Knick ex-NBAer (Isiah and Jackson) or an inexperienced player agent (Rose) they should move heaven and earth to signing a superstar GM. There is no salary cap on General Managers so go get Presti or Ujiri.
I am a season ticket holder and have been for 32 years. And it is the most frustrated at a Knick team and management in that time. And I know there were worse. But here, it is boring and hopeless.
Fournier played 3 minutes less than Obi and Grimes combined. That inconvenient fact tells me that Thibs is coaching neither for short nor long-term gain. The bench used to be a strength - Fournier on that unit undermines its strengths. There is a reason why Thibs has worn out his welcome in multiple spots.
So depressing that this is where we are less than 20 games in. Burn down the mission.
Making Thibs the coach in the first place was a sign of faulty vision by the front office. Bringing in Thibs to coach this team in the first place was a statement that said, "We're going to try to be competitive now."
Rose et al were not inclined to invest years of effort in drafting and developing a team that could one day become a championship contender. Instead, they chose to quickly shed their laughingstock status, become quasi-respectable, and then shoot for the superstars in the free agent market or trade for one after engineering the accumulation of a boatload of draft picks. And that's how Thibs made perfect sense to Rose et al. Thibs can take a marginally talented team and squeeze good performances out of them in short order. But that kind of team won't compete for championships because they don't have the talent base of the elite teams. Free agents aren't salivating to play for the Knicks. A year or two of respectable ball will not make the elite players of the NBA force their way to MSG. And once you're playing halfway decent ball, your record is too good to pick at the top of the draft. So you're stuck in mediocre-to-lousy territory.
Thibs was the wrong coach for this team because a win-now plan was always a doomed plan. The lack of commitment to a comprehensive rebuild to become a team whose players match the modern NBA game is dooming the Knicks to bottom-half purgatory. That's not on Thibs. That's just poor vision and poor planning by the front office.
This is a brilliant assessment, Jonathan. For the first time in awhile I feel I am losing interest in the Knicks. The poor play, the frustration, the inability to use the young players properly, the silent front office, the lack of intelligence on the court, the Julius Randle fiasco, the awful owner–it's really too much for the loyal and devoted fan base. The Knicks front office, for all of the hype they generate, really couldn't care less about the rank and file fans. The fish rots from the head, and we all know where that leads. Does Rose ignore the press because that's a condition of being hired? Probably. Read Henning's great book on the Riley Knicks and you can learn about the origins of the fall when Dolan interfered with Checketts' decision-making. There is an executive malfunction at MSG. There has been for decades now. As a former university president I know malfunction in organizational life when I see it. It starts and finishes with opaque communication, petty squabbles (see the Oakley incidents), and a lack of transparency. I do think some of the basketball minds at MSG know what they are doing, but I doubt they were given carte blanche to build this team for the future. Sometimes I think the only reason I watch is to listen to Clyde and Breen, and because every one in life has to hold on to hope. Without hope, where are we?
Is this season at MSG a staging of Waiting for Godot or Götterdämmerung? I wish the Knicks' organization could just build a team that plays winning basketball. But, the Garden always seems to be a place of midtown arrogance, corporate deceit, feudalistic intrigue, ownership's bruised ego, and Cablevision's atavistic greed. How's their MSG App going to sell? Maybe, this chapter of the Knicks Saga ends in Salt Lake City if young Will Hardy's spirited Jazz piss all over the Knick's in humiliating fashion and Danny Ainge pimp walks past the Knicks bench saying, "How you like me now, mothertruckers," or words to that effect suitable for a Mormon audience. Would be poetic: Johnnie Bryant, returns to his professional basketball home and rises from the ashes of the Knicks' devastation! Or, maybe, nothing happens and we just go on. Waiting...
Thanks JM and KFS. You are a Knicks universe bright spot. The drama never stops.
Thanks Jon. You are a good dude that doesn't want to see anyone get fired. The Knicks have a better roster then the Thunder. If we started Morrissey at the PF and someone named Jeremiah Robinson-Earl at C I don't think you would be as kind.
