Knicks coaching candidates: 4 favorites, 3 longshots to replace Tom Thibodeau

Tom Thibodeau led the New York Knicks to back-to-back 50 win seasons for the first time in 30 years. He just led the Knicks on their longest playoff run of the 21st century by reaching the Eastern Conference Finals. Thibodeau inherited a club coming off seven straight losing seasons when he was hired in 2020, and turned them into one of the scariest teams in the East year-after-year.

The Knicks fired him anyway. Thibodeau was canned on Monday night even with a three-year, $30 million extension not kicking in until next season. The Knicks’ conference finals loss to the Indiana Pacers cost him his job after five seasons in charge, and now the franchise will embark on trying to find a head coach they believe can lead them to a championship.

Firing Thibodeau usually sounds better in theory than in practice. The Chicago Bulls were an annual contender in the East under Thibodeau, but they’ve taken a hard nose dive since he was fired after the 2015 season. Thibodeau broke the Minnesota Timberwolves’ 13-year playoff drought in his second season with the club, and firing him led to the team being bad enough to win the lottery rights to Anthony Edwards. Can the Knicks finally find a coach who’s actually an upgrade over Thibodeau and get them to the next level in the East? It’s possible, but it won’t be easy.

Here are seven possible candidates for Knicks head coaching job now that Thibodeau is out.

Long shots

Jay Wright

Did you know the Knicks have a lot of former Villanova players? Wright led Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges, and Jalen Brunson to two national championships at the college level, and the Knicks have been trying to recapture that same magic. There are only a couple problems: Wright has been out of coaching since retiring in 2022, and at 63 years old, he’s never coached in the NBA before even as an assistant. Wright to the Knicks is fun to think about, but it isn’t happening.

Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Dan Hurley

Dan Hurley reportedly turned down $70 million to coach the Los Angles Lakers last year. In the time since, the Lakers acquired Luka Doncic, and Hurley saw his bid for three straight men’s college basketball national championships fall woefully short in the second round of the 2025 NCAA tournament. UConn should have a solid team next year, but it no longer feels like Hurley has a loaded roster full of NBA talent these days. It’s possible he’d strongly consider if the Knicks had interest, but I’m skeptical that’s the case. Hurley’s loud-mouth style of challenging his own players, fans, and any ref that stands in his way doesn’t really mesh with the NBA game. It feels like Hurley doesn’t have quite as much momentum after something akin to a down year, and it’s hard to believe the Knicks would really make that leap of faith in such a pivotal time in their build.

Jeff Van Gundy

Van Gundy is the last head coach to get the Knicks to the NBA Finals back in 1999. He was 37 years old then, and he’s 63 years old now. Van Gundy was out of the league since 2007 as he moved into a broadcasting career before the Los Angeles Clippers brought him back as an assistant this season. He’s always had a great reputation as a defensive mind, and the Clippers defense was way better than anyone would have guessed this year. I find it hard to believe Van Gundy gets or even wants another head coaching job at this stage of his life, and it just doesn’t feel like the right fit for the Knicks at this moment.

Favorites

Taylor Jenkins

The Memphis Grizzlies decision to fire Jenkins in late March was so shocking that everyone assumed there was another shoe to drop. In reality, the Grizzlies felt like they needed a new voice as he neared the completion of his sixth-season in charge. Jenkins had plenty of success in Memphis, winning 56 games in 2022 and 51 game in 2023, but he only won a single playoff series. Jenkins has a rare mix of experience and youth at 40 years old that could make him an intriguing candidate, but it’s hard to view him as the coach to get New York to a championship level when he never even made the conference finals in Memphis.

Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Mike Budenholzer

How much will Budenholzer’s nightmare season in Phoenix hurt his reputation? The head coach only lasted one season with the Suns after a terrible 36-win campaign when the team was supposed to be a contender in the Western Conference with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. The Suns’ roster had many issues outside of Budenholzer’s control, but it’s fair to point out that he did much worse than former coach Frank Vogel with a similar roster one year later. Budenholzer, now 55 years old, has been known as an elite regular season coach who struggles to make adjustments in the playoffs for most of his career. He still led the Bucks to a 2021 NBA championship, and has a way of maximizing his teams’ defensive personnel while also getting them to shoot a lot of threes. Coach Bud has always felt like a very high floor coach whose playoff ceiling remains a question even after his championship ring. The Knicks could come away with a much, much worse hire, but he doesn’t feel like the upside swing the franchise is looking for right now.

Mike Malone

Malone will be considered a top candidate for every NBA opening until he takes another job. The 53-year-old head coach helped build the Denver Nuggets into a Western Conference juggernaut behind Nikola Jokic, which culminated in the first NBA championship in franchise history in 2023. Malone’s combative style and cold war with GM Calvin Booth eventually wore thin on everyone in the organization, and he was fired with three games left in the regular season in a stunning decision. Malone is a Queens native, and his personality would play well in New York. Malone has shown adaptability in tailoring his schemes to maximize his best players, and he was among the first people to recognize Jokic’s greatness. Still, Malone has a reputation for being stubborn in a way that feels a little too similar to Thibodeau. This is the probably the safest hire of the bunch given his recent championship ring, but I wonder if the Knicks really want to tie their future to him.

Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images

Johnnie Bryant

If the Knicks want Bryant they better act quickly: he’s one of two finalists for the open Phoenix Suns job right now, which could be decided by the end of the week. Bryant has never been a head coach at 39 years old, but he has plenty of experience with the Knicks. After eight seasons as an assistant with the Utah Jazz, Bryant joined Thibodeau’s staff with the Knicks and earned a positive reputation for his player development. He bolted to join Kenny Atkinson’s staff with the Cleveland Cavaliers ahead of this season, and played a role in the Cavs’ amazing turnaround. James Dolan and Leon Rose are as familiar with Bryant as anyone, and the timing of Thibodeau’s firing coming a day after the report that Bryant is a finalist for the Suns job should raise some eyebrows. It would be a bit surprising if the Knicks hired a new coach in the next few days, but the longer the Suns’ search takes to play out, the more speculation there will be about Bryant going back to New York.

Could the Knicks pluck a coach currently employed by another team?

I was a bit surprised to see ace Knicks beat reporter Ian Begley name Jason Kidd, Ime Udoka, and Chris Finch as potential Knicks candidates in his recent dispatch. Begley noted Kidd and Finch are unlikely, and Udoka would require a trade with the Rockets.

The Knicks’ job is appealing because they are all in on the present trying to win a championship. Being in the East doesn’t hurt either, especially with Jayson Tatum and Damian Lillard recovering from torn Achilles tendons next season. Firing Thibodeau was controversial and costly enough that the Knicks better get this coaching hire right. Anything less than the franchise’s first title since 1973 will be considered a failure.