Leon Rose

New York Knicks Newly Hired Head Coach Tom Thibodeau Could Run The Offense Through RJ Barrett

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New York Knicks, RJ Barrett

The New York Knicks have a new franchise head coach and he’s no stranger to the organization. Tom Thibodeau has signed a five year deal to become the head coach for the New York Knicks after rumors circulated that former Milwaukee Bucks and Brooklyn Nets Head Coach, Jason Kidd became the front runner for the vacant position on July 25th 2020. It is official. Now it may be possible that Tom Thibodeau runs the Knick offense through RJ Barrett. Will the former Maple Mamba’s basketball stock price rise drastically under ahead Coach Tom Thibodeau? Will the new coach run the offense through RJ Barrett?

Tom Thibodeau loves extremely competitive natured guys playing for him. We’ve seen certain players under Coach Thibs tutelage in the past who had that ultra-competitive characteristic, such as the Jimmy Butlers’ of the world along with Derrick Rose, Luol Deng, and even Joakim Noah.

Tom Thibodeau even had his imprint as a Knicks assistant during the Knicks 1999 NBA Championship push which also consisted of silent shooting assassin Allan Houston, scoring assassin Latrell Sprewell, Marcus Camby, Chris Childs, Larry Johnson, Charlie Ward, and Kurt Thomas just to name a few tough competitors. Every name I’ve just mentioned spent time under Tom Thibodeau and none of them backed down or feared anybody. Tom Thibodeau was under the tutelage of former Knick coach Jeff Van Gundy from 1996 until Jeff Van Gundy’s resignation in 2001. However, Thibodeau maintained his assistant position with the Knicks until 2004. The two have been in the trenches and have great respect for one another.

RJ Barrett fits that mold of toughness and grit. The former Duke Blue Devil doesn’t need a motor mentor, he’s already got it within and it shows on the court nightly. RJ Barrett proudly stated he’s built for New York City in an interview with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith before he got drafted. Furthermore, if Tom Thibodeau can run an offense through former Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng and get positive results, what will happen if he decides to do the same with Barrett in his prime in two years from now.

RJ’s basketball growth may even be sooner depending upon Barrett’s pace of improvement going into his second year in the league. No worries there due to RJ’s tenacious work ethic. Tom Thibodeau got the most out of Jimmy Butler as well. Jimmy Butler’s upside was even lower than Barrett’s upon entering the league as a late first round draft pick by the Chicago Bulls in the summer of 2011. RJ Barrett and Mitchell Robinson are the cornerstones that’ll benefit greatly under the Knicks new coach.

Overall, RJ Barrett’s potential compatibility with Tom Thibodeau looks very promising. The former Canadian star may not be the only one on the roster benefitting with Thibs being hired, however, the 20 year old seems like an obvious candidate for swift improvement under the tutelage of Coach Thibodeau who is basically a well prepared NBA coach on a nightly basis. Tom Thibodeau will have the New York Knicks representing the blue-collar city properly and competing on a nightly basis by any means necessary.

New York Knicks: Patrick Ewing calls Tom Thibodeau a ‘great coach’

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New York Knicks, Patrick Ewing

Tom Thibodeau has been linked to the New York Knicks‘ head-coaching position from the moment Leon Rose took over as team president. Rose, the former head of Creative Artists Agency (CAA), has worked with Thibodeau in the past.

Knicks legend Patrick Ewing called Thibodeau a “great coach” in an interview with SiriusXM NBA Radio’s Frank Isola and Sarah Kustok (quote by means of Forbes’ Adam Zagoria).

“I think Tom’s a great coach. I had the opportunity to him being on the staff when he played, and also work with him. He’s been around for a lot of years, he knows the game in and out. He’s gonna do everything that he needs to do in terms of having his team prepared to play every night. I think he’d be a great candidate for that job.”

Thibodeau was an assistant coach with the Knicks from 1996-2003, which included four seasons of coaching Ewing. Thibodeau was previously an assistant for the Minnesota Timberwolves, San Antonio Spurs and Philadelphia 76ers. He joined the Houston Rockets as an assistant for the 2003-04 NBA season and was present through 2007.

