Knicks Coaching Wish List Revealed

Despite New York Knicks' President Leon Rose's initial ideas on how his relationship with the team's head coach was to be before he first hired Tom Thibodeau five years ago, the executive is looking for something different this time around.

Someone like him has to have strong ideals as to how to find Thibodeau's replacement going forward. He had his warts, but the former Knicks coach was coming off of leading the team to their best finish in a quarter-century, bringing New York within a round of the NBA Finals for the first time since 2000.

Rose and company took a risk in fingering Thibodeau as the fall guy for their problems, having spent three weeks accumulating a lengthy list of rejections from coaches disinterested in the offer and other NBA teams refusing to let the Knicks speak with their guys, along with a few realistic candidates and, as recent reporting revealed, a wish list of the ideals they're looking for in their next top man.

The New York Post's Stefan Bondy's found a few parallels between the men that the Knicks have targeted and the desired coaching values that have been stressed by the front office, several of which include distinct attempts at distancing from Thibodeau's strict code.

According to a league source, "player development," "larger rotations," an "established plan for younger players" and "in-game adjustments" were identified as the sort of strengths that New York's looking for, with several of those bullet points directly addressing some of the Knicks' weaknesses that came home to roost in the playoffs.

Thibodeau is known for his usually-stingy defenses and parlaying regular season success into acclaim from award-voters, but his over-reliance on his starters is a tale that's been told over and over again. He rides his starters and never seemed to utilize his benches, with few productive live adjustments to speak of in attempting to keep the season afloat when they were on the ropes against the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Post's source also mentioned New York's hunt for someone willing to "lean on assistants, collaborate w front office, empower staff," which were evidently lacking under the last regime. Thibodeau was seen as operating under a united front with the front office for much of their partnership, but the relationship ultimately grew stale in their latter days together to prompt such stark initiatives in locating the next coach of the Knicks.