We are all crazy. It is not even 9 am and this will be the 17th comment. Thank you Jon for being the highlight of my Knick fandom at this point. Not a knock on you but I would hope to look forward and enjoy the actual games as well.
Leon Rose's first mistake was hiring a win now coach in the first place. We often bandy around the unlikely 4 seed that doomed the team. Well a smart front office hires a rebuilding coach when you have a bad team, not a win now coach. I wanted to get that out of the way. So where does the front office go from here.
Option 1: Triple down, say the reason that this season isn't going well is talent and the fact that DM trade didn't go down. Make a move to send the assets/picks to get better talent. Their will be no shortage of desperate teams. GSW(I think they trade poole, wiggins or green) or Minny (I think they trade towns or ANT). Jonathan can you look into what you think it would take to get ANT? He doesnt seem happy and that team is not playing well.
Option 2: Fire Thibs. Get a rebuilding coach. Make sure you get a coach that will play Randle and Obi at the 4/5.
Option 3: Trade Randle while keeping Thibs. Miami for Duncan Robinson or Lakers for westbrook.
Any others? Which do you prefer?
This is some of your best stuff yet Jon. Great right, all truths. Exploring the complexities of the whole thing. I think you're totally right on all of it. Well done!
A big reason why we lost was because one team had SGA and the other did not. Yes, anger should be directed towards the coach, but big picture reality is that a new coach wont contribute more to winning than drafting the right player at least once in a while
Great post, Jon. As you said, if this regime fires Thibs it will put the spotlight where it truly needs to be at this point.
Why is RJ playing like a guy auditioning for his next team when he just signed his rookie extension? Could it that the entire league knows the Knicks were happy to dump him for Donovan Mitchell… and then inexplicably didn’t?
Why is Evan Fournier playing like a shell of himself? (See above.)
Why are IQ and Obi still getting 15 min a night, yet still some of our best players and at this rate some of the only guys who actually appear to be buying what this coach is selling? While some of it is on the couch, some of it is clearly on the front office who built this roster and didn’t consolidate when it was clear as day they needed to.
The part that someone else here mentioned that truly feels like malpractice is that Gerson Rosas was somehow the one negotiating the biggest trade of this regime’s tenure. What? Gerson Rosas? How? What is his role here? Leon Rose doesn’t trust his general manager Scott Perry to make the call? That feels like a problem!
Leon Rose seems like a smart and thoughtful guy, who has assembled a team of smart and thoughtful guys. Who all want different things. In hindsight, the writing was on the wall the very first draft/free agency this regime went through, when Thibs called Brock Aller “Hinkie”. That’s a clear and massive wedge between the intentions of the front office and the coaching staff from day one. It was on Rose to set a path and he never did. They’ve been trying to play it both ways since then. We’re stuck in the middle until we get someone who has a vision for this team and executes it, top down.
And, one more time - if the path they picked was amassing assets for a star trade, and one of guys who everyone in the league knew you would target and wanted to be here is basically assuming you will trade for him.. and you don’t… excuse me, you don’t allow Gerson Rosas to do it for you… it is a massive massive failure. And then you compound it by timing the RJ Barrett extension news in such a way that it’s clearly meant to be some kind of “booyah!” moment directed at Danny Ainge?? Not to mention a slight to RJ himself, who is supposed to be a building block. Or, wait, was that a trade chip? Shameful and embarrassing.
We need a real front office.
Thanks for the response, Jonathan. Things looked better last night except for the inexplicable lifting of Obi at the 7 minute mark.
Excellent, excellent article as usual.
I will take some issue with the idea that a coaching change wouldn't make much difference with the state of the roster. It's possible that you are right. However, we have seen improvements after coaching changes. In 2019-2020, Mike Miller got the team to perform much better than Fizdale did. In 2020-2021, Thibs took basically Miller / Fizdale team + Derrick Rose to the playoffs.
