Cam Johnson REACTS to the Knicks Firing Tom Thibodeau
earlier today uh we were talking about this Um Knicks announced that they were going to be moving on from coach Tibs I was at the game Saturday night Uh this is obviously a pretty shocking NBA thing Uh what was what was your initial thought um it’s kind of it’s kind of crazy to say this but the initial thought now is no really shock you know and I guess he kind of adds to complete that you know every coach of the year from 18 to 23 has kind of found degrees of success and then you know kind of in the midst of it been been let go But you kind of got to look at it from like a team building perspective you know it’s like that team is a really good roster and they’re really close So I guess maybe ownership front office is just looking at it like what can get us over the hump what can get us over the hump and I guess that’s the best solution they had So so to that point the longest tenure coaches in the NBA now Spose number one um 17 years Kurs 11 years Billy Donovan five Tylu five now Dag Nolton OKC five Uh it it’s got to be coaching in the NBA has got to be People used to always say about the NFL but it feels like this is this gig that it is like no matter what you do you are on the hot seat three months in the next year Yeah I mean you have guys in this league getting paid you know upwards of 60 million Um maybe your top four to five guys average out mid 20s 30 Uh and then you have a coach that fits in somewhere in the probably 5 to 10 million range for most maybe a little bit more for the for the premier ones It’s not traditional of sports especially like amateur sports that we’re so used to It’s not you know where the coach is the final authority figure kind of the be all end all especially which we’ve seen in college over you know the history of it Um they’re kind of I think the way these these teams look at it is like they’re interchangeable pieces just like players are interchangeable pieces And sometimes it seems like they treat them as even more interchangeable than maybe players So something’s not going right and we see this all the time in today’s NBA If something’s not going right they’re very very very quick to put that on the coach and switch that coaching staff over And I think it’s it’s tough because you know it’s a copycat league and um some teams have done it with a lot of success You look at Golden State going from Mark Jackson Steve Kerr championships dynasty run Uh you look at um Toronto going from Dwayne Casey to Nick Nurse and immediately coming up with a championship So I think that’s kind of set a a precedent that like this can be a a successful a a formula for winning to getting over the hump Yeah I I was going to say and this is this is not necessarily you know a defense of any of these owners firing coaches but to to the point you just made sometimes just a change of scenery and a change of voice works both ways And I would look at I would I use an example this year earlier in the year know sort of another shock one of these was when Denver fired you know Mike Malone um coming a couple years off of a championship and Michael’s a great coach probably will be a you know head coach somewhere this fall if he wants to be but it was also like the team responded well to that happening you know and that’s the the reality of it’s sort of the reality of of any sort of high pressure um high stakes business that is involves you know people having to you know buy in and do things Sometimes you have to uh you know shake the tree a little bit it feels like to get that optimal buy in and it feels like something that can feel cold in the moment but then after the fact it isn’t it it doesn’t always necessarily age badly that it’s happening Absolutely And I I’m not really a fan of it either You know I I think it’s like um a lot of the times especially recently I feel like it’s been premature It’s been you know like bringing in a new coaching staff is is very hit or miss with your group especially when you’re a team that’s knocking on the door that’s right there that’s right there that just needs a little push over the top It doesn’t always make sense to me why why you go in a completely different direction Like think of all the the how much of their program how much of their identity they’ve built out over the years then how much it’s going to take for them to kind of start that over with a new coach To me I I don’t really see um the upside in it maybe as much as the people who are making decisions do but it you’re right man And it’s the reality of the NBA we’re in
Cam Johnson of the Brooklyn Nets discusses the New York Knicks firing head coach Tom Thibodeau and why he doesn’t see much upside in doing so.
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38 Comments
Itâs weird how winning coaches get the boot so fast
Make a conference finals for the first time in 25 yearsâŚ.. first move after is firing head coach who led them there đđ
is this actually good for coaches? The guy signed extension last year for $30m now if another team hires him he gets another contract on top of the Knicks contract
Oh no the players have to play a lot of minutes oh no we need to load manage them đ¤¨
He was a set the culture coach, similar to a Stan Van Gundy. Those type of coaches have a ceiling because they are often stubborn.
He was supposed to be a defensive coach and they weren't. While the offense did well overall in a weak eastern conference, that hid some of their harsh realities. But changing coach after changing the team so dramatically seems like another big risk to take. He is known to be stubborn, so there may have been conflicting views all season that just came to a head.
It's been said before but it truly is a GM led league. Same in the NFL. Everything going forward will be understood by who is the GM and what their timeline is. Obviously players have a ton of say, but so many decisions stem from managing contracts, draft picks and coaches — all of which come and go.
Rose completely destroyed the team with the Kat trade , Knicks were awesome before that trade and if not for so many injuries they would have won the chip.
With Denver Malone was there for 10 years. It's completely different plus for Denver Calvin booth made horrible aquistions and decision. Agree many are premature but what Denver did makes more sense. What Denver needs is more than one all star player in jokic. No depth ect. Not solely on Malone but is what it is. Other firings like Jenkins, thibs ans others over the years make no sense. Bucks became a disaster. Other teams followed suit.
The knicks overachieved this year. Surely no one thinks they have a championship roster. I don't expect another coach to take them further.
I dont like it!
I miss JJs islands in the league rants.
