The New York Knicks are actively looking for a new head coach after recently fired Tom Thibodeau.
Coach Thibodeau helped the team end the final drought of the 25-year conference, but it appears he lost the player’s trust in the locker room.
So one player claimed that if the Knicks didn’t fire a Tib, he didn’t play for the team. Either way, the chapter is over as the organization is searching for new voices in its locker rooms.
Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd is a commonly debated candidate for the job. However, NBA analyst Bill Simmons is surprised that one coach is not getting the same attention.
The 2024-25 NBA season was an incredible campaign of head coaching change. The Denver Nuggets have plundered Michael Malone before the playoffs and the Memphis Grizzlies say goodbye to Taylor Jenkins.
NBA fans barely saw those moves coming. However, this means that quality coaches like Jenkins and Malone are available in the market.
Malone is linked to the Knicks, but Simmons is “surprising” that the organization doesn’t see Jenkins as a potential replacement for Thibodeau.
“The only name that wasn’t actually mentioned, and I was surprised. Taylor Jenkins is a good coach. I said a lot of Memphis games have ‘real good coaches,'” Simmons said on the podcast.
“He’s just sitting there. Everyone was talking about Mike Malone, and that feels like you’re running another version of Tib.
“Taylor Jenkins thought he could make a pretty fair case of him doing really hard work over the last few years,” Simmons added.
For context, Jenkins coached the Grizzlies for six seasons, scoring a 250-214 record. That means he had a 53.9% win rate during his tenure.
Knicks owner James Dolan has reportedly led the Tibbs’ firing. Clearly it’s fair to assume he will play a major role in hiring a Thibs alternative.
However, Simmons co-host Zack Lowe worries that Dolan doesn’t even know who Jenkins is.
“He’s a very good coach. Memphis to New York as a market is just as big a jump as you can,” Lowe said.
“Does James Dolan know who Taylor Jenkins is? I’m not even funny, do you know that he’s a coach?” NBA expert asked.
Hiring Jenkins may not be a popular move, but it will be interesting to see what he can do with the Knicks’ extremely talented roster.