Thibodeau was hired by the Boston Celtics as an assistant in 2007, where he’d reside for three seasons before becoming head coach of the Chicago Bulls. He spent five seasons in Chicago, winning Coach of the Year honors in 2011. Thibodeau was fired after the 2014-15 season and named the Timberwolves head coach in 2016.

The former Knicks assistant spent two and a half seasons in Minnesota, making the playoffs in his second season. Prior to his 2019 termination, Thibodeau was also Minnesota’s president of basketball operations.

The Knicks fired head coach David Fizdale in December 2019, and named assistant Mike Miller as interim head coach. President Steve Mills was axed in February and replaced by Rose. New York has hired Brock Aller as a chief strategist, Walt Perrin as assistant general manager and William Wesley as executive vice president/senior basketball advisor among other front-office hires under Rose.

The Knicks are reportedly considering 11 people to be their head coach for the 2020-21 season.

New York Knicks: Leon Rose lauds team’s young core

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New York Knicks, RJ Barrett

New York Knicks president Leon Rose was interviewed by MSG Networks’ Mike Breen Wednesday night on the “MSG 150 At Home.” The interview marked the first time Rose spoke publicly/virtually since joining the organization in February.

Among the many topics discussed were the team’s roster, which includes several young players and/or lottery selections. Rose said RJ Barrett, the Knicks’ 2019 first-round pick, and Mitchell Robinson, the Knicks’ 2018 second-round pick, are “two young core pieces.”

Barrett averaged 14.3 points, five rebounds and 2.6 assists per game while shooting 40.2 percent from the field and 32.0 percent from beyond the arc this season. Robinson averaged 9.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and two blocks per game while shooting an NBA-best 74.2 percent from the field.

Rose expressed excitement about some of the team’s other young players.

“I look forward to working with Kevin [Knox]. I think he’s just starting to scratch the surface,” Rose said. “Frank Ntilikina, given the right circumstances, I think can really prosper. And Dennis Smith, that’s a special talent right there.”

Knox, the Knicks’ 2018 first-round pick, averaged 6.4 points and 2.8 rebounds per game while shooting 35.9 percent from the field and 32.7 percent from beyond the arc this season.

Ntilikina, the Knicks’ 2017 first-round pick, averaged 6.3 points and three assists per game while shooting 39.3 percent from the field and 32.1 percent from beyond the arc this season.

Smith, acquired as part of the Knicks’ return in last season’s trade that sent Kristaps Porzingis to the Dallas Mavericks, averaged 5.5 points and 2.9 assists per game while shooting 34.1 percent from the field and 29.6 percent from beyond the arc this season.

Rose also referred to Julius Randle, who just finished the first season of a three-year, $63 million deal, as one of “some solid veterans” likely returning for the 2020-21 NBA season. Randle averaged 19.5 points and 9.7 rebounds per game while shooting 46.0 percent from the field and 27.7 percent from beyond the arc.

New York Knicks: Leon Rose praises Mike Miller, talks head-coaching search

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New York Knicks, Leon Rose

New York Knicks president Leon Rose was interviewed by MSG Networks‘ Mike Breen Wednesday night on the “MSG 150 At Home.” The interview marked the first time Rose spoke publicly/virtually since joining the organization in February.

Among the many topics discussed were the team’s head-coaching situation. Rose praised Mike Miller, who took over as interim head coach after David Fizdale was fired in December 2019, for his efforts in leading the Knicks this season while noting how he hopes to have a head coach in place by the end of July.

“What I witnessed before I was here and what I saw being around Mike Miller – first class, did a great job in a very difficult situation, and we’re so appreciative of that. Mike is the first person that we talked to,” said Rose, who hasn’t had an introductory press conference yet.. “We’re setting it up in two phases. We’re having shorter meetings, kind of break the ice, with the various candidates, and then we’re going to have full interviews with the candidates, and Mike, obviously, is one of those candidates. We’re anticipating that to go to mid-to-late July, and hopefully by the end of July make a decision, whether it’s to keep Mike or to go in a different direction.

