Knicks to hire T.J. Saint as assistant coach

The Knicks will add another assistant to Mike Brown‘s coaching staff, according to Ian Begley of SNY.tv, who reports (via Twitter) that the team is hiring T.J. Saint.

Saint has spent the past several seasons with the Pelicans’ G League affiliate, which has been known as the Birmingham Squadron since 2021. He came aboard in 2019/20 when the team was the Erie BayHawks, then was promoted to associate head coach in 2020 and to head coach in 2022.

According to Begley, Saint is considered in NBA circles to be a “bright offensive mind.” As Begley observes, the Squadron had the G League’s No. 1 offense during the 2023/24 season.

Before his stint with New Orleans’ G League team, Saint spent one year as the director of basketball strategy at the University of Georgia (2018/19) and was the Pistons’ video coordinator for four seasons (2014-18).

Saint is one of a handful of coaching hires New York has made since bringing in Brown to replace former head coach Tom Thibodeau. New assistants Chris Jent and Brendan O’Connor are expected to run the offense and defense, respectively. The Knicks are also retaining several coaches from Tom Thibodeau‘s staff, including Rick Brunson and Maurice Cheeks, and are adding Charles Allen and Riccardo Fois, a pair of player development assistants who worked under Brown in Sacramento.