There were loads of questions surrounding the future of the Knicks following their demise in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Saturday. Some of those questions involved the third-longest tenured coach in the NBA, Tom Thibodeau, and whether he was the right man for the job. It was assumed by many that after the Knicks not only survived a first-round series against the underdog Detroit Pistons but also upset the defending champion Boston Celtics in the second round, Thibs was safe. After all, was the Eastern Conference Finals not the expectation for this season?
Alas, it was not enough. Three days after the final buzzer sounded on the Knicks’ season, the front office decided to part ways with Tom Thibodeau after five seasons and before his three-year extension kicked in, which will be on James Dolan to swallow (side note: he’s also eating the contract of fired New York Rangers’ coach Peter Laviolette. Yikes!).
Many words have been said about Thibs before and since his firing. Some believed it was long overdue, while some believed it was a harsh overreaction. The general feeling amongst Knicks fans, at least on my feed, is the former.
Screw it, let’s poll the P&T-verse before we keep going.
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Regardless of how much you may have hated the end of his tenure and how much you may be celebrating this move, nobody on the planet can deny the impact he had on the franchise over the five years here.
While Leon Rose, who reportedly made the decision to cut ties with his longtime friend, deserves most of the credit for the roster overhaul that vaulted the Knicks into contention, the foundation began with Thibs. His first game as Knicks coach was on December 23, 2020, against, fittingly, the Indiana Pacers. Here was the squad they rolled out with:
Basketball Reference
Entering that season, the Knicks weren’t even expected to compete for a spot in the new Play-in Tournament. 60% of the starting five, all except Robinson and Barrett, were considered deadline fodder. The team’s bench was full of journeymen vets and young guys. This team had no star, no identity, and no hope. Thibs quite literally entered New York with RJ as the franchise’s biggest hope.
Like he did to start his tenures in Chicago and Minnesota, the tough, veteran coach squeezed everything he could from the underwhelming roster and took that team to home court advantage in the first round of the team’s first playoff appearance in eight years.
A recurring theme of Thibodeau’s tenure was guys coming in and playing the best they have in their entire careers. While it’s hard to specifically tie some of them directly, it’s not a coincidence that when Julius Randle went from trade bait to a three-time all-star, the second he arrived.
That team’s identity was their ferocious defense, a symptom of Thibodeau’s coaching. That team finished third in defensive rating, an incredible improvement with a somewhat similar cast to the ghastly 2019-20 team. Their defense, however, couldn’t save them when their Randle-centric offense didn’t have enough diversity to win a playoff series. Despite the sour ending, Thibodeau won his second Coach of the Year award for this terrific turnaround.
That 2020-21 season was a blessing and a curse. Not only did Randle show out, but the Knicks got breakout performances from expiring veterans Reggie Bullock, Alec Burks, and Nerlens Noel. All three would get a decent raise, with the latter two re-upping on deals that paid them a combined $20 million per season. Those deals wouldn’t age well.
The 2021-22 season is where it all could’ve fallen apart. A misstep by the front office saw the team go all-in for offense, signing Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier. They didn’t fit Thibodeau’s scheme, Randle regressed with the new pedigree, and they didn’t get meaningful jumps from most of their young players. Another trip to the lottery made the prior season feel like a distant memory, something that was exacerbated by the start of the 2022-23 season.
After a depressing blowout loss to Dallas at home, things got tenuous. The acquisition of Jalen Brunson appeared not to have changed much, as the team fell to 10-13. Reports began to surface of the impending demise of Thibodeau, who responded by making the biggest adjustment of his Knicks tenure. He permanently cast off Fournier, Cam Reddish, and his longtime friend, Derrick Rose, in favor of more minutes for second-year guard Quentin Grimes, leaning back into the hard-nosed defensive identity. That identity, which was backed up by guys like Immanuel Quickley and Isaiah Hartenstein, led a memorable turnaround that resulted in a 47-win season.
