Why the Knicks Fired Tom Thibodeau

June 13, 2026 LouV Analysis 0

Leon Rose took over a moribund Knick team that was in a 20-year gutter, heading towards a 21-45 finish in 2020 after a 17-65 season the year before — and the first thing he did is hire Tom Thibodeau as the coach.

This began a perfect harmony of a great coach invoking his system and bringing an identity to the team — which for Thibodeau and the Knicks was one of Defense and Intensity — while the GM got that coach players for his system.

Rose Built a Team for Thibodeau’s System

Rose orchestrated a GM team that included William “World Wide Wes” Wesley (Rose’s confidant), Brock Aller (a salary-cap maven), Scott Perry (the holdover GM who had done a good job getting the Knicks well under the cap with short-term contracts and some good players like Julius Randle), Frank Zanin, and Gersson Rosas (a consultant at first who took over the role of GM when Perry left).

Step by step over the next few years that management team built one of the best teams in the NBA, with amazingly smart acquisitions — turning the roster over to reflect Thibodeau’s system.

It wasn’t perfect at first — there were a few players acquired that weren’t Thibs’ cup of tea — like Cam Reddish. But by year 3, the GM team adjusted and started getting only players that appeared to have Thibs’ blessing — like Josh Hart, OG Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa, Mikal Bridges, and Landry Shamet.

NY also drafted Miles McBride early on, reportedly a Thibs recommendation. The one Knick from the previous regime that the Knicks kept was Thibs fav Mitchell Robinson. Jalen Brunson of course was a key early signing, and his defense — and ability to draw fouls — appeared to get better under Thibs. In Thibs’ final year NY traded Julius Randle — who tended to over dribble and have a high-strung temperament on the court — for Karl-Anthony Towns, who improved his defense dramatically under Thibs (Thibs had of course coached him previously in Minnesota).

Thibs Turned Knicks Into Winners with an Identity of Defense

Thibs turned the Knicks around. NY went:

  • 41-31 the first year under Thibs, making the playoffs but losing in the 1st round to Atlanta as they double-teamed Julius Randle.
  • 37-45 in year 2 — a fallback year.
  • 47-35 in year 3 — the Knicks seemed headed to the Finals — as they had won the season series against Boston during the regular season — but lost to Red Hot Miami in the Eastern Conference semis.
  • 50-32 in year 4 — the injury year — another year when they seemed headed to the finals after acquiring OG Anunoby in February and they became the hottest team in the NBA, beating top teams like Golden State, Miami, and Boston easily. But then came the injuries to Mitchell Robinson, Julius Randle, and by the playoffs, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart, and in the final game Jalen Brunson.
  • 51-31 in year 5 — getting upset by the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals — the Knicks with a 14-pt lead with 4 minutes left in game 1, when Indiana (especially Aaron Nesmith) shot LIGHTS OUT from 3 to win the game and turn the series.

And then days later, Thibs was FIRED — just like that.

It devastated so many Knick fans. And devastated Thibs.

Why Fire Thibs?

With all that goodness — why fire Thibs?

It Wasn’t Player Complaints — Despite Main-Stream Narrative

The reason at the time of the firing was assumed to be simply that the players balked at continuing to play for Thibs, because he played the starters too many minutes — tiring them out and risking injury to them.