“But it’s really exciting. There’s a lot of really great candidates, and I’m not going to get into who the candidates are, but it’s exciting. We’re looking at a lot of different people with a lot of different mindsets, philosophies, and for me personally, this is educational, and I need to make sure that we go through this process and we dot every ‘I’ and cross every ‘T’ in order to make the right decision.”

Rose said he wants the team’s head coach to be a “leader” who will be “collaborative.”

“We want to find the right leader that can develop our young players, as well as hold everyone accountable and take us from development to becoming a perennial winner. We also want somebody that we think will be collaborative with the front office and someone that, when you’re in that huddle and you’re looking in that coach’s eyes, every player that’s looking at him knows that that person is driving the ship and going to get the job done.”

Rose and the Knicks have made a handful of front-office moves since the NBA season was suspended. They retained general manager Scott Perry, while hiring Walt Perrin as assistant general manager for college scouting, Brock Aller as vice president of basketball and strategic planning and William Wesley as executive vice president/senior basketball advisor, among others.

Knicks interviewing Jason Kidd, making him 11th reported head-coaching candidate

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New York Knicks, Jason Kidd

The New York Knicks have received permission from the Los Angeles Lakers to interview Jason Kidd for their head-coaching vacancy per Marc Stein of the New York Times.

Kidd is currently in his first season as an assistant with the Lakers on head coach Frank Vogel’s coaching staff.

Steve Popper of Newsday says that Kidd would have “interest” in coaching the Knicks. Popper also says that some teams see the former point guard as a “link” to Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, a free agent after the 2020-21 NBA season.

Kidd rounded out his NBA career with the Knicks (the 2012-13 NBA season) and is a 2018 inductee into the Naismith Hall of Fame. Outside of the Knicks, he played for the New Jersey Nets, Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks (twice).

Kidd was named the head coach of the Brooklyn Nets in 2013 and had a reported power struggle with management after the 2013-14 season, leading Kidd to be traded to the Bucks. He coached the Bucks for three and a half seasons. Kidd was fired during the 2017-18 season and didn’t coach in the NBA the ensuing season.

Kidd is the 11th reported candidate for the Knicks’ head-coaching position. The others are interim head coach Mike Miller, former Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Tom Thibodeau, former Brooklyn Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson, former Knicks head coach Mike Woodson, Philadelphia 76ers assistant Ime Udoka, Orlando Magic assistant Pat Delany, Chicago Bulls assistant Chris Fleming, San Antonio Spurs assistant Will Hardy, Dallas Mavericks assistant Jamahl Mosley and Golden State Warriors assistant Mike Brown.

The Knicks fired head coach David Fizdale in December 2019 and promoted Mike Miller. President Steve Mills was fired in February and replaced by former agent Leon Rose.

Thibodeau, a former CAA client under Rose, has been considered the favorite for the job. The former Timberwolves and Chicago Bulls head coach was an assistant for the Knicks from 1996-2003. According to SNY‘s Ian Begley, Atkinson has “legitimate internal support within the organization” to get the job.

Knicks expected to interview 76ers assistant Ime Udoka

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New York Knicks, Ime Udoka

Add a new name to the New York Knicks‘ head coaching search: Ime Udoka.

According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, the Knicks plan to interview Udoka to be their new head coach. Udoka is currently an assistant coach under Brett Brown with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Prior to the 2019-20 season, Udoka spent eight seasons as an assistant coach under Gregg Popovich with the San Antonio Spurs.

Udoka is the fifth coach the Knicks have expressed interest in. They’re expected to interview interim Mike Miller, former Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Tom Thibodeau, former Brooklyn Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson and Mike Woodson, who was head coach of the Knicks from 2012-14.

Udoka played eight seasons in the NBA. He spent those seasons with the Knicks, Spurs, Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento Kings and Portland Trail Blazers. Udoka appeared in eight games for the Knicks in the 2005-06 season.

The New York Knicks aren’t the only ones in on Udoka:

Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times reported last week that Udoka is the “frontrunner” to take over for Jim Boylen as head coach of the Chicago Bulls.

The Knicks fired head coach David Fizdale and lead assistant Keith Smart 22 games into the regular season. Miller was promoted to interim head coach, and the Knicks went 17-27 under his command.

