Jeff Hornacek was in a no-win situation with the Knicks this year. The team didn't have enough talent to make a real playoff run without everything going right and a lot of luck. In no way was it his fault the Knicks were not a playoff team. Hornacek knows basketball and seems like a fine person. But the Knicks still made the right move in making a change.
After two years on the bench, it was hard to argue Hornacek showed the aptitude and detailed attention needed to coach the Knicks when they are finally ready to make some noise in the playoffs. He struggled with putting cohesive and balanced lineups together, often playing multiple terrible defenders at the same time. (See Enes Kanter, Jarrett Jack, Michael Beasley, Emmanuel Mudiay.) He would seemingly ignore lineup data that showed what groups of players were most effective on the floor together at the same time and instead kept running out groups that had terrible plus/minuses together.
He also struggled with simple offense/defense substitutions at the end of games, leaving players such as Kanter and Beasley on the floor on defensive possessions when a stop would put the game away. He preached defense but then refused to play his better defensive players more minutes and instead blamed his players for not trying hard enough. Defense is a skill, and some guys don't have it.
Hornacek's offense, surprisingly, also retained too many characteristics from Phil Jackson's stewardship of the team. The Knicks were near the top of the league in midrange 2-point shots taken per game. They shot the second fewest 3-pointers in the league. It's hard to win playing that way in the modern NBA.
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Finally, Hornacek struggled to maintain the balance of playing youngsters to help the team in future years and maximizing veteran minutes to win now. There was no reason for Willy Hernangomez, traded to Charlotte in February, to be completely buried on the bench, nor for rookie Frank Ntilikina to play so few minutes at the start of the season while the 34-year-old Jack played close to 30. Rookie Damyean Dotson being stapled to the bench is another fair bone of contention.
With Hornacek, a Jackson hire, as their head coach, the Knicks were still in a transition phase between the Zen Master's time as Knicks president and the current regime of new president Steve Mills and general manager Scott Perry. It was time for that transition to end and for the new regime to install a head coach that will mold the identity of the franchise moving forward.
This is what Jackson tried to do when he hired Derek Fisher in 2014, but he hired the wrong guy and jumped ship after only a season and a half. It's what Donnie Walsh did in 2008 when he hired Mike D'Antoni, but then the Knicks traded for Carmelo Anthony, and the rest is history. It's what Isiah Thomas tried to do when he hired Larry Brown in 2005, and we all know how that went.
Needless to say, the Knicks have not chosen well when making this decision in the past. The new regime needs to get this right. With Kristaps Porzingis returning from injury at some point next season and the franchise likely having the salary cap space for a max free agent in the summer of 2019, the organization needs stability.
Whomever the team hires needs to be given a lot of rope to grow with and mold a young team the way he sees fit. He has to coach the team for at least three or four years before a change is even considered. That type of stability is what makes players like Porzingis want to stay and what makes the team attractive to outside free agents. It's also how you eventually build a young team into a winner. Constantly changing coaches makes all of that exceedingly difficult.
The most important aspect of the new hire is that he has to be on the same page as management. The coach and front office wanting to play different styles needs to be a thing of the past. The coach should also embrace the proven modern day analytics regarding 3-point and midrange shots. There's no arguing against it anymore. The fact that the 3-pointer, layup and free throw are the three most efficient shots in basketball is proven. It is fact. The Knicks need to understand and embrace that. Finally, the new coach has to focus on defense, something the team hasn't played well since Jeff Van Gundy resigned 17 years ago. You can't win if you are one of the worst defensive teams in the league.
Mark Jackson, a more realistic candidate who runs an archaic offense and struggled to get along with people in Golden State, should be at the bottom of the list, if at all. Former Grizzlies coach David Fizdale should be on top of the list of unemployed coaches with NBA experience. David Blatt, a legendary European coach (and former college teammate of Steve Mills) who couldn't coexist with LeBron James in Cleveland, should be considered. Frank Isola also reported Jerry Stackhouse (with an excellent G League resume with the Raptors) and Craig Robinson (the Knicks' vice president of player development) are also among the options. The former would be fine while the latter would be a comically bad decision. Clippers coach Doc Rivers, as long there is no compensation involved, would be a safe choice as long as he doesn't have a front office role in choosing players.
As I've written about before, Villanova's Jay Wright should be at the top of the list. Tony Bennett, another great college basketball coach at Virginia, is worth investigating as well. It's also worth a call to see if Van Gundy wants to get back into coaching. These are all long shots.
Whomever the Knicks choose, they need to get it right. The franchise cannot afford any more drama or another short stint for a head coach. They need a sustainable long-term culture and play style that can only come from a good coach. The time is now, and the franchise cannot afford another mistake.
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