Andy Miller, a long-time NBA agent who represents several coaches on the Dallas Mavericks staff, called out the Knicks for their coaching search process.
During an interview on SiriusXM NBA Radio on Wednesday, Miller said: “I don’t really know where Jason Kidd is in his process with the Knicks, because I don’t really know what the process is with the Knicks…I don’t even know if the Knicks know what their process is."
The franchise fired former coach Tom Thibodeau after he led the team to its first Eastern Conference Finals appearance in 25 years. The Knicks lost in six games to the Indiana Pacers, who ended up forcing a Game 7 before losing in the NBA Finals to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Knicks then attempted to interview several sitting head coaches, including Kidd, Ime Udoka (Houston Rockets), Chris Finch (Minnesota Timberwolves), Billy Donovan (Chicago Bulls) and Quin Snyder (Atlanta Hawks).
They were denied in each case, although Kidd has yet to receive an extension in Dallas and some believe he may still land in New York.
In the meantime, the Knicks have interviewed former head coaches or current assistants like Taylor Jenkins, Mike Brown, Micah Nori and, most recently, James Borrego of the New Orleans Pelicans.
The Knicks will pick in Thursday’s second round of the NBA Draft at No. 50 without a head coach.
Miller said the Knicks’ approach has created “resentment” because it drives up the asking price of current head coaches for an extension.
“Yeah, I think that creates an enormous amount of resentment between general managers,” Miller said. “I mean, there’s a fake brotherhood that goes on there, where they’re all one happy family. They’re all friendly with each other, but they’re all competing with each other.
“And there is an absolute resentment that is created by the way that they’ve handled this process, even in Houston as an example, I’m confident in saying that Ime would have and had deserved the opportunity to get a new contract, and so they were probably going down that path anyway, but when called for permission to interview with New York, [it] gave him greater leverage, and he probably got a better deal than maybe he was the thought that they should provide for him or present to him at that point so I can’t see Houston saying thanks for asking for permission, making it public, New York. There probably was a knee jerk reaction to why someone like Thibodeau is fired without a plan in place. I think it’s more of a reflection of that than anything else.”
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Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter and Basketball Insider for NJ Advance Media. You may follow him on Twitter @AdamZagoriaand check out his Website atZAGSBLOG.com.