Knicks Could Hire Familiar Face

The New York Knicks are searching far and wide to find their next head coach, but they may want to go with someone who has already been in the role before.

The Knicks were last in the NBA Finals in 1999, where Jeff Van Gundy led the team three wins away from a championship.

Van Gundy went to the Houston Rockets in 2003 and was there until 2007, but then resigned to take a television job with ESPN. He was there until 2023, but he moved back into the coaching profession a year later, taking on an assistant role with the Los Angeles Clippers under Ty Lue.

Lue believes Van Gundy has the potential to be a head coach once again in the NBA.

“We’ve seen his work before, in New York, in Houston,” Lue said via The Athletic insider Law Murray.

“It all depends on if he wants to do it or not. I would hate to lose him, but he’s the most qualified. Like I said, it’s all up to JVG if he wants to coach and be a head coach again. … (He) changed our defense and our program defensively and brought us some things that we haven’t been accustomed to that’s worked. … He’s great for us. He’d be a great head coach again as well.”

With the Knicks job open after the firing of Tom Thibodeau, perhaps Van Gundy could take over for him.

It would surely be a splashy hire, which the Knicks might be looking for, and it's someone who knows how to handle the media and pressure that the job comes with.

Van Gundy is one of the brightest minds in basketball, and that should make him a candidate to rejoin the Knicks.