New York Knicks: Five coaching candidates for the 2020-21 season

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 27: Head coach Kenny Atkinson speaks to media during Brooklyn Nets Media Day at HSS Training Center on September 27, 2019 in the Brooklyn Borough of New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Mike Lawrie/Getty Images) /

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Kenny Atkinson is a coaching candidate for the New York Knicks (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

Kenny Atkinson

A recent report added Tom Thibodeau’s name to the mix of Brooklyn Nets coaching candidates, along with the Rockets and Knicks. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the old-school style of Thibs ended up in Brooklyn, while the player development coach in Kenny Atkinson found his way to the Knicks?

After losing out on superstar free agents Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving last summer, the Knicks were forced to hear how the Nets used a positive basketball culture, nurtured by Atkinson, to attract stars away from the brighter lights of Madison Square Garden. Several months later, Atkinson was fired by the Nets.

With a roster stocked with young talent, and another lottery pick coming, Atkinson seems like a great fit for the Knicks. He knows the New York market, he has a history with the organization from his time as an assistant between 2008-2012, and he would be met with wide praise if hired as head coach.

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Atkinson is credited for taking a Nets team with no direction, or future draft picks, and building them from a laughingstock in 2016-17, his first season as coach, to a preferred free agent destination after a 42-40 finish last season.

After seven consecutive losing seasons, the Knicks would take those results.

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