Who will replace Tom Thibodeau as Knicks head coach? 🤔 Brian Windhorst weighs in 🗣️ | First Take

Who will replace Tom Thibodeau as Knicks head coach? 🤔 Brian Windhorst weighs in 🗣️ | First Take

Good day. Welcome back to First Take. We’ve had some notable head coaches fired in the NBA this season. One being Taylor Jenkins, who was fired by the Memphis Grizzlies with about two weeks left in the season despite a 44 in 29 record. Another big surprise came when the Nuggets fired Michael Malone days before the end of the regular season. The Nuggets were fighting for a top four seed in the West. Were also 15 games over 500. And now the Knicks letting go of Tom Tibido after snapping their longest conference finals drown in franchise history. The Knicks had three 20point comeback wins this postseason after having none from 1970 to 2024. In total, Tom Tibido won 24 playoff games in five seasons with the Knicks. That’s three times as many playoff wins as the previous 12 Knicks head coaches combined, who have won seven from 2006 to 2020. Our coach is here, Detroit Pistons head coach JB Bickerstaff. Great to have you, JB here. Coach, I I want to I want to start with you on this. What do the coaching firings say about the coaching landscape in the NBA today? Uh it’s just I mean it’s not an easy job and I think that’s first and foremost. Uh we’re no longer being on the job judged on the job that we’re asked to do. Like we have to do more. Every year we sit down with our front offices. We lay out a plan of what a successful season looks like. Uh if you ask anybody in the New York Knicks organization, you know, outside looking in, you make it to the Eastern Conference Finals, that’s a successful job that Tibs has done. Uh I can’t speak enough about the respect that he has in coaching circles about the job that he’s able to do. Uh you know, you’re in a dog fight every time you face a tips uh tips team. Uh and I think he went out and did that with the Knicks. But again, we have to do more and we have to overachieve in order to just continue to progress and move forward. Stephen A, let me say this to you. Um, you’re absolutely right. It is a tough job. I think you epitomized that. I mean, when you got let go by Cleveland, you did a hell of a job. Okay. Atinson came and he obviously did a hell of a job. So, nobody’s here to throw any kind of shade on him, but I can say this proudly because I have a vote. you were my coach of the year. I co I voted for you as coach of the year. I thought you did an outstanding job in Detroit and props to you. But it’s haphazard. We understand it and it’s that way because of player empowerment to some degree in terms of the money that’s being paid, the money that’s being doowled out. And even though NBA owners are making money, claiming that they don’t, claiming all the time that they’re struggling on a year-to-year basis, and they don’t really make money until they sell a team, when in fact, one could argue they are making money, so they should stop that nonsense. The level of impatience plays a role. I think one of the other things, doggy, that’s be that should be mentioned, and I think coach will agree with me here, the age of analytics has taken fold as well, where you have a lot of people that are looking at numbers. I can tell you right now on national television, and he’ll probably be mad at me for saying this, but damn it, he ain’t the one that told me. So guess what? He wasn’t a source on this. One of the things that con that that made Daryl my expedite his move out of Houston, they had lost a game doggy and I believe it was a playoff game and he walked up to owner Tilman Fertitta and showed him analytics stats and pointed out he said we really really won. Even though they had lost the game from that moment forward, Fatito was done. He wanted them gone. He was like, he has to go. He just lost it. Okay. You know, I know this from very reliable sources. I’m highlighting those things to point out that the climate has changed. The personnel that has infused the game has changed. What criticism or what critiques once existed has changed. The eye test um its importance has dissipated compared to analytics in some circles. At least that’s the belief. And when you combine that with the fact that so much money is being paid to these players, if you can’t maximize their potential, that’s a really bad sign. But when those same individuals who’s getting paid, whose potential you can’t maximize then speaks against you. You almost feel compelled to flow with them because they’re the guaranteed investment that you can’t wiggle your way out of which leaves you at the behest of them. And all of those things have contributed to elevating the difficulty of coaching and the coaching profession which is something the president of the coach association Rick Carile has spoken out against along with others and I can say this JB and I think you know this there are very few people that has ever existed that’s more protective of coaches than Rick Car. This man I’ve known this man for almost 30 years. This guy Rick Cara. When you talk about a coach needing support and attention being brought to what ails the coaching profession, there is no better advocate for coaches than Rick Caral. Nobody’s better. This man points it out. And I haven’t heard from him yet, but I don’t need to to know what words are going to come out of his mouth when he’s asked to comment about the exodus of Tom Thibido from the New York Knicks franchise. Nobody’s