They finished the truncated 2019-20 season 21-45. Prior to their season’s conclusion, the Knicks fired president Steve Mills. He was replaced with former agent Leon Rose, who retained general manager Scott Perry. The Knicks have since hired Walt Perrin, formerly of the Utah Jazz, as their assistant general manager.

Hiring a head coach is New York’s first order of business this offseason. Simultaneously, they have three selections in the 2020 NBA Draft: their own first and second-round pick and the Los Angeles Clippers’ first-round pick, acquired in a midseason trade that sent forward Marcus Morris to the West Coast. The Knicks are also projected to have upwards of $30 million in cap space.

New York Knicks receive praise for new front office additions

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New York Knicks, Leon Rose

The New York Knicks have assembled a new front office that they hope will reignite the franchise. New team president Leon Rose has handpicked some new faces from different organizations to become prominent members of his team. After his decision to retain Scott Perry as GM, he brought in a new assistant general managers.

Walt Perrin

Leon Rose brought in Utah Jazz VP of player personnel Walt Perrin to become an assistant GM. Perrin has been the single most important person in the Jazz’s player scouting. He’s been known to attend international and college games for prospects of all levels and was instrumental in the Jazz selecting both Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert. Here’s what some people around the league had to say about Perrin:

Perrin will take over the majority of the amateur scouting responsibilities. The Knicks tabbed another new executive to handle pro player personnel.

Frank Zanin

Zanin comes from the Oklahoma City Thunder’s organization and will serve as an assistant to the gm, primarily assigned to pro player personnel. He’s been a key part in shaping the Thunder’s current roster and served in the Nets front office as an assistant gm in 2016. Prior to being the Nets, Zanin worked with the Sixers for nine years.

Frank Zanin had a relationship with the late great Kobe Bryant when the two competed against each other in high school in Philadelphia. Kobe spoke highly of Zanin back in 2016 when he was still with the Nets.

Brock Aller

The third new hire for the Knicks is salary cap expert Brock Aller from the Cleveland Cavaliers. Multiple reports explained that the Cavs worked to not lose Aller, and it took him a few weeks to make his decision to come and join the Knicks.

Described as a “Diabolocial genius from a cap standpoint“, Aller will be an integral part of the Knicks roster decision and contracts going forward. His official title will be Vice President of Basketball and Strategic Planning. David Griffin, the former Cavs, and current Pelicans general manager said of Aller, “Brock can rank the order the value of every piece of paper in the NBA…”

The New York Knicks have hired three executives from different backgrounds, who all use their expertise in different areas. On paper, the plan sounds good. Three respected executives with no prior ties to the Knicks all coming together to build a new team strategy from scratch. Hopefully, the positive results will come in the near future.

 

New York Knicks: Why Leon Rose’s early front office moves are encouraging

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New York Knicks, Leon Rose

Over the past couple of weeks, new New York Knicks president Leon Rose has been wasting no time putting together his front office. Rose has filled multiple key positions with well-respected executives who come from successful organizations. It’s obviously far too early to tell whether or not these signings will end up working out for the Knicks, but the early reactions across the league have been met with strong praise.

When it comes to the front office, there is no salary cap that teams have to abide by like there is with the players. That means teams can go after the best guys and give them as much money as they want, which is something that particularly works in favor of big market teams like the New York Knicks who have more money to spend. Rose seems to have taken this into account as he has been able to pry away multiple people from great situations and into a high-risk rebuilding project with New York, although the connections he’s made over his years of being an agent certainly helped as well.

Rose started off by making the decision to retain current general manager Scott Perry for at least one more year. While that received mixed reviews from fans, I am among those who are okay with this move. Perry is a good basketball mind and talent evaluator who deserves a chance to prove himself without former president Steve Mills, who I believe was the real problem, over his head. He might prove me wrong, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him do better with Mills out of the picture.

Rose then brought in a capologist from the Cleveland Cavaliers in Brock Aller. This is a very interesting hire, as Aller has been praised by Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert for his knowledge about the salary cap and his creativity in trades in relation to the cap. This knowledge and creativity will be very useful to Rose and the New York Knicks, as the NBA will probably see a shortage in cap space and flexibility due to the coronavirus shutdown. It’s good for Rose to have a guy like Aller by his side to help navigate him through something like that, especially during your first offseason as president.

