Knicks or Cavs under MORE PRESSURE? 🔥 ‘THIS IS THE KNICKS’ YEAR!’ – Tim Bontemps 📈 | First Take

Knicks or Cavs under MORE PRESSURE? 🔥 ‘THIS IS THE KNICKS’ YEAR!’ – Tim Bontemps 📈 | First Take

from the Celtics winning the title but Boston will have a very different team moving forward this offseason the Celtics have already traded away two key pieces from the championship run and Drew Holiday chris Top for Zingis they’ll also be without Jason Tatum who of course tore his Achilles in the playoffs bon starting with you can Jaylen Brown be the number one option on a contending team
it is crazy looking at that list of players there for the Celtics uh Molly because I thought when that injury happened it was the most significant injury in the history of the league you look at the impact it had not just on the Celtics but what these other teams in the East have done the Orlando Magic go trade for Desmond Bane i don’t think they do that if Jason Tatum is healthy and the Celtics are looking like an elite team and now you’ve seen the Celtics start to take this team apart look Jaylen Brown won conference finals MVP and finals MVP last year i don’t know if he’s a number one option on a championship team because there’s only a handful of guys in the league that can do that but the reason he and Jason Tatum are such a great fit together is because they complement each other and the two of them together make up whether it’s a 1A and 1B those two guys together are as good as you can get on the wing they’ve been the core of a team that’s been as good as anybody in the league over the last several years and the Celtics believe they go through this gap year they add some pieces to sort of set up the next great Celtics team going forward but if you’re starting with Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown everybody in the league is looking for wing players that can play both ways the Celtics have two of the go two of those guys on their team two of the best small forwards in the league so I don’t know if he’s a number one option or not but the Celtics are very happy to have both of them and I think they still have a chance to be a championship team in the future with him
no I hear you and I get you with the gap year and but I just have a hard time within the NBA especially in the East with all these injuries uh Keith where are you on this can Jaylen Brown be a number one yeah I think he could be a number one um you know obviously having JT he hasn’t have to be that but he showed it last year in the finals when basically he just took over the finals and and Eastern Conference finals he’s a guy that that you know he plays two he plays both ways so he can be a great he’s a great defender and a great number one he can continue to grow his game by knowing this year that the bulk of the load of scoring will be on him so I guess he get to really show offensively if he could be a number one and he’s already elite defender defensively so that just add to his game
mcmahon uh according to Jason Kidd he’s already been the number one option on a championship team you remember midway through the finals when Jay Kidd tried to throw that little stink bomb in the Celtics locker room declaring that Brown uh was the guy on that team didn’t quite work but look man basically when you’re saying can you be the number one guy on a championship team you’re saying you know can you be an MVP candidate are you one of the five or so best players in the NBA i don’t think he’s at that level but if you want to say 1A option two whatever you know Jaylen Brown can be part of a championship duo has been part of a championship duo but I don’t think he’s one of the top five players in the league no
all right guys let’s get to the Knicks because this is a little bit of a disaster right now so the Eastern Conference is going to look different next year after several big stars obviously suffered Achilles which is an issue in itself in the league that Adam Silver did discuss including Tyrese Hallebertton at the worst time game seven Jason Tatum and of course Damen Lillard so with all these injuries in the conference are the Knicks or Cavs under more pressure to make the finals next season you want to take it
i’ll take it and to me it’s obvious it’s the Knicks yes the Cavaliers won 64 games yes the Cavaliers lost in the second round of the playoffs but no disrespect to our guy Brian Winhorse they also play in Cleveland right they have a young team they just hired a new coach Kenny Atinson they are moving forward the New York Knicks play here in Manhattan as you as you know Molly they have fired their coach after making their first conference finals in 25 years there’s a guy who sits here a lot who certainly has a lot of faith in the Knicks going forward and this is a veteran team that traded for Carl Anthony Towns that traded for Muel Bridges to believe they could take steps forward they have the season they had last year they lose the way they did to the Pacers where they blow game one of that series at home on the crazy Tyres Hallebertton shot they lose that series they fire their coach which to me when you fire a coach in the conference after making the conference finals there’s only one thing that’s acceptable which is making the NBA finals andor winning a championship and as you just said before no Tyrese Hallebertton no Damen Lillard no Jason Tatum next year the Eastern Conference is totally wide open the Knicks have not won a title in 50 years they are a team that’s not made the NBA final since 1999 they This is their opportunity right now if they go get a couple pieces to add around their guys this summer if they do eventually hire a coach which I suspect they’ll eventually hire a coach
process of elimination
process of elimination they have to eventually get somebody this is the Knicks year they have to take advantage of this opportunity they’re probably never going to have a better chance than they do right now with this group to win next season and if they don’t you have to really start to wonder if they’re going to be able to because the East is completely wide open for him
