Revealing the real reason why the Knicks changed their coach! ESPN ranked five new coach candidates: Malone + Lakers champion coach online

On June 4, the Knicks, who missed the finals, fired coach Thibodeau. "Our team is all about winning the championship for fans," the Knicks said in a statement responding to the firing of Thibodeau. Sources revealed that this is exactly why the Knicks made changes, even though Thibodeau led the Knicks to their best record of the century.

Tibodd led the Knicks to the playoffs four times in the past five seasons. The Knicks have won 50+ games in a single season in the regular season for the first time since the 1990s. This season, he helped the Knicks advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 25 years. In July last year, Thibodeau and the Knicks renewed their contract for 3 years and $30 million.

But judging from the course of this season, the Knicks believe that a new voice is needed to take the team to a new level. Last summer, the Knicks brought in Bridges and Towns to create a super luxury lineup. However, the Knicks' defense has always been a problem, especially in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Pacers, who lost more than 125 points and more than 130 points in 2 times.

ESPN analyzed the reasons why the Knicks fired Thibodeau. Famous reporter Tim Bontemps said that in the past, some teams had successfully made a choice to change coaches under similar circumstances. In 2014, Steve Cole replaced Mark Jackson to coach the Warriors and started the Warriors dynasty. In 2018, Nick Nass replaced Casey to coach the Raptors and won the championship in the 2018-19 season. Of course, there are also cases of failure. Adrian Griffin failed to replace Budenholzer to coach the Bucks, and Hoyberg failed to replace Thibodeau to coach the Bulls. The key question now is who will succeed Thibodeau to strive for the championship. ESPN lists five candidates, including three champion coaches Mike Malone, Budenholzer and Vogel, and NCAA coaches Jay Wright and Dan Hurley have also become candidates. The most obvious candidate is Malone, who led the Nuggets to the 2022-23 championship but was suddenly fired with three games left in April. Over the past eight seasons, Malone's Nuggets coached by Malone led the Western Conference with a record of 401 wins, 28 more games than the second-ranked Los Angeles Clippers, highlighting his stability as a coach. However, Malone's personality is similar to Thibodeau, which may be his disadvantage.

Burdenholzer and Vogel both won the championship this century, but they were dismissed from the Sun one after another. However, the Suns themselves are a mess, and it is difficult for anyone to coach to achieve good results. These two people are still able to train and defend.

Knicks may expand the range of candidates. Villanova head coach Jay Wright will be a candidate, who once led Brunson, Bridges and Hart to win the NCAA title. He has now transformed into a college basketball TV analyst for CBS and TNT Sports. Will the Knicks invite him to coach? In addition, the famous UConn coach Dan Hurley may also be a candidate, leading the University of Connecticut to win two NCAA titles. But the Lakers invited him to coach last year, who completed a contract renewal with the University of Connecticut.

ESPN believes that no matter who becomes the new Knicks coach, the main task is to improve defense. In any case, adjustments on the defensive end are much more difficult than adjustments on the offensive end.