The New York Knicks are in the market for a new head coach. What should the Knicks base their decision on and who should they consider?
After a premature end to New York Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek’s tenure, the team is searching for a replacement capable of turning around the failing franchise. Many have already been named as potential candidates to coach the Knicks next season.
The team must make a decision based on how they feel about the immediate future of the team.
The Knicks appear to be in for another losing season. Kristaps Porzingis is expected to start the season donning a suit on the bench, and the team that has won just 12 of their last 51 games will likely place a similar squad on the floor.
Knicks management has shown a continuous theme of targeting bigger names over more fitting options in both the player and front office market.
The track record should speak for itself here. Acquisitions such as $72 million flame-out Joakim Noah and “The Zen Master” Phil Jackson both brought immediate excitement and eventual disaster.
The key for the Knicks will be choosing a coach who understands where this team is and what the goals should realistically be.
While the quote, “This is a postseason team,” is used to begin the season more as an unintentional taunt than it is as a promise of a psychic, the Knicks should learn from their mistakes and choose a coach who has realistic expectations for the coming year.
A common mistake is that a team cannot progress if they win a similar number of games as the previous season. Progression comes in all forms, and the right coach would tell you that the development of the team’s young talent is the number one goal of this franchise.
The Knicks could go after the big names. They could please the fans by bringing on a coach like Mark Jackson, who many feel has the discipline to restructure the organization. The Knicks can bring in Jason Kidd, a man who played a significant role in the Knicks’ last postseason run.
The team has a variety of big-name options who would almost certainly be proclaimed the savior of New York basketball from Stephen A. Smith to middle schooler Instagram accounts.
The team could continue to plague their future with choices of immediate gratification, or they can make a change for the better.
I’m not proposing that New York brings in a twenty-five-year-old from Silicon Valley who fits the label of a “numbers guy,” yet someone prepared for the sacrifices of a rebuild is who the Knicks need to seek out. Jeff Hornacek was a gritty, hard-nosed leader who rewarded veterans with minutes that would have been much more justifiable on a winning team.
His replacement must be willing to let young players play through their mistakes from the beginning, as Hornacek eventually did to end this season.
I do not have an individual recommendation for who should hold the title of head coach for the Knicks next season. My mind has already been poisoned. Unrealistic expectations are monetized by the front office and fed to fans for years.
A hopeful Knicks fan may want Mark Jackson to turn the Knicks into the Warriors of the future, or maybe they hope for David Fizdale to turn his connection with free agent-to-be LeBron James into a King-sized return to relevance.
Knicks fans are unable to make the right decision for this team, as they no longer carry the patience necessary to wait for eventual success.
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So with that, I can only hope the New York Knicks will make a decision that may make fans frustrated to begin with, yet delivers an eventual payoff.
I can think of a certain Latvian star who provided a similar experience.