I’m too hot to think of a subtitle
A few weeks ago, shortly after publishing the invite to this month’s mailbag, the Knicks fired Tom Thibodeau. That post got 968 comments — pretty good! — though almost all were about the firing. Not many responses to the mailbag prompt. Makes sense.
Today’s mailbag includes two questions I have for all of you about the current state of Knicksdom, then one question from an actual reader. I’d like to hear your thoughts on the questions in the comments. It’s a great day not to rank sex criminal and death-dealer Andrew Cuomo in NYC’s mayoral primary and a great day to talk Knicks!
What do you make of what you’ve heard so far about the Knicks’ coaching search? Are you concerned they look like they’re going from Plan X to Plan Y to Plan Z? What are you looking for in the next HC of the NYK?
When the Thibs’ firing was first announced, my initial thought was the Knicks must have a specific replacement in mind. It didn’t seem a rash decision, or maybe didn’t seem it could be, because I don’t think of Leon Rose as rash, and if the only person with the power and rashness to fire Thibs besides Rose was responsible that story would have leaked a long time ago. Yet I couldn’t think of any realistic dream candidates; it’s not like Erik Spoelstra or Ty Lue are feening for the gig. So I figured the Knicks had someone in mind who wasn’t on anyone else’s radar, or at least not on mine, and was willing to wait and see.
Even through their much-derided coaching search walk of shame, stumbling home at 4 a.m. alone after yet again being denied permission to talk to seemingly half the league’s current head coaches, I didn’t feel any concern. Again I figured there had to be more going on than I could guess at. The Knicks couldn’t really have risked it all on Jason Kidd or Billy Donovan. Nah. No way.
I suppose there could be a coach fired sooner than later that no one saw coming, though I can’t see that happening to any coach that would matter to us. If Rick Carlisle, Chris Finch or Mark Daigneault are available two weeks from now, get them on line one STAT. Otherwise, I suspect what we’re hearing now is what we’re looking at, ultimately: Mike Brown, Taylor Jenkins and Micah Nori or something of his ilk, i.e. a highly-regarded assistant who’s been to the big chair more than once. I’m okay with any of those three, something I wouldn’t have felt two weeks ago. What changed?
I wrote a piece that was supposed to be about the Knicks not giving Mikal Bridges enough shots at attacking Tyrese Haliburton’s defense, only the numbers ended up taking me in all kinds of different directions and a very different conclusion. One of the places they took me — and this is weird to say, and I’ve never said it before, but I don’t think it’s ever been true until just now — is that whoever the next Knick coach is, they need to juice this offense into something far more threatening than what we saw this past season.
Which is weird to say, right? The Knicks were fifth in offensive rating. But given their limitations making any meaningful roster moves as a first apron team with no draft capital, this team is likely to orbit around Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns. They are always going to be targeted on defense. Neither is going to morph into a plus on that end. So don’t ask them to. Instead, depending what you do with your fifth starter you could have four, even five dudes out there who can all shoot. If you can’t be certain you can stop others, aim to get to where they can’t stop you.
Brown led the Kings to what I’m pretty sure at the time was the best offensive rating in league history in 2022-23. That fell to 13th the following season, but given what Brown’s shown over the years and what the Kings have shown us as an organization, I’ll assume he was less a problem than them. Jenkins managed to steer Memphis to fifth in offensive rating in 2022 and sixth this past season despite his team’s dependence on human mood ring Ja Morant. Nori’s been an assistant the past 16 years; in his four in Minnesota, the Wolves have two top-10 ratings.
The Knicks finished third, seventh and fifth in offensive rating their last three years under Thibs. If they could rise that high with Thibodeau — a coach I loved and admired many things about, his offensive acumen not one of them — one imagines they could hit even higher notes alongside a more offensively-inclined big boss. If they’re going to win with this roster, I think that’s the way they have to lean.
A 3-and-D center, a two-way wing and a legitimate point guard walk into a bar. The Knicks can add one next season. Which should it be?
20 years ago, I was one of a number of Knick fans who’d somehow come to the conclusion that a point guard on the team named Frank Williams was destined for greatness. He wasn’t, at least not as an NBA player; I’ve no idea where life led FW after. He’s always stayed with me because bench players, especially further-down-the-bench subs and especially “projects” are often the people we see the least and project the most onto. My answer to this question is probably the result of me pulling a Frank Williams again.
I think Kevin McCullar Jr. is a player in this league. No, I will not be taking questions as to why, not at this time. Truth is I haven’t seen enough of him to say anything. Honestly, I sometimes I can’t remember if his last name is McCullar or McCullars. But whether this is projection or having absorbed something I read and forgot in a draft profile a year ago, my brain has settled on “McCullar will eventually take over for Josh Hart, and do all the same things plus be a better shooter.”
Pacôme Dadiet seems to always be a little further ahead than people think possible, so I throw him in with McCullar as players already on the roster who could jump to a bigger role next season, especially if the Knicks’ next coach doesn’t view an 8- or 9- or 10-man rotation as a clown car of excess. Ditto Tyler Kolek, who I hope we see alongside Deuce McBride in what I think could be some very fun backcourts. If Kolek doesn’t hit, this is the age of the scoring point guard; there’ll be someone somewhere willing to come here for a shot at backup minutes in a Knick title run. Spencer Dinwiddie makes more sense than many of us care to admit.