going to be more furious than Rick Car. I already know and I haven’t even spoken to him yet. Mad Dog, do you feel like coaching expectations are unfair now? Yeah, absolutely. Two things. First off, Daryl Mor is the most overrated general manager in the history of professional sport. He’s never been to a final. I mean, enough of Daryl Mor with his data and his nonsense. Number two, I love Atinson and he got a raw deal from the Nets, but let’s be fair, and I’m not just saying this because he’s on Mad Dog Radio tomorrow. This guy did as good went further in the playoffs than he did. He played the Celtics last year who the defending champs and he didn’t have Allen a whole series and Mitchell didn’t play in the last game and gave the Celtics won a game who won a title and played very well in it. Atkinson got not beat, got blown out by Indiana in the same round. Same round. So, the idea that we bring Atinson in, this means we win a championship. Well, Bern JB did the same thing that Atinson did essentially because it’s about the playoffs in basketball. But I’ll tell you, you guys who do this, and I mean you too, JB. God love you. I mean, I I I’m an old school guy in sports. The coach is the boss. When a coach tells you to do something, you do it. And you just I I don’t care what they’re paying you. You have to have a level of authority. And you don’t love the coach, deal with it. And we’ve lost that in sports today. You got to have sort of a 50-50 partnership with these athletes. And if you don’t and it goes away, the athlete then goes to the front office making 50 million a year. I’m not playing for this guy. And then he doesn’t put his name to it. That’s the one of the reason I’ve always given Magic Johnson credit because when Magic went wanted Paul Westhead out of there in LA 30 years ago, 40 years ago, he said so. He said it. He said, “Hey, listen. Put the blame on me. I don’t want him here. I don’t we don’t want to play for him. I’ll be the boss.” They end up winning a championship. Players don’t do that today, which drives you crazy. But you can speak for anything else. God bless you. God bless you. You may have gone a raw deal, but but I like you in Detroit better. I’m happy where you like me. Listen, I’m happy where I am. Uh, you know, there are a lot of talented coaches out there. And from a coach’s perspective, when someone fills the job that you lost, you wish them well and want them to be successful. Like I wish Kenny all the best. I wish that staff all the best and hope they are successful. From us, what we’re trying to figure out is, you know, as a coach, what is my job? What are the expectations? and how do I continue to move those expectations forward? The best organizations in this league are the le are the teams and organizations that are the most consistent when things get bumpy, when things get rocky, the things that they do is they hunker down onto the things that they believe in, the people they believe in, the players they believe in, and those are coaches as well. Like when you bunker down with a coach you believe in, you give yourself that consistency so that you can be consistent in the long term. And that’s why I say this now. I’m obviously biased, but I’m truly blessed to be where I am with Tan Langden, with Tom Gores, because they’re the type of people that when it gets tough, they’ve got my back and they’ve shown that. Well, I will say this to you. Couple of things. I I I I I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Tom Gors. I’ve heard a lot of good things about him. I I’ve heard a lot of good things about him and I had the pleasure of meeting his wife at Madison Square Garden when you guys were there. Um I would tell you that. I would also say to you that Trejan Langden, uh, this kid is underrated. I mean, I mean, he’s doing some special things in Detroit and and I give him a lot of props, okay? And I’m reticent about giving props to to Duke dudes because I got to deal with Billy King all the damn time and and Jay Williams and and now uh JJ Reic and I mean then Grant Hill who I love dearly. I mean, you got to deal with these people. But it’s important to point this out, doggy. You brought up the players and how, you know, it drives you crazy, you know, because they don’t put their name to it and all that stuff that you’re you’re right about that. You should be they should put their name to it. That’s true. But it’s not that you don’t want them to have a voice. You just want them to be accountable because they’re the ones on the basketball court. But ultimately, they’re not the ones that hired the coach and they’re not the ones who in an official capacity fired the coach. That’s management. Which is why when we talk about Leon Rose and to a lesser degree James Dolan, if you want to say that, it is inexcusable what we’re seeing from the New York Knicks because devoid of the responsibility of having to give an explanation to a fan base, you operate with impunity, you don’t get to be held accountable. The only way a a fan base can get at you is to not patronize and support your product. That’s not showing up to the games, that’s not watching you on television. and this is their source of entertainment and a distraction from what ails you in the real world per se. You’re not going to avoid going to the games. You’re not going to avoid watching the games, especially if the team is competitive. They know this. And it’s a damn shame that executives and owners get away without having to