A few weeks later, Rose made two strong assistant general manager hires in Walt Perrin, who was most recently the vice president of player personnel for the Utah Jazz, and Frank Zanin, who was a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s front office and a former assistant GM for the Brooklyn Nets. Perrin will control the college scouting aspect, while Zanin will handle the pro personnel scouting aspect. Both are very well-respected around the league and will add much-needed expertise to the Knicks front office.

Perrin has had a great track record with the Jazz that spans over the course of almost twenty years, playing instrumental roles in the selections of stars such as Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, Gordon Hayward, Paul Millsap, and Deron Williams. He’s also known as being a “road warrior,” meaning he is always out traveling and searching for talent. This pandemic has prevented him from being able to do that, but it hasn’t stopped Perrin from working and coming up with new ways to scout players. This dedication and work ethic is a refreshing change of pace after having to deal with Phil Jackson sleeping at draft workouts just a few years ago.

Zanin also has an accomplished track record as a scout and front office member. He even has a GM endorsement from the late Kobe Bryant, who Zanin grew up and played high school basketball with, which certainly isn’t a bad thing to have under your belt.

It remains to be seen what other front office moves Rose will make in the coming weeks and what head coach he will ultimately end up going with for next season and beyond. However, his early hires are a good start. They bring a certain level of knowledge and experience in the different areas of building a successful franchise to a team that hasn’t been one in nearly two decades. This front office team will be very important for Rose to have going forward as he continues to learn the ropes and get adjusted to his new position. Hopefully they can be the group that finally leads the Knicks back to relevance.

New York Knicks hire Walt Perrin to be assistant general manager

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New York Knicks, Leon Rose

The New York Knicks are making some front-office changes under new president Leon Rose. The team is expected to hire Utah Jazz Vice President of Player Personnel Walt Perrin as their assistant general manager, per Shams Charania.

Knicks’ new president Leon Rose has added a new name to his revamped staff. Walt Perrin is a longtime NBA executive who is heavily involved in the scouting process. Having worked with the Utah Jazz for 19 years, Perrin was constantly involved in the front lines of their scouting department and attended both NCAA and international games.

The Knicks are in the midst of some exciting changes to their organization. The new role with the Knicks will be a promotion for Perrin. While it remains to be seen what exactly his role is, it is expected that Perrin will be heavily involved with the team’s scouting and youth development.

Pros & cons of retaining Scott Perry as New York Knicks GM

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New York Knicks

Leon Rose has his first GM as team president of the New York Knicks. Rose is retaining Scott Perry on a one-year deal for the 2020-21 season, per SNYs Ian Begley.

We spoke a few days ago about how it might not be the best idea to have Perry still around.  Why would you have someone making decisions for the team if there’s no plan of having that person there in the future.  There was speculation that Perry might not return with the Knicks since the Rose hire but that’s no more.

Bringing Perry back as the Knicks GM, on a one-year deal, has its pros and cons.

Pros

It’s a low risk, high reward.  A one-year deal is much better than a long-term deal.  A one-year ‘prove it’ deal may be just what Perry needs to succeed.

Perry will now be able to do more in the GM role now that Steve Mills is no longer with the team.  He has got the team future building blocks in RJ Barrett and Mitchell Robinson.  You can even put Ignas Brazdeikis in that category since he’s been playing very well in Westchester.  It’s player development that has been the issue.

Perry’s tenure with the Knicks has a bad spin on it, thus far, because of Mills.  Mills was the problem, not Perry.  Perry will be lumped in with the negativity of the Mills’ time with the Knicks.

Cons

If Knicks were truly ‘cleaning house’, Perry should’ve went too.  Sometimes that’s the best solution.  Rose shouldn’t have brought back any person in the front office that was there during the Mills era.  Let Rose pick his GM and start from there.  This could also mean that big changes aren’t coming as quickly as fans think.

However you look at it, Rose made a smart decision on bringing back Perry for one-year.  There also could’ve been no one else he trusted with the GM role at this point.  Perry will have one season to show that he’s capable of helping turn around the New York Knicks.