Rumors

Under coach Mike Brown, defensive coordinator Brendan O’Connor and this new staff, the Knicks began the season with a system that emphasized forcing the ball into the middle — into the length they have in Karl-Anthony Towns, Mitchell Robinson and OG Anunoby. That type of system is rare and a departure from what most of them have done throughout their careers, including last year under Tom Thibodeau. There were frequent miscommunications, and their defense was constantly getting broken down — forcing it to collapse and leaving shooters open on the perimeter for kickout threes, often the result of missed rotations.

New York Post

Steve Popper: After attending the D-Rose tribute, Tom Thibodeau appeared on The Starting Lineup on @SiriusXMNBA this morning -- asked by @TheFrankIsola if he wanted to coach again, he said, "I love the game. Obviously I’m preparing for the next opportunity. So hopefully I’ll be ready for it."

Twitter

Fullcourtpass: "Thibs you may have went to Harvard, you may have did physics, but I showed you physics!" - Derrick Rose (h/t @ohnohedidnt24)

x.com

‪Daniel Thompson‬: A tremendously special moment between D-Rose and Thibs... To all the talk about Thibs being responsible for the injury Derrick says "F--- that" and "He's the first coach that made me feel special." Wow. 😭❤️🌹 #NBASky #SkyHoops

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K.C. Johnson: There are sooooo many teammates back for Derrick Rose. Luol Deng, Taj Gibson, Joakim Noah, Ben Gordon, Kyle Korver, Kurt Thomas, Brad Miller, Thabo Sefolosha, Tyrus Thomas, Richard Hamilton, Aaron Gray and more. And Tom Thibodeau is in the house as well. Kirk Hinrich, James Johnson, Drew Gooden too. Also saw Andre Iguodala and Evan Turner here

Twitter

James Dolan: The team is really built on the shoulders of Tom Thibodeau, right? He built — he built that core, right? We went as far as — as we did last year. And so you really gotta take your — your hat off to Tom and the job that he did. But we did come to the conclusion that, you know, we had an idea of how we wanted to organize the team — and actually it goes for both teams — and that meant we needed to evolve, right? Actually beyond the old traditional coaching, right? You know, um, formulas, etc. And, you know, we tried to work that with Tom. It really wasn’t his thing.”

YouTube

Did the Knicks make the right call with Thibodeau and Brown? The Knicks had a better record at this point in the season last year under Thibodeau. But Brown has played the bench more often, something Dolan thinks will pay dividends in the postseason. “Look how far we got with our group last year, and then take a look at who was playing and who wasn’t playing and then we had injuries,” the owner said. “We’re going into this season, into the second half of the season, Josh is still out and Landry is coming back soon. We’ve got depth, and if we stay healthy, we’ll go into the playoffs in much better condition than we went into the playoffs last year.”

SportsNet New York

Over three months into the season, Karl-Anthony Towns is still often struggling and still adjusting to Mike Brown’s system. The All-Star center produced just six points in Monday’s 121-90 loss to the Pistons, already the fourth time he failed to score in double digits this campaign. Last season in a much larger sample size, Towns only once scored fewer than 10 points. “Different system,” Towns said. “It’s just different.” It’s “different” and not good for Towns’ numbers. He’s taking fewer shots and converting at a much lower percentage than last season under Tom Thibodeau. “Biggest adjustment is for me. Like Mike said, I make the biggest sacrifice,” Towns said. “We’re figuring it out. We’ve got a long flight, a practice tomorrow, we’ve got to sit down and figure out who we are and how we want to get back on track.”

New York Post

Kris Pursiainen: James Dolan on Tom Thibodeau on WFAN: “I won’t say you can’t win a title with Tom Thibodeau…if you want to build a long-term, competitive, you need someone who’s much more of a collaborator than Tom was. Tom was still a great coach, he should coach again in the NBA. If I had a franchise I was just starting, he would be a goldmine” “…We talked to Tom all the time. Look, I don’t want to get too deep into what- the interaction. That whole last year we were talking to Tom … he’d probably tell you that he’s stubborn. But he’d also tell you that he’s right”

x.com

New York Knicks head coach Mike Brown utilized an 11-player rotation in the team's 119-111 season-opening victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers. The approach marks a departure from former coach Tom Thibodeau's methodology, as the Knicks held comfortable leads throughout the game against a top Eastern Conference contender. Brown replaced Thibodeau, who faced criticism for limited rotation experimentation and minimal player usage. The new coach credited team president Leon Rose and the front office for assembling a deep roster. “I truly believe this is a deep team,” Brown said. “Give Leon Rose and his group a lot of credit. It’s my job to keep trying to find combinations out on the floor that work. Just like they’ve got a lot of room to grow, I’ve got a lot of room to grow, too. I’m still learning."

RealGM

And yet the owner did a deep dive on the coach’s imperfections, invited himself to player and staff exit interviews, and decided the Knicks had crashed into their ceiling. Thibodeau was deeply wounded over the loss of the only job he ever really wanted. “But he also had a sense of betrayal,” a source close to him said. “When you find out that people you helped either weren’t with you in the end or didn’t fight for you like you fought for them, that stings.”

New York Times

The Garden’s position is that Rose decided with Dolan’s full support. The team president had protected the coach from the antsy owner a couple of times in past seasons, but when it was clear last spring that Dolan was moving back in that direction, Rose was done stepping in front of the bus. Ditto for another longtime Thibs ally, Jalen Brunson. According to a second source, Thibodeau found himself philosophically misaligned with several other members of the front office who were too eager to overlook the coach’s strengths – the Celtics didn’t dethrone themselves in that 38-point Game 6 blowout – and to focus on his flaws. “In their world,” the source said, “the players were 51-0 and Tom was 0-31.”

New York Times

Zack Cox: Jaylen Brown said Thibs broke down film of last year’s Knicks series with the team today, pointing out some things that NY was able to exploit. Said his visit was very helpful.

x.com

John Karalis: Tom Thibodeau chatting with Jayson Tatum at practice. Jaylen Brown says "him being able to kind of give us some of the thoughts he saw in that series and some of the stuff that they broke down in our personnel, or even our team, helps us grow and learn from that ... It only helps me get better."

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