The Knicks made their first move of the offseason on Tuesday, deciding to fire head coach Tom Thibodeau after the team's Eastern Conference Finals loss to the Pacers.
Thibodeau ends his Knicks' tenure as the fourth-winningest head coach in New York history, having won 226 games in five years. His legacy will be that he helped the team return to prominence, making the playoffs four times in five years after the Knicks made the playoffs just four times in the previous 19 years.
However, the Knicks decided that Thibodeau was not the man to lead them to their next championship, so they chose to move on. That puts a lot of pressure on the front office to get the next hire right or risk wasting Jalen Brunson's prime.
Therefore, here's a list of six coaching candidates most likely to be connected with New York.
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Knicks best coaching candidates
1. Michael Malone
Malone is considered to be the best candidate available, as the former Nuggets coach won a title just two years ago in Denver. The 53-year-old was surprisingly fired just three games before the regular season ended, as the Nuggets chose to act early in getting a fresh start.
Malone got his coaching start with the Knicks, spending 2003-05 in New York as an assistant coach and scout. Since 2013, he has spent parts of 12 seasons as a head coach, two with the Kings, then a decade in Denver. Overall, Malone has a 510-394 record in the regular season and a 44-36 record in the playoffs.
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2. Taylor Jenkins
Another head coach who was fired midseason, Jenkins spent parts of six seasons as the head coach of the Grizzlies, helping lead Memphis to the playoffs three different times. However, the Grizzlies fired him with just nine games left in the regular season, despite the team being in the top eight of the Western Conference.
At 40 years old, Jenkins is a younger veteran who would simultaneously bring experience along with youth that could be appealing to a team looking for a long-term solution. Jenkins had a 250-214 record in Memphis but was just 9-14 in the playoffs with one series victory.
MORE: Why did the Knicks fire Tom Thibodeau?
3. Jay Wright
Wright has the most connections to the Knicks roster of any candidate, as he coached Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, and Mikal Bridges at Villanova. Wright got his head coaching start at Hofstra, which is about an hour east of Manhattan, before spending 22 years at Villanova.
In that span, Wright led the Wildcats to two national titles, as Brunson and Bridges were on both those teams while Hart was on one of them. He retired from coaching at the age of 60, largely due to the changing landscape in college basketball.
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4. Johnnie Bryant
If the Knicks go the assistant coach route, Cavaliers associate head coach Johnnie Bryant makes the most sense. Bryant spent four seasons as a Knicks assistant coach, playing a key role on Thibodeau's staff, before getting a promotion in Cleveland last year.
Bryant is a finalist for the Suns' head coach opening, as it is only a matter of time before the 39-year-old gets a chance. While it might seem like a risk for the Knicks to hire a first-time head coach, Bryant's experience with the organization makes him a more reasonable option than most.
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5. Dan Hurley
The UConn head coach flirted with the Lakers' opening last year before he returned to Storrs while Los Angeles hired J.J. Redick. The veteran college coach won back-to-back titles with the Huskies in 2023 and 2024 and is considered arguably the best coach currently in the college game.
However, Hurley's most recent year might have cooled off any interest from NBA teams, as his personality is not for everyone. Additionally, he would face a bad history of college coaches making the jump to the NBA, with very few success stories.
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6. Jeff Van Gundy
Van Gundy got back into coaching last year as a Clippers assistant and seems like a candidate to get another head coaching role in the future. The 63-year-old was a longtime ESPN announcer, but he decided to return to the NBA after the network's shakeups.
Van Gundy was one of the winningest Knicks coaches of all time, as he won 248 games over seven years in the 1990s and early-2000s as Pat Riley's replacement. He was also the last Knicks coach to lead the team to an NBA Finals, doing so in 1999 at the age of 37.
MORE THIBODEAU:
- Why Knicks fired Tom Thibodeau
- NOH: Why Knicks will regret firing Tom Thibodeau
- Josh Hart, Ben Stiller, more react to Thibodeau firing
- How reliance on starters led to Thibodeau's ouster
- Most shocking coach firings in New York sports history