The New York Knicks' offseason coaching change was polarizing. The team went the furthest it had in 25 seasons by losing in the Eastern Conference Finals to the Indiana Pacers. It was progress for the organization, but it was seemingly attained through the use of methods that the team's braintrust wasn't comfortable betting on going forward. Team governor James Dolan said Monday on WFAN's The Carton Show that the team needed to "evolve" to a point that was more than former head coach Tom Thibodeau was comfortable with.
Dolan says evolution past tradition wasn't Thibodeau's "thing"
The Knicks' governor has been polarizing among fans but also objectively successful in his role in recent years. Dolan handed the keys to Leon Rose and has overseen the team's best stretch in decades as a result. Fans have praised the often-maligned governor for not getting in the way of Rose's plan, a strategy clearly helping the team progress.
As the Knicks continue to reach new levels of success, though, everyone from fans to the organization has seemingly developed new standards. Some aspects of Thibodeau's coaching style were viewed by fans as necessary evils for an organization that previously had no organization. Once the Knicks reached the Conference Finals, though, the team's braintrust knew they had the talent. Now, it was time to make sure that talent was being deployed exactly how they wanted.
When it came to executing on that progression, Thibodeau was apparently no longer such a great fit for the team. Despite rarely speaking to the media about his teams, Dolan recently did an interview on WFAN about both the Knicks and Rangers. He said that evolution "wasn't really [Thibodeau's] thing," a blunt depiction of events.
"We needed to evolve. Actually beyond the old traditional coaching formulas. And we tried to work that with Tom. It really wasn’t his thing," Dolan told Carton.
Knicks' governor confirms "collaboration" was key in coaching search
Dolan was laudatory of Thibodeau in general, aware that fans could be quick to construe his comments as exclusively negative. The reality of the business is that while human relationships can help predict how some will try shape their future, bottom-line results will determine whether that future has a chance of being realized.
The Knicks' governor didn't rule out Thibodeau playing a key role in some team's future. It won't be the Knicks, which Dolan said may have rightfully taken the former coach by surprise.
"I won’t say you can’t win a title with Tom Thibodeau…if you want to build a long-term, competitive, you need someone who’s much more of a collaborator than Tom was," Dolan said on the radio.
The Knicks' governor made clear that his former locker-room leader is great at coaching, going as far as to say he would hire him if he ran a different team. It seems he simply thought it was time for this team to move on.
"Tom was still a great coach, he should coach again in the NBA. If I had a franchise I was just starting, he would be a goldmine.”
Dolan has hitched his proverbial wagon to Brown for now, who led the team to early success and an NBA Cup trophy before most recently overseeing a midseason nosedive. The version of the team fans see in the playoffs, though, will be the version they remember. Which one will that be?