stand before the public and say, “This is why I made this decision. This is where I stand. I’m the one. The buck stops with me.” And to see Leon Rose and James Dolan conduct themselves in a different fashion, I’ve called it coward cowardice. And I meant it. And I’m not stuttering. I’m not backing up one inch from those words. And I’d tell them to their face if they were in front of me right now. What they did with their explanation is ridiculous. New York Knick fans deserve to know. What is your rationale behind letting go of Tom Tibido? don’t have to agree to it, but you shouldn’t have to evade us and avoid us before answering that damn question with us looking right at you. Well, maybe they’ll expound upon it now. We’ll leave it there more. Wouldn’t count on it. Kimberly, let’s get to it, girl. Uh, obviously you’re a New York native. Yes. How do you feel about Tibs being fired as head coach of the Knicks? He deserved better. Let’s just call it what it is. I understand played guys too many minutes, but I have been a Knicks fan. It has been Think about how Where are you from? I’m from Brooklyn. Okay. But think about how amazing the the energy in the city has been. Four out of this five years this team made the playoffs. We were a joke. A joke. And for this team to I don’t know, maybe fall back in love with basketball again. And if you had told Knicks fans at the start of the season, you guys going to beat the Celtics defending champs and you would get to game six of the Eastern Conference Finals, we would have signed up for that in a heartbeat. I think the way they played he earned himself another year and you just want to make sure that this is not a team that’s going backwards instead of taking steps forward. I know someone that cosigns. I’m with you. Good job. Nice to have you with us. Thank you, baby. Orange and blue skies no more for Tom Tibido. Just a few days after the Knicks fell to the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Knicks announced they’re moving on from the head coach. Fans, players, and execs throughout the league were stunned by the news as Tibs led the Knicks to their first conference finals appearance in 25 years. Here’s the statement from Knicks President Leon Rose on the decision. Our organization is singularly focused on winning a championship for our fans. This pursuit led us to the difficult decision to inform Tom Tibido that we’ve decided to move in another direction. We cannot thank Tom enough for pouring his heart and soul into each and every day of being the New York Knicks head coach. Ultimately, we made the decision we feel is best for our organization moving forward. Tom will always be part of our Knicks family and we wish him truly nothing but the best in the future. Now bring in our guy, Brian Winhorse. Wendy, top of the morning to you. Wendy, any announcements before I come to you? No, no. I just know that when you’re the lead in, technically you’re kind of below. So, I’m just analyzing who the leadin is here. And as a reporter, I just have to point that out. Well, what do you make of the fact that I’m the lead in, but then I f then he leads into me when I reair. It’s a good followup. I I’ll get back to you. And not only that, not only is it a good followup, but remember it’s not that you could just reair the show, but if stuff happens between three and six and I decide I want to go on live, I can do that, too. Oh, now he’s negotiating that dog. All I know is a negotiation. The first hour was just to lead into me. Now, now we can get for real here. Okay, Wendy, here’s what I need to know from you. What is the latest on the New York Knicks? Well, you know, this is an interesting job. This is one of the more interesting jobs you’re ever going to see because it is a desirable job. They have a very good roster. It is in New York City and most importantly, it’s in the Eastern Conference. And the Eastern Conference right now, the the uh the landscape is a lot more friendly than the Western Conference. And so, yes, it’s a very desirable job. But then again, this is a flawed roster. The reason that they are no longer playing is because the flaws in the roster were exploited by the Indiana Pacers. And while that roster can be changed, it won’t be easy because they’ve spent so many of their assets to put this starting five together. They also just ran a gentleman out of there who was their most successful coach in two decades who had back-to-back 50 win seasons and made the conference finals. the standard that you’re going to have to overachieve on is going to be very difficult and you’re going to do it in the hottest uh media environment that we have in the country. So, it is a very complex job. I do think that there are a number of people that they can look at. There are three different levels where I sit and see right now. One would be the three guys who were successful coaches in the league last year that were surprisingly fired. Mike Brown coming off uh coach of the year not too long ago had the Kings had their best seasons in 20 years. He was fired. He’s definitely a strong candidate. You’ve got Michael Malone who kind of is a little bit like Tom Tibido and his uh unwillingness to go too deep into the bench and his rigidity, but is a championship level coach who instantaneously demands the respect of veterans. So you that’s what you’ve got there in New York. So he’d definitely be considered. Um, and you have Taylor Jenkins who might have ended up coming close to a 50- win team