mcmahon I do agree it’s teed up for the Knicks i Yeah I see what Bon Tips is saying and certainly there’s a different sort of pressure when you’re in New York as Rick Carlile once said the cesspool that is New York media speaking so eloquently about our big apple brethren but come on the 64 win Cavaliers are pretenders right now they have to be labeled as pretenders when you are eliminated in the second round with the ease that they were so there’s definitely some pressure that comes along with that you know they’ve got this core four that and credit to them they raised the expectations in Cleveland by rolling to those 64 wins this regular season but there is pressure that comes along with that especially when the playoffs were such a disappointment for Cleveland keith more pressure to make the finals Knicks or Cavs uh uh I I would I would piggy back what all Tim said i’m definitely saying the Knicks right because of the success they had this year you you bring back those core guys you were one game of them going to the finals you bring back that core team and you’re looking at you know to repeat the same success that you had right obviously it’s based off of what coach you bring and I and I and I and I’m not really really on the side of like what’s taking so long i’m just on the side of why so many coaches why are you Why are you It’s It’s supposed to be a collective about three four especially when you already knew you were going to fire tips it’s supposed to be about three coaches and you choose from those the disappointing part is that you’re you’re you’re interview 10 to 12 coaches like that’s not going to get it done right you have to bring in the right guys to be able to lead this team because you have the core guys that you need you don’t really have to go out and do much maybe get some bench players that’s actually going to play this year and after that you put yourself in prom position you look like you’re in pain listening to black talk
no and obviously we’re here in New York i just find it hard to believe that the Knicks would get rid of a guy like Tibs and not have any plan at all whatsoever but that’s what it appears to be when they reached out for a few different guys got denied eoda being one of them obviously and and a bunch of them got extensions after Billy Donovan
did him a lot of favors in that sense
have you ever seen a coaching search more mishandled i don’t know if I’d quite go that far yet because we have to see where it lands to Mary’s point look if the Knicks hire a coach in September and they go on to make the finals then they handle it right right so some of this is the results over the process but to your point the Knicks fire Tom Thibido coming off of the best season they’ve had in 25 years coming off the best three-ear stretch they’ve had in 25 years a guy who is perfectly in sync with Jaylen Brunson their star player jaylen Brunson their star player who was asked after game six of the conference finals when they lost do you think Tom Thibido is the right coach of the team and he was incredulous that the question was even being asked right then two days later Tom Thibido is fired and to your point if you’re at this point and you’re the Knicks and you fire your coach you would think you would know what you want to do in terms of replacing him and here we are several weeks later the Knicks still don’t have a coach we’re not sure exactly when they’re going to have a coach and to your point it seemed like they wanted to get one of these guys that was available maybe they thought they could get one of them and they couldn’t and now we’re kind of sitting here waiting to see what the next shoe to drop is going to be so yeah like I don’t think it you should feel especially great about the process so far now if the result works out later it’s one thing but yeah the Knicks when you fire Tom Thibido with the success he had you say “All right we know what we want to do we’re going to go get it.” Right now it doesn’t seem like they know what they want mcmahon I can’t believe I’m asking this and maybe it’s a New York bias but I is the New York’s head coaching job still a desirable one well you know what coaches really want they want talent and they want money and not necessarily in that order by the way and the Knicks have a lot of both look would Jason Kidd have been interested in discussing the job with the Knicks yeah absolutely but guess what you don’t always just get what you want and the Mavericks why would the Mavericks give him permission to do that and Nico Harrison was asked about it again last night and he’s like “No Jason Kid’s going to be our coach this season.” So if you’re going to run off the most successful coach the franchise has had since Pat Riley you probably ought to have a plan better than hey maybe one of these teams that really likes their coach will just let us poach them
to to your point this is a really desirable job this is a job I think just about any coach would want to have sort of the fascinating situation the Knicks were
I got to pause you on one thing the reason I said that is sometimes people are critical of ownership
yes well no and that’s fair and look you could say ownership you know ownership certainly had an involvement in whether they were going to keep top or not if Joan Stolen wanted top be the coach he’d be the coach right but the thing that’s fascinating about this is this is a great job like Tim said the Knicks pay really well they have a ton of talent the East is wide open the problem is usually every year there’s a guy that’s sitting there say “Oh there’s a championship level coach out there to go get.” that guy isn’t sitting there so the Knicks move on from Tom Thibido they try to get Billy Donovan and Jason Kid these other guys they’re not there now you’re going “All right what are the Knicks going to do?” That’s where we’re sitting now
keith could the head coach be a tipping point for them like how much of a differencemaker is it that they get this right i mean you you you coming from a coach that the players like like like so so you have to get this right it can’t be a guy that’s coming in is just like we’re going to do it my way and that’s the way right because they kind of was with that with Tom Tibido already so they’re looking for a guy that that that can connect with the players that doesn’t have to do much right this is a playerdriven team you just need a guy that just lead these guys in the right direction they have everything that you need to win obviously they showed that getting to the Eastern Conference Finals in the Open East this year they have everything they just need a guy that that’s that’s going to connect with the players and is going to have the players buy into this team
all right we’ll leave it there to be continued we’ll see maybe some more candidates will get in the mix [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Tim MacMahon, Tim Bontemps and Markieff Morris join Molly Qerim on First Take to discuss storylines around the Eastern Conference in the NBA.

0:00 Can Jaylen Brown be a No. 1 option?
2:58 New York Knicks or Cleveland Cavaliers under more pressure?
7:26 Is the Knicks coach position a desirable job?
9:31 Did ownership fire Tom Thibodeau?

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