What changes could Johnny Bryant as interim coach potentially make?
Shorten the rotation to 9 men (minutes): Brunson (30), RJ (30), Cam (30), Randle (30), Obi (30), IQ (30), Grimes (30), Mitch (20), Hart (18).
Emphasize 5 out / small ball to optimize Jalen Brunson. We've heard all about how the Brunson's, Leon & son, and Thibs have been connected at the hip forever. I have to believe Thibs wanted us to sign Brunson. We recruited Jalen as a free agent and hired his Dad as an assistant coach. Jalen plays best in a 5 out lineup where he can operate near the rim. Although he can shoot 3's, for his career he only takes about 4 3 point attempts / 36 minutes. That hasn't changed this year. Playing our best player with a traditional center who blocks his access to the rim is counterproductive. Presumably Rick Brunson has watched every game Jalen played in the NBA and has figured this out. Presumably he has told Thibs and Leon on multiple occasions. Thibs doesn't want to play 5 out / small ball. A new coach might.
Along the same lines, Obi is playing really well and deserves to be on the court. Julius actually has experience playing a full season at center for the Lakers. Playing Obi / Randle together in a small ball lineup would find minutes for Obi and potentially optimize Brunson. Unfortunately, Thibs is allergic to it. A new coach may play them together on a regular basis.
Cam was excellent yesterday and deserving of the star. He got his chance due to the Grimes injury and Fournier's poor play and is making the most of his opportunity. It's nice to see. But let's not forget that Thibs refused to play Cam for much of last season after the trade and had Berman go on a media blitz over the summer saying that he never wanted Cam and that the front office acquired Cam against his wishes. More time for Cam please.
Play Mitch with the bench when he comes back. IQ takes 8 3's per 36 minutes and throws lobs effectively. He and Grimes are good defenders. Don't play Mitch with Brunson.
Fournier and Rose are both on the wrong side of 30 and not on the same timeline as the rest of the team. Neither is playing particularly well. One reason for not making the Mitchell trade was to hold onto some of our young players, particularly Grimes. A new coach could bench Fournier and Rose to find more minutes for IQ / Grimes.
Hubris leads to one's demise. This is how I currently perceive the Knicks.
From an FO perspective, the FO has exhibited incredible amounts of confidence in its plan. The FO is confident that it made the right coaching hire to take this team forward; confident that it invested in the right pieces; confident that it had assembled the assets to make a star trade; confident that when said star came available, that he would eventually come into the FO's waiting arms; and confident that a team that clearly has a mediocre roster would be able get to the playoffs.
From Thibs' perspective, he remains confident in his older philosophies working in a modern league; confident that the players would continue to listen to him no matter the results or how much he screamed at them; and confident in the wrong players to carry the team out of the abyss.
And yet, mostly all of these confidences have proven misplaced. It just looks toxic. The inner politics seem absurd.
And a quick note on the RJ/Brunson benching. I think Thibs benched them because he believes that they will be determined to bounce back from it and come back stronger. He most likely does not have the same faith in Randle to do so. If this is his line of thinking, I think we can all agree.
Amen. Thibs isn’t a bad coach when he has a well-designed balanced roster, but this poorly designed roster exposes all his shortcomings. If the upcoming road trip goes as badly as I expect, I don’t think Thibs will survive all the booing that will greet the team when they return home. Which is fine by me since firing Thibs is the first step on the way to an unplanned tank. The real culprits here are Rose & Company, who have done little but tread water and clearly have no clue how to build a modern, competitive roster. How big of a dumpster fire do the Knicks need to become before Dolan cleans house (or better, sells the team)? My fear is that Rose will scapegoat Thibs, survive another year, and refuse to blow up the roster because that would be admitting he’s been a failure. In an ideal world Rose gets fired and the Knicks hire a bright young protege of one of the top NBA executives (trying to poach a superstar exec is a fools errand) to oversee the roster tear down and rebuild. Fingers crossed the Knicks suck enough to: (1) get Rose fired and (2) fall into at least the mid-lottery and have decent odds of getting a good player. I hate rooting for my team to lose, but I don’t see any other path to purging the current front office. What’s the over/under on when the fire Leon chants start at MSG?
