faces and somebody deflating loss on the road 125 to 108. It's one change you would make to the Knicks to improve them for next season. I think they make Nick. Are you talking with Nick?
Hey, Doc, I think we have a little bit of him coming up. I was going to say there's a breaking news that the New York Knicks have released Tom Thibodeau, his head coach and duties that hasn't been a replacement yet, but the rumor is or there's a lot of rumors that it's Michael on. I, man, I would say that they need to, for me, with the series that really came down to us who has the better bench and Indiana clearly did. And I think that's what I would have focused on this all season.
I would have given Tibbs another year just because since he's gotten a head coach and job, the Knicks have increased or have gotten better as time goes on. So injuries, but season and they make the conference finals for the first time in 25 years. Back to back 50 seasons since the 90s too, I think. So I was like, he was doing some things now.
Again, with his pedigree, he's known as someone who can get you right there, but not can't get you over the top. You know what I'm saying? So I'm so, it's the weirdest thing. I'm very neutral on this show.
Like him getting fired. If he was a black head coach, I would make an argument. They did them wrong, especially because like who's winning 50 plus games a season and getting to the conference finals these days as a head coach. This is listed short if there is any.
But the way they went out against Indy, they should have won that series. And I'm saying in seven, I'm saying in seven, I'm saying that they should have blown them out. But if you look at some of the things like, he was coaching back to him. He wasn't running forward like how he was another series.
He was coaching on his heels. We didn't go to the bench. You know, I'll say this, like we've seen coaches win the championship and get like the championship. So you are later though.
That was, it wasn't in the same off season. And who's the dude I used to coaching Indiana to win to the Lakers? One year after that, you know, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but then he won the championship. So that's all he does.
So that's what I got to go right now. So it was asked him to do though. It begins to see. But there's a couple of things I think that in the, in the, in the macro, right?
Because I don't, I think we discussed this last week. Like should they but it'll keep his job. And I said, I'm with you, Nick, one more year because he, like you said, he did what you asked to do. That's the macro, right?
Like, okay, right? We're looking at it from a fish shot, from a bug. When you look at the micro, like I've always said, it's the same little thing. And it's the same old thing that I've been saying that he's not a championship level coach.
What is this offense, right? I saw this thing that said cat got Thibodeau fired two times in six years, which is crazy work. But at the end of the day, Thibodeau, and I stand by, I will always stand by Thibodeau's not a championship level coach for this team to move forward. I think they need another bucket-getter or an offensive system that doesn't make Brunswick work so hard to get buckets.
It's kind of the same thing that we saw with Minnesota. He had a championship level team. He was a lot like this. And he left D-Rows in the game when they were up 17 on the season.
That team was a good player. Y'all saying that? That team was a competing player. That team was a competing player.
No, no, no, no, not competing. I'm asking you, is that team good enough to win a championship? Yeah, they were good enough. They went to the defensive office trying to push the Heat in six.
But they didn't want to win a team. Nick, at what point did you, because you wanted to hit us Friday at one point, right? Not necessarily. It was at one point of the season.
It was looking ugly. They kind of turned around in the back end of the second half. A lot of teams started catching fire in the second half of the season. My thing was going into the playoffs.
I was like, bro, these late game execution shit. I was watching that all season with Nick. I was like, bro, it all seemed like he's coaching to get them to win games. Like Q-point out, Rick Carlisle, you see how good he was to steal.
You see how game one of that series set the tone for everything else. And that was how coaching is how you usually time out, how situation, all that stuff, how you set things up. It's like Tibs, main focus is defense. It's kind of like Mike Tom, he's the Mike Tomlin of the NBA, except he don't have a ring.
Where's like, he was like, okay. I'm saying how he focuses on one side of the basketball. And he focuses on what side of the basketball and doesn't really pay attention to anybody else doing anything on that other side. So if he has a superstar like Derek Rose or like a Bronson, he just lets them do whatever and doesn't help them get creative with how they do things to either help themselves physically to last a long season or to be even creative in games where like refacing the team that's just that talented.
My thing with the with him being fired, I'm neutral because I knew there had to be a change. And with all the moves that Leon Rose and him did, it was going to be hard to say like, okay, now we're just going to throw Kat out and try to get Giannis. And it's like, at some point you're going to have to let this coach go. Because all the other moves we've been doing has got, you got to say, make it the moves I've done have taken us farther.
