{"id":86300,"date":"2025-06-09T06:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T06:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/86300\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T06:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T06:34:10","slug":"knicks-notes-culture-malone-brunson-towns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/86300\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks Notes: Culture, Malone, Brunson, Towns"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a lot that can be learned about Knicks\u2018 relationship with former head coach Tom Thibodeau and his recent firing, through the lens of what makes certain business cultures particularly effective, organizational behavior professor Spencer Harrison writes for The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Harrison points to a specific moment in the Knicks\u2019 season as indicative of the larger institutional issues at play: a March statement<\/a> from Mikal Bridges<\/a> in which Bridges referenced having had discussions with Thibodeau about the starters\u2019 minutes load, and Thibodeau\u2019s subsequent denial<\/a> of such a conversation taking place.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone who studies the cultures of businesses and organizations, I found Thibodeau\u2019s response telling. To me, it suggested a stubbornness and unwillingness to consider other options, as if the conversation wasn\u2019t even worth having,\u201d Spencer writes.<\/p>\n

Spencer also refers to a study of creative teams employing generalists versus specialists and which tends to yield the maximum creative output. The conclusion of the study, according to Spencer, was that people who had been introduced to a variety of approaches tended to be more adaptable and creative in their problem-solving. That stands in stark contrast to the notoriously stubborn Thibodeau, whose methods have yielded a great deal of success, but have at times caused his teams to struggle to adapt on the fly.<\/p>\n

However, Spencer warns that simply firing Thibodeau does not guarantee positive results for the Knicks. As he notes, there are plenty of examples in the business world of leadership changes not working because a newcomer wants to implement an entirely new philosophy and culture, rather than building on what the previous regime did right.<\/p>\n

We have more Knicks notes:<\/p>\n

The Knicks should hire former Nuggets coach Michael Malone, opines Troy Renck of the Denver Post<\/a>. While Malone\u2019s tenure in Denver came to an abrupt end, Renck believes that his competitiveness, willingness to challenge his players, and media savvy would make him a great fit for the Knicks, who generally require their coach to serve as the main point of contact for the media. However, Renck does note that many of the frustrations with Thibodeau, including his over-reliance on starters and lack of trust in non-established bench players, are present with Malone as well, which could make for a complicated dynamic for a team looking to adjust its approach.
\nJalen Brunson<\/a> offered his first take on the Thibodeau firing, albeit in a \u201cpictures are worth a thousand words\u201d manner, writes the New York Post\u2019s Bryan Fonseca<\/a>. The star point guard posted a photo of himself and the recently fired coach on Instagram with two emojis: a white heart and a hand with its fingers crossed. It was a characteristically understated response from Brunson, who had previously gone to bat for Thibodeau. Following the end of the team\u2019s playoff run, Brunson was quoted<\/a> as saying, \u201cIs that a real question right now? You just asked me if I believe he\u2019s the right guy. Yes. Come on,\u201d when asked if Thibodeau was the right coach for the job. This was his first public comment following the firing.
\nLast summer\u2019s trade between the Knicks and Timberwolves represented one of the rarest things in the NBA: a true win-win deal, according to The Athletic\u2019s Jon Krawczynski and James Edwards III<\/a>. The Knicks needed a center after free agent Isaiah Hartenstein<\/a> left for Oklahoma City and Mitchell Robinson<\/a>\u2018s injury rehabilitation took longer than expected. Meanwhile, the Wolves were dealing with a complicated salary cap situation for a roster they weren\u2019t sure could sustain itself as a title contender. While the two stars headlining the deal, Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> for the Wolves and Julius Randle<\/a> for the Knicks, were both shocked by the news, especially so close to training camp, both players ended up adjusting to their new surroundings \u2014 and both ended up in their respective Conference Finals. \u201cI think if you had asked either front office last year, \u2018Hey, worst-case scenario, you\u2019ll lose in the conference finals?\u2019 I think we\u2019d have probably taken it even though we both have higher aspirations,\u201d Wolves president Tim Connelly said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a lot that can be learned about Knicks\u2018 relationship with former head coach Tom Thibodeau and his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,288,4231,1416],"class_list":{"0":"post-86300","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-jalen-brunson","10":"tag-michael-malone","11":"tag-tom-thibodeau"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114652018337675574","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}