But for me, it’s the center spot that’s missing something critical. Partly that’s because of the nature of the two men manning the pivot. Not since Allan Houston and Latrell Sprewell have the Knicks had a more striking case of two players who would combine to be an all-time great, but unfortunately are housed in two distinct beings. You saw it in last year’s playoffs: the Knicks 100% need KAT’s scoring and spacing and they 100% need Mitchell Robinson’s rebounding and defense. Playing them together is often pretty sweet. But their respective weaknesses are magnified against elite teams. I also wonder how much of a Thibs’ tax this team is gonna pay next year.
You know when kids are young, like toddler-age, how when they’re about to launch into an explosive crying fit there’s this booming silence right before it? They’ll open their mouths wide and just hold it, for just as many nanoseconds as it takes for some part of you to think “Maybe they’re not gonna c—” before they pierce your eardrums with their scream. This past season the Knicks were improbably, eerily healthy, despite a season in which three of them were top-five in the NBA in minutes per game and all five starters finished top-20. That’s the baby’s mouth widening and pausing. Ready for the scream?
Towns and Mitch? They’re not ironmen, at least not KAT over the second half of his career; Towns had meniscus surgery in 2024 and seemed to have knee discomfort most of last season. If I told you today the over/under on OG’s games played next year is 62, what would you pick? The organization did make significant additions to the medical and training teams last year. Maybe that makes all the difference. Maybe.
A year ago I was desperate for the Knicks to land Kel’el Ware in the draft. Mitch is an expiring contract this season. For all kinds of reasons, both this year and looking down the line, I think the Knicks need another credible big. If that guy can offer some of what KAT and Robinson do without being targeted defensively every possession or shooting under 60% from the stripe, that’s the dream.
Hi Miranda,
How do I explain to my mystified fiancee why I get so heartbroken or so happy from the result of a basketball game?
—JorgiePorgie
Once upon a time, I was engaged. It lasted six years. Most of that time and even a few years after we broke up, I kept a picture of her in my wallet.
We fought a lot. I mean, a LOT. I’ve never fought anyone nearly as much, nor nearly so fiercely. We came from very different backgrounds regarding fighting with loved ones. I didn’t fight mine very often. I wouldn’t even say I’ve ever “fought” a loved one. We don’t insult one another, or try to hurt the other person. Voices may raise, and my chest may boom more than is customary, but that’s it. My fiancee grew up learning that fighting with someone you love was how they proved you were worthwhile to them.
Knowing that, I kept a picture of her when she was 12, maybe 13. Because I wanted to try and remember that no matter who I was looking at or talking to or getting screamed at by now, in the moment, the person behind it all was that young girl. I thought if I could keep the child in mind, the next time we fought I’d think of her instead of the adult in front of me. Maybe she was the one who needed something in that moment. The kid.
The first 10 years I followed the Knicks, they made the playoffs; the first nine, they got at least to the second round, including four trips to the conference finals and two to the NBA Finals. Then, as you know, there was a whole lotta nada. Their return to meaningful playoff basketball has made me aware that when it comes to my fandom, I am and maybe always will be the young child who first fell in love with them.
With every other team I’ve followed in my lifetime, crowning glory has shortly followed. I started watching the Mets in April of 1986, which is why to this day I am the rare Mets fan who always expects them to pull off a miracle. I started following the Rangers pretty closely around the same time as the Knicks, so while I celebrated the end of “1940!” in 1994 along with my dad, I had no understanding of the pain he and older fans had endured.
In 2007 I decided to become a fan of Manchester City in the English Premier League, because as a Mets fan in New York I empathized with them being a pretty blue team in a town dominated by their local rival. City finished ninth that season, their best position in decades. In the blink of an eye they were purchased by Abu Dhabi,, becamebecame one of the richest clubs on the planet and within five years were league champs and rocketing well beyond the reach of the new noisy neighbors in Manchester United.
I followed the Liberty their first five years of existence, then didn’t pay attention to the WNBA until 2-3 years ago. Shortly thereafter, Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones come in and last year the team wins its first championship. I’ve always been privileged like that with my sports teams. Except for one.
All throughout the 2021 season, I felt pretty normal as far as my Knick fandom, or at least what can become normal for 20 years. Beginning with that series and intensifying each of the past three years, I have learned that the Knicks are my picture in the wallet. I am still very much the kid I was when I started this relationship with them. With each game, with each round, I am pulled in both directions until all I feel is either agony or ecstasy. When you’re spiritually invested in Charlie Brown finally kicking that football and you’ve watched Lucy trick him for 35 years running, there is no gray area.
I am now older than my father was when the Rangers broke their 54-year curse. The Knicks last won a title 52 years ago. When they upset the Celtics last month, I had tears for only the second time for them (the other when they won the 1999 ECF). If they make the Finals next year and lose, I don’t know if I’ll survive. If they make it and win, I don’t know if I will either.
I would tell your fiancee to find a picture of you at whatever age you were when you started seriously following this team and have her keep it somewhere she sees it enough to help her remember when she sees you bugging or busting after a big Knick game, she’s seeing you through time. And if you truly love someone, you love the them they were before you ever knew them.