Knicks New Bench Boss

The search is now over. The New York Knicks have announced their new bench boss. The team announced last week that Tom Thibodeau has been hired as the 31st head coach in franchise history. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, at least not money wise. It appears to be a five year deal to have him as the Knicks bench boss. Thibodeau has experience dealing with the New York market, having worked here before as an assistant coach from 1996-2003.

There's no doubt in anybody's mind that he's got a track record. He managed to guide the Bulls and Timberwolves to the playoffs in every year but two as a head coach. Only times he missed the playoffs were his first year in Minnesota, and the year the Wolves let him go. His first two years in Chicago, he lead the Bulls to the best record in the league in both of those years.

As mentioned before, he does have experience in handling the New York Media. He was an assistant coach with the Knicks from 1996-2003, the last time the Knicks had sustained success. The best run was as the eight seed, the Knicks went to the finals in 1999, before losing to the Spurs. He worked under Jeff Van Gundy with those Knicks teams, and is now the 13th different head coach that the team has had since Van Gundy left, which is a staggering number to think about. His coaching style might work with this young team. He's been called by many as one of the greatest coaches in the NBA and his attention to detail has been compared to New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.

What I want to know is, how well is going to handle the young players that are in the Knicks lineup? He's been able to handle some of the young up and coming talent in the league in the past, he did it in Chicago when he took over there. No doubt he knows how to bring winning talent together on a team.

At the same time, for as good a coach as Thibodeau is, he can't really produce if there isn't the right mix of talent on the floor. There's times, in the past few seasons, where it looks more like a minor league team on the court then an actual NBA franchise. I have no doubt that Thibodeau can make due with the team he has and make them a good basketball club. However in order for the Knicks to truly take that step to the next level and really be a contending team, they need help from up top. What I mean is, they need to get the right people on the floor to be able to contend. Thibodaeu should be able to work a little bit of magic, I hope, to get the team going in the right direction. its going to be up to ownership and upper management to get the right guys here to work within the system.

And here's hoping ownership can actually give him a little more rope to work with in order to get this thing turned around and going the way it should and the way the Franchise deserves it to go.