Not you coaching. You know what I'm saying? And this is where I wanted to just gather everybody because for all my next fans who are on like, it's almost like Republican Democrats, it's like you're either on the left or the right of this issue. If you think that TIFFs deserve another year, I am not going to like twist the wound.
But for the people who share my opinion, this is exactly what the doctor ordered. And I think that this is a sign of the changing of the guard within New York Nick's front office and their brain trust. One of the issues that we have so often in sports is people are kind of just paralysis by analysis where they overthink too much instead of just doing what feels right. And I think that what was on everyone's mind, all year long, is everything that TIFFs brings to a team.
Is yeah, he brings the defense. Yes, he brings raising your floor. Yes, he brings some better offensive continuity if you're coming from a coach that has no business really being your coach. He's going to look like the prom queen compared to the other girl that you just had.
But when you get him there, you realize, oh, this is why you've been divorced four times. Because you see what goes on when you don't experiment with two big lineups. You see what happens when you don't play the long right over campaign. You see what happens when you don't get placed set up for McBride.
He should be your quasi-lou will type a guy off the bench. It's what happens when you play Josh Hart 40 minutes a night every single night. It's what happens when you try to go four rounds in the playoffs with six guys. It's unacceptable.
And you're not going to win in today's NBA when your coach is too stubborn on those margins. You see Ric Carlisle went damn near 11 deep where you got Thomas Bryant minutes. You have Tony Bradley minutes. You have teaching McConnell.
You have NEMHART. You have to do with the mustache. I forget his name. They went 11-12 deep and Shepard and they were running circles and the pace was just, you saw the ball was popping.
The offensive side of the ball for the Knicks, it's a terminal problem. It's you can't it's inoperable. You have to take him out of the equation because yes, you know what you have with towns. We know what we have with Bronson.
But the fact that you never experimented with Robinson as a tubing lineup when you have the Pacers having their sparing minutes with Bradley and Siakko. They're like sparing minutes with Siakko and Turner just to get big guys on the court to make it tougher on Bronson. There's no transition defense. And I believe that everything that you saw with Tibbs, you shake your hat.
I mean you shake his hand, you take your hat off and say thank you for your service. But this is the Mike Brown to Steve Kerr moment that the New York Knicks need. I mean this is the Mark Jackson to Steve Kerr moment. This is the Mike Brown to whoever else moment.
And that's wrong. Go ahead, Jake. Go ahead. I think I see a point Q and I see people nodding and I appreciate how optimistic it is with him.
And it does make sense on like if you look at that as the base level. But some of the rumblings and I mean take it when it's all that this wasn't even like the executive this wasn't a Leon Rose like decision it was more for James Johnson. That's what that's what that's what they say and they say that he's now more involved because his project is over. He was dealing with the spirit and Vegas since that's taking all of his good now.
And he's about to get his hands back into the pot. Now last couple years he like they've been building without him with his hands in the pot. And so that's why I said it sounds very optimistic about it. James Dolan and now he's back in Bob and they're going to go very backwards.
Right. So what they want to say. That's like no, that's what happened. I'll check it out.
That's what I had. Talk it on. How much did you feel like I hated him? I like it.
Yeah. I like we got the whole smack. Yeah. I get you all point.
But if that's the truth. If that is the truth, then I don't see anything moving forward because it's like it's just like Jerry Jones would probably get a bit above. Good job. I need the credit.
I need to have my fingerprints on this because we live now. Like I need to make sure I can say I beat him. Okay. I'll say the same story.
That you want to call out Otis. My thing is this. I don't blame the move. I don't really have a huge issue with it.
It's just that it's just a weird thing about how this is more of a conversation of how we go through coaches. I think you brought this up too. At one point as far as like, every how they go through coaches, where you think anybody can coach a team and you don't really value that. I'm just looking at when you tell like if I told you wanted to the season, Kim, the Knicks are going to not only get to the Eastern Conference Finals, but beat the Boston Celtics.
You would say, oh, shit, that's a phenomenal season. And then I said, oh, yeah, Chatev's get fired if they do that. You be like, hell no. And now you're on.