I think we are all in agreement that something needs to change, and it’ll probably be the head coach, but realistically what is the move another coach makes that Thibs hasn’t? Is it something as simple as moving Fournier to DNP status, and finding 10 more minutes per game for Toppin?
It just seems like with the roster constructed the way it is, there isn’t a lot different that a new head coach can do. Nobody is going to come in and bench Randle, so what are we really expecting from Johnny Bryant or whoever else would take on the job? I think really the ire should be pointed at the front office for putting together a collection of trade pieces rather than focusing on building a team.
Thibs is the wrong coach for this team. Randle is the wrong fit for this team. Fournier is... Fournier. The spot light damn sure should be on the front office and it should be glowing bright. The too many cooks in the kitchen approach clearly has fallen flat which is leaving this sailboat in the middle of the ocean without any wind. If this front office doesn't fire Thibs and swing a trade with Phoenix to get Randle out then this will be another wasted year for the kids and we'll enter 2023 with no direction, no clarity on IQ or Obi (how can they not be angry at everyone at this point?), and with a draft pick around #10 in a historical draft. If only Knicks flipped Randle in 2019 instead of trading for Rose... Feel like that was the worst thing that could have happened to this franchise and got us to where we are today, and wherever the bottom will be for this season. Why do we do this to ourselves every year Macri?? Why?!
It is ironic that Thibs is the one on the hot seat as after the first season of this administration he as their best decision, plus this administration has done nothing but kick the can down the road and not give him many real assets . The Rose team has essentially ignored the draft -- either trading down or out with most of the first round picks they had -- to ignoring the perfect opportunity to tank but not doing much else.
Don’t get me wrong. Thibs should be fired. But so should Rose and Wes and Aller and Perry. They all should be sent packing. should also be sent packing. And then, instead of hiring an ex-Knick ex-NBAer (Isiah and Jackson) or an inexperienced player agent (Rose) they should move heaven and earth to signing a superstar GM. There is no salary cap on General Managers so go get Presti or Ujiri.
I am a season ticket holder and have been for 32 years. And it is the most frustrated at a Knick team and management in that time. And I know there were worse. But here, it is boring and hopeless.
Fournier played 3 minutes less than Obi and Grimes combined. That inconvenient fact tells me that Thibs is coaching neither for short nor long-term gain. The bench used to be a strength - Fournier on that unit undermines its strengths. There is a reason why Thibs has worn out his welcome in multiple spots.
So depressing that this is where we are less than 20 games in. Burn down the mission.
Making Thibs the coach in the first place was a sign of faulty vision by the front office. Bringing in Thibs to coach this team in the first place was a statement that said, "We're going to try to be competitive now."
Rose et al were not inclined to invest years of effort in drafting and developing a team that could one day become a championship contender. Instead, they chose to quickly shed their laughingstock status, become quasi-respectable, and then shoot for the superstars in the free agent market or trade for one after engineering the accumulation of a boatload of draft picks. And that's how Thibs made perfect sense to Rose et al. Thibs can take a marginally talented team and squeeze good performances out of them in short order. But that kind of team won't compete for championships because they don't have the talent base of the elite teams. Free agents aren't salivating to play for the Knicks. A year or two of respectable ball will not make the elite players of the NBA force their way to MSG. And once you're playing halfway decent ball, your record is too good to pick at the top of the draft. So you're stuck in mediocre-to-lousy territory.
Thibs was the wrong coach for this team because a win-now plan was always a doomed plan. The lack of commitment to a comprehensive rebuild to become a team whose players match the modern NBA game is dooming the Knicks to bottom-half purgatory. That's not on Thibs. That's just poor vision and poor planning by the front office.