Two years after a disappointing defeat at the hands of Atlanta, Thibs outcoached JB Bickerstaff, and the Knicks decimated the No. 4 seed Cavaliers, thanks to a solid series by the team’s Big 3 (Randle, Barrett, Brunson) and utter domination by Hartenstein and Robinson on the boards. The first playoff series victory in a decade didn’t lead to much, as Jimmy Butler led the No. 8 seed Heat past the Knicks in the second round, but it was a return to form.
After some miscommunication regarding Cam Reddish, the front office and Thibodeau seemed to cooperate better on personnel. The acquisition of Josh Hart, Donte DiVincenzo, and later, OG Anunoby, led to the first consecutive playoff appearances for the franchise in over a decade. Their first-round series victory in 2024 against the rival 76ers secured consecutive seasons with a playoff series win for the first time in a quarter century. The team had shed the low-effort players of the past and had a group of nine to ten guys of junkyard dogs.
"I mean listen to this... This is what we do. This who we do it for. That's it. 2-0."
Donte DiVincenzo on the atmosphere at MSG following the Knicks' thrilling Game 2 win over the Sixers ️pic.twitter.com/dJKUhffqjv
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) April 23, 2024
But junkyard dogs don’t compete for championships. High-end talent does. Out went Hartenstein, Randle, DiVincenzo, and a bevy of picks. In came Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges. An identity change was in full force. This season didn’t go as planned.
The offense looked stagnant for months. The defense was inconsistent. The team would go back and forth between looking like title contenders and first-round exits. Discontent grew among the fanbase.
And yet, history continued to be made. 51 wins were the most since 2012-13. They won a playoff series for the third consecutive season. After a remarkable upset in the second round, they had made the conference finals for the first time in 25 years.
But, as was the case in the prior seasons, you were left wanting more. Home court advantage and a chance for revenge in the NBA Finals went up in smoke. The season ended with a whimper. Stubbornness with the rotation, confusing decision-making, and a lack of optimization with the roster became apparent. Despite all they had accomplished together, Rose elected to split with Thibodeau.
The Knicks have the sustained success they craved. They’ve won 47, 50, and 51 games over the past three seasons. They’ve won four playoff series. They’ve shed lolKnicks.
What was apparent when Thibodeau was canned was that it’s just not good enough anymore. In the modern NBA, cores can’t last forever. They needed to optimize this team while Brunson is on the best contract in the association. For better or for worse, the front office determined Thibodeau was not the right man for the hardest task yet, elevating this team from very good to elite.
Despite how it ended, Tom Thibodeau’s tenure will be remembered fondly. In five seasons, he picked up 226 victories, fourth in franchise history. The previous five coaches won just 147 games combined. His .565 winning percentage is only behind Jeff Van Gundy and Joe Lapchick, minimum 400 games.
He is one of five Knicks coaches with at least 20 playoff victories. When you contextualize all of this for a franchise with 31 head coaches in 79 seasons, that’s pretty good.
The Knicks were a laughing stock for two decades before him. The only time they had success since the Sprewell’s and Houston’s of the world left was riddled with drama surrounding Carmelo Anthony in the early-2010s. This was the most stable they had been in a long, damn time. We used to have David Fizdale!!!!
In the seven years before Tom Thibodeau got to New York, the Knicks made the playoffs zero times and had a .330 winning percentage.
In Thibodeau's five years with the Knicks, they had a .565 winning percentage, made the playoffs four times and the conference finals once.
— Fred Katz (@FredKatz) June 3, 2025
It wasn’t always pretty. It wasn’t always fun. But for fans younger than 30 years old, Thibodeau is the best coach to have led the orange and blue in their lifetimes. You can be grateful for what he’s done, while also acknowledging when it’s time to move on.
From when he had a mullet as JVG’s assistant in the 90s to his combover to his Beard Era. It’s the job he’s always wanted, and he did a good job.
“This is my dream job…We have the best city in the world. We have the best arena in the world. We have the best fans in the world”
— Tom Thibodeau the day he was announced as coach of the Knicks 5 summers ago
Once A Knick
Always A Knick pic.twitter.com/vGMDvS82cv
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) June 3, 2025
And for that: Thanks for everything, Coach.