In the long history of the New York Knicks, fans have seen a plethora of mistakes made by the various people running the team’s front office. The decisions that have caught the most flak have been trades or free-agent signings.
While the Knicks have made several mistakes from a roster construction point of view, they have also made some pretty terrible head coaching hires. Some coaches were dealt a bad hand, making it difficult to judge how good or bad they were. These four guys stand out from the rest as being some of the worst the team has seen in their 76-year tenure.
Here is our ranking of the four worst coaching hires in Knicks history:
4. Derek Fisher
While part of Derek Fisher’s tenure was met with the Knicks entering their rebuilding phase, he was still given a relatively solid roster when he first joined the team. He had names like Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert, and a somewhat solid Amar’e Stoudemire to start the season.
Despite all of this, the Knicks would start the season off by winning just five of their first 30 games. Shortly after this, the downfall of the Melo-led Knicks would begin. On January 5th, Shumpert and Smith were traded to the Cavaliers for nearly nothing and Stoudemire would be bought out.
A good portion of the lack of success can be put on Phil Jackson, who was the executive at the time. Not only did he make some truly awful moves to try and improve the roster, but he also forced Fisher to run the triangle which was laughable. For Jackson to look at this team and think that the triangle was the best system to run is embarrassing for a coach of his stature.
Regardless, Fisher simply didn’t do anything to impress during his time with New York and would last just a season and a half with the team. During this period, the Knicks and Fisher would go 40-96 before he was replaced by Kurt Rambis 54 games into the 2015-16 season.
3. David Fizdale
Honestly, if the Knicks weren’t a rebuilding team at the time of David Fizdale’s hiring, he’d likely be much higher on the list. In some cases it’s hard to tell how good or bad a coach is when the team around them isn’t constructed well. With Fizdale, it was rather clear from the start that he didn’t have what it took to be a good coach anymore.
Fizdale is a very respected person in NBA circles, however, since his time as an assistant coach for the Miami Heat, and his lone successful season as the head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies, he has been disappointing. While he was one of the best assistants in the league for a while, it’s very clear he was never fit to be a full-time head coach.
During his time with the Knicks, Fizdale racked up a record of 21-83, having the franchise record for the worst winning percentage. While his roster was nowhere near competent, as the Knicks were in the midst of a rebuild, his abilities as a coach were simply awful.
Things got even worse during his second season as the Knicks head coach. New York had made some moves to push its rebuild further along by drafting RJ Barrett third overall. Not only did Fizdale hinder the team’s chances of success, how he used Barrett offensively was a joke and nearly hindered his development.
Fizdale would be fired 22 games into the season and went on to have a brief stint as an assistant coach for the Lakers. Now, he is the assistant general manager for a rebuilding Utah Jazz team. Fans respect Fizdale, but we’re also glad the front office moved on from him sooner rather than later.
2. Larry Brown
Coming off the heels of one of the biggest underdog wins in sports history, and an Eastern Conference Finals appearance in back-to-back years, the Pistons decided to let Larry Brown go in 2005 due to his “antics.” Knowing this, the Knicks decided that it would be a great idea to hire him entering the 2005-06 season.
While the Knicks’ roster at the time clearly wasn’t ready to contend, GM Isiah Thomas for some reason thought they were. Not only did he make a plethora of awful signings and trades, but hired a big-time coach with personal problems. Surely nothing could go wrong, right?
The Knicks were armed with players like Stephon Marbury, Jamal Crawford, Eddy Curry, Quentin Richardson, Jalen Rose, and the list goes on. Not only did they have solid veterans, but the young core this team had was pretty great at the time. Names like Channing Frye, Matt Barnes, Trevor Ariza, Nate Robinson, and David Lee all had less than three years under their belt.
Despite all of the talent this team had on paper, Brown simply couldn’t make it work, winning just 23 games. In addition to the team playing poorly, Brown had several public feuds with his own players. As if things couldn’t get any worse, when hired by the Knicks, Thomas made Brown the highest-paid coach in NBA history.
Even with that in mind, the Knicks decided to fire Brown after the 2005-06 season and would initially refuse to pay him the sum he was owed. However, when Brown went to the league with this, the Knicks decided to pay him part of what he was owed. Yet another genius decision made by Thomas during his time as the Knicks GM.
1. Isiah Thomas
It’s hard to really call this a “Knicks” hiring, considering that Isiah Thomas, the team’s general manager at the time, decided that it would somehow be a smart idea for him to also be the head coach. If you thought he was a bad manager, just wait until you learn about how horrid of a head coach he was.
Thomas decided to hire himself as head coach after his smart decision to hire the aforementioned Larry Brown as the highest-paid coach in league history just to fire him one season in. Brown wasn’t a genius by any means, but he was much better than anything Thomas gave the Knicks.
The two seasons Thomas spent as the team’s head coach were just atrocious, as the team went 56-108 in that period. These rosters were very similar to the one Brown was given until at least Thomas eventually traded most of the young core for little to nothing. For example, Thomas traded Trevor Ariza for Steve Francis despite already having a star point guard, then, after the move didn’t work out, he shipped Francis and Channing Frye off to Portland the next season.
That’s two very good young players gone within two seasons because Thomas was that awful of a manager. Honestly, these Knicks teams had too much talent for how bad they actually ended up being. Obviously, things go much deeper than what is on paper, however, Thomas wasn’t doing the Knicks any favors.
9 Players the New York Knicks gave up on way too soon
The New York Knicks gave up on these nine players way too soon, chasing win-now options and living to regret it in every case.