  • Thibs had developed a reputation even before he came to the Knicks of playing his starters too many minutes, and risking injury. He was famously blamed for Derrick Rose blowing out his ACL in Chicago.
  • Late in the 2024-25 season, Mikal Bridges barked after a game that he couldn’t go on like this — he was referring to the fact that he was playing 42 minutes a night, always guarding the other team’s #1 scorer, fighting through picks and screens all night, then trying to produce 20 ppg on the offensive end, and never missing a game. He and Thibs had a sit down to clear things up. But at the end of the season a rumor came out that one player had said they couldn’t return next year if Thibs was still the coach.
  • It was reported that owner James Dolan sat in on the exit interviews with each player — with the subject of what they thought of Thibs on the menu.
  • Still there were players who supported Thibs.
    • At the end of the season, Jalen Brunson publicly mocked the criticisms that he was playing too many minutes.
    • Karl-Anthony Towns was a strong supporter of Thibs, posting a picture of him and Thibs sitting on a bench together after Thibs was fired.
    • Josh Hart was a huge supporter of Thibs, and after the firing came out and said he owed everything to Thibs.
    • OG Anunoby doesn’t seem to have strong opinions one way or another.
    • Mitchell Robinson might have groused about plays being run for him, but he was only playing 18 min a night and Thibs was a raving fan of his.
    • Miles McBride was reportedly drafted at Thibs’ recommendation — and Thibs made McBride have a strong role on the team. Couldn’t have been him.
    • Landry Shamet also got rotation minutes off the bench. Can’t see him being the one to complain.

Main Reason — Thibs Didn’t Utilize His Array of Assistant Coaches

There seemed to be something missing. Why would a team led to the Eastern Conference Finals dismiss the coach that got them there simply because some of the players were whining? The answer trickled out over the next year. The other main reason was that:

  • The Knicks have assembled a great team of Assistant coaches but Thibs was a “my way or the highway” coach, who underutilized their advice. And the NBA has become so sophisticated in its offensive and defensive strategies and player development formulas — the teams winning titles come at you with a team of coaches.

Here is the evidence, assembled over the last year:

1. Indiana Got More Out of Its Assistant Coaches than NY Did in 2025

The first was a report that Oklahoma City coaches feared playing Indiana more than the Knicks because their offensive plays were more varied and unpredictable.

At around the same time, this tweet by Indiana coach Rick Carlisle came across Twitter — where he talks about one of their offensive plays, and says “I don’t know which of my coaches was the one that drew that one up; but the great thing about today’s game is that the pace and movement has made it an even more beautiful game than it’s been over the last several decades.”

2. Thibs Has a History of Being Bull Headed

Thibs was fired in Chicago under the same circumstances — he turned around a moribund Bulls team and made them a playoff team during an amazing 5-year run — then was fired. The owner of the  Bulls, Jerry Reinsdorf, published a highly critical public statement that said Thibs was fired for, essentially, not listening to anyone.

It stated, in part:

“The Chicago Bulls have a history of achieving great success on and off the court. These accomplishments have been possible because of an organizational culture where input from all parts of the organization has been welcomed and valued, there has been a willingness to participate in a free flow of information, and there have been clear and consistent goals. While the head of each department of the organization must be free to make final decisions regarding his department, there must be free and open interdepartmental discussion and consideration of everyone’s ideas and opinions. These internal discussions must not be considered an invasion of turf, and must remain private. Teams that consistently perform at the highest levels are able to come together and be unified across the organization-staff, players, coaches, management and ownership. When everyone is on the same page, trust develops and teams can grow and succeed together. Unfortunately, there has been a departure from this culture.”

Chicago was Thibs’ first head coaching job. The same thing happened in his second head-coaching job in Minnesota — he took a moribund Timberwolves team and turned them around into a playoff team — a magical 3-year run. And then was fired. There was a report that summer before he was fired that he threw a temper tantrum in the Timberwolves headquarters — throwing things.

Ironically, Thibs of course was a tremendous Defensive Assistant Coach before he became a head coach — starting off in the Knicks organization behind Jeff Van Gundy, and a key contributor the the Knicks 1999 Finals appearance, and then being the secret sauce behind Doc Rivers for the 2008 Celtics title team.

3. Dolan: Thibs was a “Lone Wolf”

In January, 2026 — midway through the 2025-2026 — Knick owner James Dolan went on the Craig Carton show and said why.

“The team is really built on the shoulders of Tom Thibodeau. He built that core (that enabled us) to go as far as we did last year. You really have to take your hat off to Tom,” starts Dolan. “But we needed to evolve beyond the old traditional coaching formulas. We tried to work that with Tom but it wasn’t really his thing.”