No, no, hold on. But if you frame that, the next question will be so that they make the finals and do they win. And if you say, Nick, all I'm saying is you've got to complete your thought process, where you can't leave us on a cliffhanger. If you say, hey, they beat the Boston Celtics and they went to the Eastern Conference Finals, well, would they make the finals and did they win?
And the answer is no and no. Then now, where you are right now in purgatory of, well, you know, it is what it is with them, though. That's everybody will be in that same position. And here's the thing, hold on, I'll rip with you.
What we always say is if you're going to get rid of a coach, can you upgrade that coach? And in this offseason, you can do that. And that's why I don't know. It's an upgrade.
That's why I don't know. Potentially, Potentially. Potentially. I mean, that grass ain't always greener.
But sometimes it is, dude. So I don't know why people always say that. Like, yeah, like, y'all are hands now saying it might Malone's a bit of coach. I believe that Mike Malone's a better coach.
What would he do differently? Offense, offensive flow continuity. The only reason why it did not work out in Denver, only reason why it didn't work out in Denver, is because Denver became old and they got completely decimated by the second apron. And the GM butted heads with how to use the roster.
Mike Malone wanted to do it a different way. GM wanted to do it another way. I believe that you have enough guys and you have flexibility with contracts so where you can make a splash move if you want, you can get better on the margins with the bench. And if you're going to do that as a New Yorker, as people who've been to New York, if you know New Yorkers, good and good enough, go for the gusto.
If you've got it, put it all, bet on black, bet on red, bro. Like, put it all on the table. And this is the issue. If you think that Tippito is going to get you where you're going, you have to break down this run to see that.
No, man, this was a Cinderella run and you can't rely on Cinderella runs. But the Pacers can do, they can recreate a lot of what they've done over and over and over if they keep a lot of this court together. If you look at the story of the next this offseason, I understand that Nick tried to, you know, be reductive and say, if you said that Tipp's got to the Easter Carms Finals, you would say, you can't fire him. But what if I told you a different picture of we need cat miracle threes to put away a young Detroit Pistons team, we need, we need Jalen Brunson to drop us, I saw Thompson in late one minute left on the clock to close out games.
We're, you know, in dog fights against this young scrappy team. We make it to a Boston series where we're down 20, the first two games, and we miraculously fight back because we're just a team of dogs, right? And you can pause right there, just position the Indiana Pacers and what they do to the number one. The Cavaliers.
And they're taking, they're taking down his category. We're going to get into the fourth game. Yeah, he had a total song. But what y'all saying is, what y'all saying all this, like, so they're not up 3-1 in both of those series?
So like both Boston and Detroit, y'all going into the weeds of it. But at the end of the day, they had favorite, well, in the Boston series, but outside of people's minds, because he didn't think brothers and brothers player in that series, they were favoring most of these games. And again, that got up 3-1. I care about results.
I feel you, but when you don't get to your ultimate goal, which is the championship, We have to then do the autopsy the break down season When the picture starts to become clear that like oh shit we can win this race now you have to have different expectations And that's what the nicks are doing right right here in my personal opinion I think the sixers are hurt the Cavaliers go out in the first round Jason's table tears is Achilles in in your series. You know saying the deck is clear And then you have this path and then in a series against the Pacers where you're getting run out of the gym your coast Alright, let me start going to my bench. You look like you're going shit at the wall Well, the series is over when when Tatum got hurt way before it's a day to go in the game that well They were still down they were still sitting down in that series when you got hurt So I don't know how much of a difference it would have made plus I don't know about Missoula, but nevertheless, I don't think it was necessarily the wrong move and I don't That's the real thought them for going to get Mike Malone who they might think is better But what I do know is that Joker and Brunson are two completely different players and you can do a lot more things with Joker All the court than you can with Brunson. So I don't know what Mike Malone can do to change thing I think there's probably lost a series when Rick Carlisle Cope circles around when once the hips had to make adjustments and play guys that he didn't play all year It was it was around when you put in that point right there But can't that point right there is why Mike Malone is better Because my nose is the same as I know Actually, he's better than the middle because he plays a deeper bench He makes better in game and game the game adjustments in the middle does they would all just run it back They were like my philosophy is so good.
