Knicks add Hall of Fame PG to coaching staff as assistant

Longtime Bulls assistant coach Maurice Cheeks is switching Eastern Conference franchises.

He’s joining the Knicks as an assistant coach under head coach Tom Thibodeau, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Cheeks, a Hall of Fame point guard and 1983 champion with the Sixers, has served as the head coach of the Trail Blazers, Sixers, and Pistons. As a head coach, he’s gone 305-315 overall in the regular season, having made the playoffs in three of his nine seasons.

Since 2015, Cheeks has worked on the staffs of head coach Billy Donovan, first with the Thunder through 2020, and since with the Bulls.

Now, after two years of play-in tournament futility in Chicago, Cheeks will be joining Thibodeau on a New York club that seems poised to be an East contender for years to come, with plenty of draft assets and movable contracts with which it can conceivably improve its personnel.