Dolan elucidated: “It was much more about style of leadership — collaboration vs “lone wolf” type of thing — because of the way — particularly basketball but hockey too — the way the sports are evolving, how much more complicated it is — we’re very, very big on development on both clubs. It’s not like the old days, like the old Yankees where you get Reggie Jackson and this guy and this guy and build a team. It’s almost impossible to do that in the NBA. You Have to home grow some of your talent, and that also builds up trade currency etc. But it’s a development today and that’s a team of people; there’s literally 20 people who are specifically dedicated to developing the players, to getting their skill level up, to getting the strategy on the court in.”

Dolan continued, “I won’t say you can’t win a title with Tom Thibodeau. It’s just that if you want to build a long-term compete-for-the (title) you need someone who is much more of a collaborator than Tom was. Tom is still a great coach. He should coach again in the NBA. If I had a franchise that I was just starting with, he would be a goldmine. He brought discipline; he brought strategy; he brought us all that way. But we really felt we needed to make a change to go the rest of the way.”

4. Coach Brown Has Spent the Season Crediting His Assistant Coaches

After firing Thibs, the Knicks went on a lengthy, public search for a coach, reportedly asking 5 teams to talk to their head coach — and being denied each time — before hiring Mike Brown, a former Coach of the Year winner who was unemployed after being fired by Sacramento earlier in the year.

Brown — who I call “the orphan child coach” because he was the Knicks’ 6th pick — has spent the season regularly calling out his team of assistant coaches for the Knicks success, and stating he was blessed to be given this team built by Thibodeau.

Like during this post-game interview after a 140-132 NY win over Miami on November 14, 2025:

“I thought all of our guys as players did well,” said Brown, “And my freaking staff was unbelievable — Chris Jent was fabulous, Rick Brunson was fabulous, BOC .. they were all really good and they were on point, helping me with substitutions, mixing in zone, kind of figuring where we needed to go with the ball offensively — and we didn’t just come down and call a play and go through them, we did it naturally through our stuff; we didn’t hunt mismatches, we just did it naturally through our early offensive-line attacks. But those 3 guys they did not a great job but a helluva job helping me coach this game tonite.”

And after Crushing the Hawks by 50 pts to take the 1st round series in the 2026 playoffs, Brown had this to say:

“I give my entire staff — Chris Jent, Brendan O’Connor, Rick Brunson, Darren Erman, Ricky Foy, TJ Saint, Mo Cheeks, Mark Bryant, Chuck Allen, Jordan Brink, Joe,  Peter Patton, Billy Ryan, I could go on and on and on about the guys that carried me and I’m the one sitting up here. Those guys were phenomenal, getting us prepared for the series and they were phenomenal throughout the course of the series. So I take my hat off not only to the players but to my entire coaching staff including the video room and the performance group.”

And then after winning game 2 of the Finals against San Antonio, Brown had this to say:

“I’ve said it before, man, I’ve got great assistants. I’m scared to death one of these teams are going to poach my guys. I’m surprised nobody has come at Chris Jent for a head job yet. The guy’s won Summer League as a coach, and he’s a lead assistant here. I can go down the line talking about my guys. But Jordan (Brink) is fantastic. He’s been doing this (challenges) two years in a row. I rely totally on him. Every once in a while I lose my mind; he don’t get emotional and try to stick it to the refs even though I like all of them. That never works so I try like heck to follow Jordan’s lead; it was his call.”

5. The Knicks Have a Team of Great Assistant Coaches

The Knicks have an amazing crew of assistant coaches — some who will be head coaches the day after tomorrow. They include:

  • Chris Jent (Associate Head Coach): Veteran NBA assistant (previously with the Hornets and others) and former player who serves as the offensive coordinator/shooting specialist; he played briefly for the Knicks in the 1990s and won a title with the Rockets.
  • Brendan O’Connor: Longtime defensive specialist and top assistant who joined from the Clippers; a New Hampshire native with over two decades of NBA experience, including a championship run with the 2004 Pistons.
  • Rick Brunson: Former NBA player (and father of Knicks star Jalen Brunson) who has been with the team since 2022; he provides continuity from the prior staff with a strong player-development and guard-mentorship background.
  • Mark Bryant: Highly regarded big-man coach and former NBA player (Seton Hall alum) who joined in 2024; he specializes in frontcourt development after stops with the Suns and Pistons.
  • Darren Erman: Defensive-minded holdover from the Thibodeau era (since 2020) who stayed on under Brown; he previously had NBA experience with teams like the Warriors.
  • Riccardo Fois: Assistant who followed Mike Brown from the Sacramento Kings; he focuses on player development and analytics.
  • Charles Allen: Player development and chief-of-staff type who also came over from Brown’s Kings staff.
  • TJ Saint: Newer addition with a strong player-development background (formerly with Belmont and G League), and known for expert offensive strategies.
  • Maurice Cheeks (Special Advisor/Assistant): Hall of Fame point guard and longtime coach who brings veteran wisdom and mentorship as a holdover.
  • Jordan Brink (Assistant Coach / Special Situations / Player Development): Former video coordinator and player development specialist (ex-Pistons) who rose from the video room; known for his sharp game-film eye, high challenge success rate, and leading the Knicks’ Summer League team.
  • Kwadzo Ahelegbe (Assistant Coach / Player Development): Former University of Northern Iowa standout and overseas pro who brings guard/developmental expertise; joined the Knicks staff in 2025 after G League coaching experience.
  • Peter Patton (Assistant Coach / Player Development, Shooting Specialist): Veteran shooting coach (ex-Mavericks, Timberwolves) hired in 2025; credited with elevating the Knicks’ perimeter shooting and 3-point efficiency.
  • Mark Tyndale (Assistant Coach / Player Development): Former longtime G League player (10 seasons) and ex-Raptors/Trail Blazers development coach; focuses on skill work and player growth.

6. Thibs Dictated — Didn’t Listen to the Players or the Coaches

After the Knicks won the title, Brunson and Hart’s The Roomate Show posted a video recorded before the playoffs wherein owner James Dolan spoke to the team. He said, “We changed coaches at the end of the last season because we — Leon and I — believed that you — the team — and the rest of the organization — needed to be heard. Needed to work together more; not just led or dictated to — and coach Thibs was a great coach — brilliant, etc — but you needed a coach that would pull you together. That would have you play as a team.”

“And although it’s not been perfect,” Dolan continued, “We believe that together a joint effort would be better for the team. It would give us a shot at winning a championship, rather than relying on one person’s opinion. And that’s the team that we have now. We believed that instead of relying on the coach, that you would discipline each other, that you would talk to each other, that you would figure out how to play together with each other, and that that was stronger than just hearing it from one voice.”

7. Leon Rose Finally Speaks — Mike Brown Listens to “His Staff”

On a Roommates Show after the season, Leon Rose finally spoke:

“It was tough. Thibs is a great coach. Did so much for the organization. We were right on the doorstep. Just felt that, just needed a change in voice, a change in philosophy. It was a tough move. Mike is a guy that really fit what we were looking for. He’s somebody that I’ve known for a long time. I represented LeBron when he coached him in Cleveland. Knew him and kind of followed him through his career. Didn’t know him that well but he always was a guy that was a good guy, that you could talk to, that you really felt good about. That was just your gut. Then you go through the process and you’re looking for certain things. We had built out a criteria of certain things that were very important, we do research, and we brought in, I think it was five candidates and really graded them in the different areas and things like that and made the decision that we made.”

On what stuck out about Mike Brown, Leon Rose said:

“First of all, just his openness and his willingness to share ideas. And share ideas with the front office, his staff and the inclusion of everyone. I think you guys probably saw that. He really was open to things, open to people’s suggestions, open to ideas. I believe that’s what led to some of the changes that were made throughout the season. We started out a certain way, he may have had an idea about how something was gonna work and how he wanted it to work, but he kind of evolved throughout the season, as did our team. I think that all went into the fact that we went into another gear in the playoffs.”

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