The New York Knicks have gotten out to a solid 5-3 start to the 2025-26 NBA season. They're 5-0 at home for the first time since 2012 and are a top-five offensive team.
But they have dropped some easy ones, including games against the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat. Some fans wonder whether they would have gotten off to a hotter start this year under the previous head coach, Tom Thibodeau.
Knicks analyst Alan Hahn pushed back on that sentiment and revealed the exact reason why New York wouldn't have been better off with Thibs.
Thibs' time with Knicks is done, per Hahn
"The question marks about Thibs from a lot of people that were lingering, especially late last year, but definitely into the playoffs, it wasn't, it was no longer just fans," Hahn told his co-hosts on the Don, Hahn, and Rosenberg show.
"It was in the locker room. And I have heard this, and I want to make this clear, because as you all know, I fought for Thibs, and when he lost his job, I did not like it. I was concerned about it. I felt he deserved to stay as coach. But I had heard something over the last week that puts an end to it for me. And it is that he could not have returned."
Hahn didn't dive into specifics in terms of names or exact reasons why, but to read between the tea leaves, it seems Thibodeau's messages to his players may have just begun to fall on deaf ears.
"There were some people that thought, well, if Thibs was here, they'd just play the same as he did last year, and they would have been winning those games."
"And someone I talked to said, that's not true. That there are guys that do still love Thibs, that still were a little shocked by him getting fired, but also acknowledge, yeah, it kind of run its course."
There's no looking back now, and the Knicks already have a new season underway with new head coach Mike Brown at the helm.
So far, they definitely seem like an improved team. Their depth has been phenomenal, and the offense has looked better than it did under Thibs.
But the real test will come in the postseason, and if New York can't make a deep playoff run like they've done in years past, then the Thibodeau questions will be prevalent.
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