Shams: Knicks Can Thibs

[Goldstar88]

Jay Williams now talking about NYK needing to go after Ime Udoka. That they should pry him away from the Rockets.

His reasoning being he embodies the defensive mindset of Thibs but with a better offense + Udoka knows the Celtics inside and out which is an important advantage because they will have to compete against BOS moving forward.

I mean, does he really have a better offense? Every team he's coached has struggled at half-court offense, and that ended up contributing to their playoff loss. They need a coach that can actually run coherent offense if they want to win anything, and Ime has done nothing so far to prove that he can.

My biggest concern would be if they hired one of our top assistants (like Cassell)

Udoka is a terrible coach when it comes to offense.

[Phantom255x]

The Ime Udoka love affair to me is getting a bit weird. Did people not see the first round of these playoffs? Rockets had some games where it was painfully obvious they didn't have enough scoring/offense despite their great defense. Same thing in Game 7. Are we saying it's all just the roster and nothing related to the coach and his schemes? And was that true even in his year with Boston where they made the Finals (which btw, was also a rocky road with bad losses against MIL/MIA which forced those series to go 7 games when they didn't need to, and then GSW beat us with barely any adjustments made to counter them)

If you want to argue he's better than Mazzulla, go ahead. But the way people talk about Ime here is like he's literally Phil Jackson or Gregg Popovich in their peak.

And no, he's not gonna go to NY and make them better. In fact, their offense could take a hit anyways and that'll hurt them too since they rely on it a lot especially Brunson.

If Houston is thinking about firing him despite making the playoffs for the first time in 5 years and with the likelihood of them adding a Durant or someone this summer, doesn't that also say something about Udoka?

[Who]

ESPN?s Tim MacMahon pointed to Kidd's connections with the Knicks, who fired Tom Thibodeau Tuesday after five years with the team, as a reason to monitor the situation.

"You've got to bring in a relationships guy," MacMahon said on the outlet's 'Hoop Collective' podcast.

"Listen, one of the names that's been thrown out there is a man who's under contract with another team, but definitely a guy who has relationships not just with Jalen Brunson but with a lot of people in that organization, and that's Jason Kidd. And what I will say about that is I would not dismiss that possibility."

Tim MacMahon covers the Dallas Mavericks, right?

"I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that I know or even think that J-Kidd wants out of Dallas, that would be going way too far," MacMahon said. "What I can comfortably say is there certainly have been decisions, major franchise decisions that have been made that he was not on board with, one of which includes the firing of Casey Smith, who J-Kidd has been extremely tight with since his second tenure as a player in Dallas, who is now running the health and performance group for the New York Knicks.

"I think it would be way too far to hint, suggest or any of that that J-Kidd is looking to get out of Dallas. I think that would be not an accurate or fair thing to say. But if this opportunity were to present itself, I bet you his ears would perk up.

Hard to see Kidd leaving Dallas after getting the #1 pick. Their roster is suddenly very impressive.

[Larry for 3]

ESPN?s Tim MacMahon pointed to Kidd's connections with the Knicks, who fired Tom Thibodeau Tuesday after five years with the team, as a reason to monitor the situation.

"You've got to bring in a relationships guy," MacMahon said on the outlet's 'Hoop Collective' podcast.

"Listen, one of the names that's been thrown out there is a man who's under contract with another team, but definitely a guy who has relationships not just with Jalen Brunson but with a lot of people in that organization, and that's Jason Kidd. And what I will say about that is I would not dismiss that possibility."

Tim MacMahon covers the Dallas Mavericks, right?

"I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that I know or even think that J-Kidd wants out of Dallas, that would be going way too far," MacMahon said. "What I can comfortably say is there certainly have been decisions, major franchise decisions that have been made that he was not on board with, one of which includes the firing of Casey Smith, who J-Kidd has been extremely tight with since his second tenure as a player in Dallas, who is now running the health and performance group for the New York Knicks.

"I think it would be way too far to hint, suggest or any of that that J-Kidd is looking to get out of Dallas. I think that would be not an accurate or fair thing to say. But if this opportunity were to present itself, I bet you his ears would perk up.

Hard to see Kidd leaving Dallas after getting the #1 pick. Their roster is suddenly very impressive.

My counter is simple. Dallas isn?t New York, despite Flagg the west is loaded and the mavs aren?t close, they fired that trainer he liked, and reports are he wasn?t on board with the Luka trade and thus he knows he could be next in a drop of the hat. And dolan will likely give him a huge raise. It?s actually the perfect time to get out of dodge. Which he?s done before.

Oh last thing- tibs got fired just after the extension - he?s owed 30 million. So he made out good. Money no object to NY

[Who]

I saw Chris Broussard saying the Knicks now regret firing Thibs. They had no clear candidate lined up for afterwards. There is nobody that they are that high on. Their initial requests to talk to several different coaches have been denied (J Kidd, Donovan in Chicago).

It looks like Mike Brown is now the frontrunner.

And it doesn't look like they have contacted Mike Malone at all which is strange. Appears he is not a candidate they are considering.

[Birdman]

Sam Cassell or Mike Brown would be my choice plus think they would know how to handle the pressure of the New York media