We are going to win and like the same where cute issues miraculously They won because they got a dog in Brunson, right? And we and we see his character art because that he's on the bench and we see that that that tough as nails grit Where was it still and we see it on the court, right? And then but old likes those type of players But Mike Malone can and remember let's go even further back Remember your favorite player once upon a time was Boogie Cousins and Boogie Cousins had a very Interesting and tough time early on in his career and his career didn't go on up until he got who was that going on? He figured that out can great coaches put their best players in positions to be the best versions of themselves And all I'm saying is Mike Malone has a championship because of his doing and all of the other things I just named that they But all does not do I don't think like my local one this series See here's the thing is that even if you think my mom couldn't have won this series Mike Malone wouldn't look discombobulated and he wouldn't look completely out coached That's where and I don't even want to couch this just one of my own thing because we're then we're getting into a versus coaching question But what we're talking about is there was a terminal problem with the Knicks offense and how they run their team And if you think that this iron is hot right now, then you've got to move on and I'm holding them to I'm a father move because we get held to a really bad standard, you know saying black coaches.
We don't we don't get no Oh, man. Well running back next year like mark Jaz is a pretty shitty man. Thank you for your service But we don't go get Steve Kurt like Tyler. Thank you for your service, but we don't know Can you act as like hey Mike Brown you were coaching here last year, but uh dear Fox and you don't seem to be getting along right now So you gotta get fuck out, but we don't go act like to be able to feel Jackson because you couldn't The pictures like The people who would say like oh, it's good that's got fired on it again This is a maybe a coaching question, but it's just like what does a coach have to do outside of when the championship is secure their job?
That's it That means that there's 30 orders swing out of the teams that should fire the coach every season and they will at some point we'll get there Yeah, because in right now like I said it we're saying shoot how many playoff teams coaches got five we see more that It popped and have medical issues should you've been fired It's New York though like Nick like you know I'm saying like we have to dip into the cultural aspect to it's New York Like I think that the expectation is oh the iron is hot like Philly could be a dog next year. So those are easy Cat was probably the better player in that series And Underside guard and undersized guard like Jalen Brunson cannot be asked to carry your team to a championship in my opinion He is top 10 right now He had a top in season But he is a 1b player that you need to designate him as 1b He's not a two, but I think he's 1b you need your 1a and that is theoretically a yawn at the kubo where you would bring him in as the guy And Brunson we're gonna play together pick a role should be elite That's what you want. You know I'm saying I don't think that people are being fair to Brunson because it's the same thing that He rose fell victim to your ride in your star point guard into the ground and then expecting him to save you in clutch time And Nick my kale bridges just what a month and a half ago was making headlines talking about over minutes I mean tiddies don't be afraid to use me coming off the bench like no He looks miserable all year No, one last one last quick thing on Nick I didn't see Jeff tea was talking about maybe kind of thing like maybe the players had something to do with it too Because Jeff tea was saying all tips everything for him was you know when he coached them was like say damn Maybe the guys were saying like we're not really reacting to him So I'm not necessarily defending tips. It's just more about when you ask it's weird.
It's like if you ask your girl I'm gonna marry you if you do these things And you leave somebody else When you rather do this now I'm so neutral. I'm only I'm only not saying anything on y'all side because I live everyone else who can say other stuff on the other side I'm just saying that from how someone can be big and is like this puts a lot of person whoever the next coaches of the next Whether it's my mom like they have to win a championship now There's no there's no in between and can't you bring up a point where you where people have questioned not only the defensive efforts of cat And my brother but you're just now asking as Ken Brunson who's the best player on the team most reliable clement even get you there So this to me is a bigger issue than what coaching can do I want coach changing to me. I said if you want one chance for the next thing you better bet We couldn't do nothing after that six minute or that seven guy. Yeah Some guy named Jalen Walker coming in yeah, and Thomas Brian had a Landry He was in the times and I feel like he could be a really good like six men like you know I can wave off the bench, but this is just offensively challenged, you know, well, let's uh So paces they made it here and unlike aunt they made it to the finals the next year So Any hours had the supporting cats that they had she But I mean Next year is a two early to have the conversation we need to see how the finals go first We need to talk about that next the papers are favors next year