The New York Knicks have to hire a new head coach, and soon.
With the 2025 NBA draft looming at the end of June, it would behoove the Knicks to have an HC in place by then. Surely, New York’s front office had already established a shortlist when it decided to fire Tom Thibodeau, no?
Two winning coaches from the Western Conference — Denver Nuggets’ Mike Malone and Memphis Grizzlies’ Taylor Jenkins — were axed at the end of the regular season, and both promise to be connected to the Knicks in rumors until a hire is announced.
Malone makes a lot of sense — he’s from Queens — but also doesn’t, as he’s similar to Thibodeau in stubbornness, a personality trait that reportedly grew stale in New York.
Jenkins might be a better choice for the Knicks. The Ringer’s Bill Simmons touched on that during a recent episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast.
“I watched a lot of Memphis games … man, they have a really good coach and he’s just kind of sitting there. Everyone was talking Mike Malone. But to me, that just feels like you’re running back a different version of Thibs. Taylor Jenkins … you can make a pretty fair case with him that he had a really tough job.”
“He’s a very good coach.”
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Jenkins, 40, went 250-214 with the Grizz in the regular season and 9-14 in the playoffs (per StatMuse) before getting canned on March 28 with just nine games left before the playoffs. Memphis had a 44-29 record when they fired Jenkins, and the team was swept in the first round of the West playoffs by the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Jenkins doesn’t get enough credit for the job he did in Memphis. He established and maintained a winning culture there despite all of the drama surrounding Ja Morant, which, by the way, subtracted Morant — Memphis’ best player — from the lineup for large stretches. Ja played just 59 regular season games out of 164 over the past two years due to injuries and suspensions.
Jenkins is a proven winner, and he’s shown that he can banish off-the-court drama threatening to infiltrate his locker room — a trait that would serve him well in the NYC market.
The Knicks should be seriously considering Jenkins.
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