with the Grizzlies and was fired with two weeks left to go in the season who was a again experienced head coach. Then you look at sort of the off the board guys and that’s where you have to look at Jeff Van Gundy. Jeff Van Gundy um has gotten rave reviews for his work with the LA Clippers and the Boston Celtics over the last couple of years. He knows what it takes to to be a head coach in New York. Would be an excellent uh option. I don’t know if he wants the job though, Molly, because uh you know, he’s a guy who uh is very close to Tom Thibido and you know, seesaw the way he was treated and I’m not sure he would want it. And then you would go look at maybe some people who had never been NBA head coaches before. That’s where you think about a Jay Wright or maybe a Royale Ivy as a top assistant. Yeah. A couple things and I listen, Brian is sharp as heck. He knows a lot more about this than me and I understand the Nick job Eastern Conference, New York City, Madison Square Garden. I get that. But you got to work for the owner. And Dolan is a guy that if I was dis making that decision and I had a good job, I’d be very very careful about working for him because the guy who takes a job is going to call all his old coaches including Van Gundy, including Dave Checkets. He’s going to call a lot of people work for Dolan to get the real scoop. And that scoop probably, I don’t know this, but I don’t think it would be that pretty. So that’s number one. And that might put some guys tempered. I don’t think Van Gundy’s ever gonna take it based on what uh Winhurst Brian said regarding the whole scenario with Tibido his best friend. I don’t think he’s going to do that. Plus, don’t forget he walked out on Dolan before the you know a couple year you know 19 2001 he walked out on out right in the middle of the season. So I I don’t think that Van Gundy’s a candidate. And remember that is a very very tough cell to tell us in New York why we fired Tom Tibido who got to the Eastern Conference final and now we’re going to bring in a fired coach from another franchise. So Tibido is not the answer but Mike Brown is. Tibido is not the answer but Taylor Jenkins is. I don’t think Malone’s getting a job. He’s too much like Tibido. Listen, they get somebody. I don’t think Jay Wright’s going to coach in the in college in the NBA. I know people have mentioned Hurley because you know the Knicks are his dreams dream job. I don’t think the Knicks are going there either. Uh so I don’t think those two will happen. I understand I get everything that Brian said and he knows a lot more about this and he’s plugged in than I do than I am. But the Nick fan to have a press conference and say here’s Mike Brown, our new head coach, that’s not going to fly in New York City. And it shouldn’t fly. and I love Mike Brown, but it shouldn’t fly when you just let go of a coach that went backto back 50 win seasons for you for the first time in 25 years, took you to the conference finals for the first time in 25 years. You can’t that’s not good enough that you you can’t justify letting go of a Tom Pibido and bringing in somebody uh you know with with with a comparable resume even though Mike Brown has had some success you know coaching LeBron James and ultimately being I thought he did a hell of a job in Sacramento. I thought they were premature on letting him go and there comeuppance arrived with how they struggled in the aftermath of his departure because I thought that you know you it was just not that good of a situation. But here’s the deal. I’ll give my list of coaches later in terms of in the show when the producers tell me to in terms of you know my list of of who should should be the top five candidates for the job. I think desirable is too strong of a word and you have to compartmentalize it. If you’re talking about being in the media capital of the world, having the bright lights microscopically dra, you know, raining down upon you, then I would say to you that’s different. And the reason I say that is because some coaches want that and they want that sizzle and they want that shine. And there’s an allure of coaching at Madison Square Garden. No doubt about that. But when you look at the team, even though it’s good and it’s going to be a playoff team, they’re limited in the movement that they can exercise in the future. You gave up five first round picks for Mikuel Bridges, including four unprotected. You only have one pick that you can move around, one first round pick over the next six or seven years. You also gave up another first round pick when you acquired Carl Anthony Towns. So you you improved offensively, but you compromised depth, you compromised toughness, and you compromised flexibility. that compromises the allure of the job being considered attractive. And that’s what I think the Knicks are looking at right now. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

On First Take, Detroit Piston’s head coach J. B. Bickerstaff, Stephen A. Smith, Brian Windhorst, Kimberley A. Martin and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo join Molly Qerim to discuss the high expectations for NBA head coaches, the New York Knicks firing their head coach Tom Thibodeau after five seasons and more.

0:00 Recent head coach firings in the NBA
5:55 Are NBA coaches treated unfairly?
11:03 Reacting to NBA hot takes
12:04 The Knicks fire Tom Thibodeau after five seasons
15:15 Potential Knicks head coach candidates

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