New York Knicks head coaching candidates: Who should replace Tom Thibodeau?

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When the New York Knicks fired Tom Thibodeau Tuesday, it came as another reminder of the harsh reality of life as an NBA head coach: Teams often decide that the head coach who got them there isn’t the one to get them to the end.

The Knicks made that decision after they lost to the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals, their longest playoff run in 25 years. The next Knicks coach, whoever it is, will be expected to help take the team further, especially after the front office went all-in last offseason with trades for Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns.

So who will be the next Knicks head coach? Here is, in alphabetical order, a list of potential options that could make sense, based on which coaches are currently out of a job or could make the jump from the assistant ranks:

Dave Bliss

Bliss is the lead assistant with one of the league’s top organizations, the Oklahoma City Thunder, where he helped devise the team’s stout defense. He is already receiving head-coach consideration. Bliss interviewed for the head coaching vacancy in Phoenix, where he was one of the final five candidates. Bliss also has ties to New York, spending time with the Knicks during the Derek Fisher and Jeff Hornacek tenures as a player-development coach. Bliss went back to OKC in 2019 and has since worked his way up the bench.

James Borrego

The 47-year-old New Orleans Pelicans assistant had a short but relatively successful run as the Hornets head coach. He won 43 games in his last season there, before Charlotte got blown out in a Play-In game. Those 43 wins are still the most the franchise has had in a season since 2016-17. Borrego has been a candidate for the Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers jobs in recent years and seemed to almost land the latter one. But he’s never been in a position quite like the one he would find himself with the Knicks, aside from three years on the bench working for Gregg Popovich in San Antonio.

Johnnie Bryant

Bryant, who was on Thibodeau’s staff from 2020-24, is currently a finalist for the Suns head coaching job along with Jordan Ott. Bryant’s name popping up with the Knicks wouldn’t be a shocker. He left New York before this season began for the Cavaliers, where he reunited with All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell, with whom he grew close when the two were both in Utah. Bryant has the stamp of approval from the current front office. When he first joined the Knicks five years ago, it was executive vice president William Wesley who pushed for Bryant’s hire.

Mike Brown

Brown, who the Sacramento Kings fired shortly into this past season, has won wherever he’s gone. A former Gregg Popovich assistant, Brown began his head-coaching career atop the LeBron James Cavaliers, helping the squad to the NBA Finals in 2007. Once James left for Miami, Brown took the job with the Los Angeles Lakers, where he coached a playoff team then famously got fired only five games into the next season, the one when the Lakers acquired Dwight Howard and Steve Nash but failed to meet massive expectations. Brown has since stopped back in Cleveland, been a sidekick to Steve Kerr during the Golden State Warriors’ dynasty and helped take the Kings to the playoffs for the first time in 16 years.

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Taylor Jenkins

He spent nearly six full seasons on the bench in Memphis before the Grizzlies fired him with nine games to go this season. Jenkins had a successful run there. He made the playoffs three times and would have this year if he made it through all 82 games. He’s still just 40 years old and it wasn’t that long ago that he was seen as one of the NBA’s brightest young coaches. But Jenkins’ time in Memphis ended poorly, even though he got an extension in 2022. The Grizzlies seemed to stagnate this season and there was word that players in the locker room had tuned him out. In some way, Jenkins’ circumstances as a coach who helped a franchise build itself up but not get to the final stage mirrors Thibodeau, but sometimes a new place can make for a fresh face and a reboot.

Jenkins, pictured with Ja Morant, was the winningest coach in Grizzlies’ history with a 250-214 record. (Petre Thomas / Imagn Images)

Darvin Ham

Ham is back in Milwaukee as a top assistant coach after leaving the Bucks for the Lakers, where he coached Los Angeles for two seasons. In Year 1, though, the Lakers won only 43 games, and the team went to the Western Conference finals. In Year 2, the Lakers fell in the first round to the Denver Nuggets, the same group that bested them the season before. Los Angeles moved on from Ham, who returned to Milwaukee under head coach Doc Rivers, where he is close with two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. Ham is known best for a commanding voice in the locker room. His Lakers teams finished in the middle of the pack on both offense and defense during his two seasons there.

Michael Malone

The former Denver Nuggets coach might be the most obvious candidate to replace Thibodeau. He just spent a decade on the sidelines in Denver and won an NBA title there. If the Knicks are looking for someone to take them to the promised land, Malone is the only one with the bona fides already. He’s also a native New Yorker whose father, Brendan, was a former Knicks assistant. But there are obviously drawbacks. Malone was fired just three games before the playoffs a few months ago after he and general manager Calvin Booth ended up in an uncomfortable working relationship that ownership found untenable. Malone and Thibodeau have similar styles: Both believe in running their best players for a lot of minutes, both have had their disagreements with front offices and both are rugged coaches with hard-nosed mentalities. Malone won at least 46 games in his final eight seasons with the Nuggets, but he also had the benefit of coaching the best player in the world, Nikola Jokić, for the large duration of that time and there’s an argument that the Nuggets should have reached more than just one finals with him.

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Micah Nori

Nori has been involved in several coaching searches in recent years while serving as the lead assistant in Minnesota under head coach Chris Finch. He has earned acclaim for his smarts and his mid-game interviews with the Timberwolves, while the franchise has also had two of its most successful seasons during his time there.

Chris Quinn 

Quinn, a former player in the NBA and overseas, has been an assistant with the Miami Heat for more than a decade. Now, he is beginning to pop-up in coaching searches. He interviewed for the Cavaliers’ head-coach opening last summer, but the job eventually went to Kenny Atkinson. Earlier this spring, Quinn met with the Suns.

Sean Sweeney 

The top assistant in Dallas narrowly missed out on the Detroit Pistons job last spring and was one of the final-five candidates in Phoenix this year. He has a history of vibing with star players, including in Milwaukee, where he was very close with Giannis Antetokounmpo. Sweeney, 41, could get a look in New York if the Knicks decide they are willing to hire a first-time head coach.

Jeff Van Gundy 

The LA Clippers assistant, who led the Knicks’ from 1996 to 2001, is back on the bench. After all these years, Van Gundy could command another lead job. But he is also highly connected with the Knicks’ previous coach, Thibodeau. The two are close. Thibodeau would travel to practices at Providence in the 1980s, when Van Gundy was an assistant there, to learn from that staff. Eventually, Thibodeau joined Van Gundy’s team with the Knicks in the 1990s. Like some of these other candidates, going from Thibodeau to Van Gundy would not represent a significant swing.

Jay Wright

The ultimate wild-card candidate. His credentials are unimpeachable. He won two national championships in 22 years at Villanova and was widely seen as one of the best college coaches before he abruptly retired three years ago. Oh, and by the way, have you heard that Wright coached Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart in college? Wright has been persistently rumored as a candidate for the Knicks every time the job opened over the last decade but he hasn’t bitten yet. This time, he could walk into a title-contender stocked with players he already knows and coached. It’s almost a movie. There are some question marks, though. Wright has only coached in college, so he would be inexperienced on the NBA level — although he was an assistant with Team USA for the 2019 FIBA World Cup and the 2021 Olympics.

(Top photo of Michael Malone: Dylan Buell /Getty Images)

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