Thibs is a very good coach but he burns his players and always has
"Change of scenery"??? – They're gonna move the Knicks to New Brunswick, aren't they?
As a Knicks fan who watches EVERY game, it's clear why they fired him. There's a reason why the media has been saying all season that he was on the hot seat. That's why it's clown behavior when people like Perkins and SAS come out complaining about the decision when they were two of the people who said he was on the hot seat.
To Cam's point about changing coaches can mess with a team's identity. All season long, the knock on the Knicks has been their lack of identity. That was a main talking during the ECF.
Who cares if you were at the game Saturday night Tommy? What was the point of that humble brag lol
Heâs not surprised because bridges told him he is getting thibs fired. Leon overpaid for a trash Mikal and Mikal said he isnât resigning if he is coach
NBA players have too much power in football â˝ď¸ managers are seen as the key piece
Knicks wonât win a chip kat and hart isnât good enough
Their options were – (A) Run it back and lose to the Pacers again the same way (B) Trade Hart+ or (C) Fire Thibs. It's always easier to switch coaches than retool a roster. Hart is gone too, imo.
I think people crying about Thibs getting fired are missing the fact that he could of gotten more out of the time and that would be okay move forward but he seems as if he wasnât willing to adjust . The media assumes it was one exit conversation then he was fired . I doubt it played out that way .
Thibs signed a $30 million contract extension at the beginning of the season. Heâs still getting that money even if he never coaches again. So if he doesnât coach another team he was higher paid for the season than Jalen Brunson.
Of course his pay doesnât affect salary cap or the second apron. Dolan has more than enough money.
They fired him as head coach right? Not president of basketball operations?
after defeated by heats at 2023
we could see it coming…
Sorry but i dont believe anyone who says they are shocked thibs was let go. I just dont believe it.
https://youtube.com/shorts/Fjnpmnlf3YE?si=GNidXMwhcnpxPIzl
Thibs did his job a coach changed the culture and is a great regular season coach. He does not have offensive creativity or the creativity in general to maximize this roster
Look what happened to the Bucks
Thibs had to go. His rotations were awful and he ran his starters into the ground. Let's not get trapped in the results oriented analysis of "well they made the conference finals". I do think there are valid points overall in the league that coaches are often the scapegoat, but the Thibs firing is justified imo.
I mean, look at what happened in the conference finals. The Knicks only started winning a few games and having success when Thibs expanded his rotation to include guys that clearly were not ready to play, because they didn't play all year! It makes zero sense and up against a legit 10-man roster like the Pacers (or the Thunder if the Knicks advanced) you really cannot win that type of series playing most of your starters 40+ minutes.
And this is not even mentioning my personal biggest issue with Thibs, is a lack of offensive game flow. They're offensive gameplan 80% of the time is give Brunson the ball and have him dribble for 17 seconds. Like, we were all watching, right? Mikal Bridges, who btw they gave up 5 first round picks for, would play 44 minutes a game to do what, defend and stand in the corner. Really? This dude is a talented scorer and looked LOST on offense. Please go back and look at the footage. Dude was so out of rhythm throughout the game that he was scared to drive to the basket and just took turn-around fadeaways. Additionally Kat always seemed to get going when Brunson would sit….
The Knicks have the roster to win a chip imo. They need a coach that will diversify the minute distribution to keep the players fresh, as well as an offensive gameplan that isn't Brunson dribbling 17 seconds. Oh and btw, defensively? Yeah remember all the complete BREAKDOWNS the Knicks had on defense vs the Pacers? Well, turns out when you make your starters play 40+ minutes, they save all their energy for offense…. That's why I hate the defense of Thibs like "oh well they're still scoring the basketball so they're fine" BASKETBALL IS TWO SIDED. The reasons Brunson and Kat look like a complete cone on defense is because they are exhausted! Same with Mikal and OG. Those two are legit all-NBA defenders who turned into cones vs the pacers because they had zero energy.
Anyway, that's just my fan take on all this. I'm not a Knicks fan but anybody criticizing this specific coach firing is not watching the games imo.
Brunson shot 5 for 20. Thibs gotta go
$194,000,000.00 – with a high payroll like this, it was bound to happen. Simply put, underperforming is unacceptable.
The Knicks blamed Thibs for his failure to take them over the hump. He is a defensive coach with a fan base that loves toughness and defense. So what does the front office do? Gets rid of their defensive identity and bring in the softest defensive players they can find and ask them to fit into the coach's defensive based system! In my opinion, Rick Brunson's presence is also a negative. The Knicks needed defense against Indiana. They played poorly. Could not get any stops when needed and left Indiana too many open shots. They were sloppy in their ball handling and made way too many turnovers specially at crucial times when a basket would have changed the momentum of the game!
Stop normalizing terrible management. Just because multiple rich people do the same idiotic thing and its occasionally not a disaster doesn't mean its logical.
parting ways with thibs at least makes way, way more sense than firing taylor jenkins or mike malone
it's really a clown move….when you fire a coach, you fire an entire team and the new guy has to come in with his team and establish and build relationships which is a difficult thing to do….The Xs and O's of this game is not all that complicated…can you get players to work with one another is key…How many teams has Durant been on?
The media doesnât really care that Thibs got fired. Theyâre just covering it because itâs a better story than the NBA Finals right now.
Star players earn 50M coaches earn 5M way easier to get rid of coach