Is it an opportunity or a self-destruction? Is it correct to fire Thibodeau?

Overall, the NBA playoffs are a high-level challenge to test the team. Real strong teams can stand out, and for some pseudo-strong teams, they are likely to show their true colors on the playoff stage.

For the Knicks, they may be the most obvious team to interpret the latter. They wandered through the victory carnival after years of darkness. New York fans enjoyed the joy of victory that they had never had before, but were also experiencing the most unacceptable collapse moment in league history.

They played excellent results in the regular season, but in the playoffs, they defeated the Pistons in the first round and defeated the defending Celtics in the second round. In the end, they lost all their energy in the conversation with the Pacers and fell in front of the same opponent for two consecutive years. From an optimistic perspective, the Knicks are already the most representative tough and iron-blooded team in the league, but continuous early elimination will inevitably give people reasons to question them.

Under this ambiguous view, the Knicks chose to fire Thibodeau after being eliminated in the season. The coach who accompanied the team out of the darkness, his traces were everywhere in the process of the Knicks' rise, leading the team to achieve the best playoff results in New York in 25 years. It is precisely because of his controversial coaching model that all this for the Knicks has become possible.

This decision to change coach may not be a bad thing for New York. Perhaps a more enlightened and more flexible coach will take over the team in the future and lead almost the same lineup to a higher level is a possible expected result next season. But at the same time, they also need to consider some unpredictable variables, some unlucky moments, or the tactical qualities of the next chief commander.

But in addition to this move, it is inevitable that people will recall the New York scenery before Lyon Ross entered the team's general manager in 2020.

From the dark time of missing the playoffs from 2014 to 2020, the Knicks' record was 184 wins and 374 losses, with a winning rate of only 33%, ranking at the bottom among the 30 teams in the league. During this period, the Knicks head coach's position is undoubtedly a hot potato. He has not played a playoff game in seven years, and six head coaches have been selected, namely Mike Woodson, Derek Fisher, Kurt Lambis, Jeff Hornersek, David Fitzdale and Mike Miller.

After this, the Knicks finally waited for their savior. After Thiboddeau took office, the New York Knicks won 20 more games than the previous season, and the team's defensive efficiency has improved from 23rd in the league to 4th in the league, and Thiboddeau won the second best coaching trophy in his coaching career.

Tibodeau led the Knicks to win 50 wins for two consecutive seasons, the first time in New York since the 1990s. But now Thibodeau is out of class, and in a daze, we see the team back to an impatient situation again, with some signs of self-destruction. Thibodeau is indeed not perfect, but it is undeniable that he is the third key figure in the team to bring stability since Pat Riley and Van Gundy.

After the Knicks were eliminated, the initial media reports pointed out that the team's senior executives represented by Lyon Ross expressed support for Thibodeau, but less than 48 hours later, Lyon Ross issued a dismissal statement through the team's public relations department. It is not difficult to doubt what happened to the senior executives of the Knicks during this period.

According to the revelation of ESPN reporter Shams, all this was pointed at the team boss James Dolan.

This is not surprising. If a team boss who is rational enough and willing to hand over basketball affairs to the professional team, he would not have made such a decision. But now, with senior management intervening in team personnel changes, it seems difficult not to remind people of the times before Thibodeau came to New York, and the dark age was definitely something that everyone was reluctant to review.

At present, the reasons for dismissing Thibodeau can be roughly attributed to several views: Although his stubborn philosophy can raise the lower limit, it may also limit the upper limit. He knows how to win in the NBA, but can't seem to lead the team to the championship.

For Thibodeau's coaching style, it has always been a harsh feeling, while the players are always in a state of fatigue, and sometimes it is an unreasonable requirement for the players. His five starting players have more playing time than all five-player combinations in the NBA. Bridges and Hart are the first and second players in the league in terms of playing time, and Anunobi is also in the top ten in the league.

As a very good first-half team on paper, his rotation lineup is even more nervous than most teams in the lower half, and even teams outside the playoffs. In Thibodeau's eyes, it seems that every regular season game is a key battle that must be won, and there will never be a chance to explore new lineups and adjust new rotations.

From the perspective of conventional philosophy, for most truly competitive teams, the head coach will start trying different lineups between October and March of the following year, testing the lineup ceiling possibility with long-term goals.

When other teams in the league began to pay attention to versatile rotation and large-scale defense swaps, Thibodeau's Knicks always ranked last in the league in terms of screen swap swaps. This is not a fatal shortcoming, but it can still show some degree of rigidity. Perhaps it is the limitation of the players themselves, or it may be the embodiment of Thibodeau's coaching philosophy, but whenever the team needs to make adjustments on the spot, this link may become a big problem.

However, on the playoff stage this season, the Knicks unexpectedly executed a large number of defense switches to deal with different opponents. Thibodeau did choose to expand the rotation lineup and actively changed the starting lineup when needed. If you only look at the coaching performance in this round of the series and rashly conclude that he is the main reason for the Knicks' final defeat, it is indeed too far-fetched.

From some perspectives, some criticisms of Thibodeau are reasonable, but it should also be admitted that he can always squeeze out the greatest value of combat power from those not perfect lines.

Just looking at this season, the Knicks finally tasted true success. The offseason big moves introduced Towns, and the new lineup was difficult to get used to at the beginning of the season, but the team eventually reached the Eastern Conference Finals. Judging from the entire season, a team that has already had flaws and tight resources, but has won more than the expected number of wins, which seems to be a regression.

But in the end, the management chose to fire Thibodeau. Judging from this decision, it is not difficult to understand that in the minds of the team's senior management, the senior management's expectations for Thibodeau and the Knicks this season may be quite strict, and they will fail if they don't win the championship.

The decision of management choosing to regard Thibodeau as a team issue is not difficult to understand, because the head coach is the easiest part to be replaced. Towns and Brunson are still the best-ranked stars in their year-old team, but they also happen to be weak defensive rings in their respective positions.

When they appear at the same time, the team's defensive shortcomings will be completely amplified. And Thibodeau is also trying to solve this problem by letting only one of them appear. But in the situation where all Pacers fired, this move ultimately failed.

From the team's current team, if you choose to keep Thibodeau and then use the team's middle-class special case to add a rotation player, there will be basically no problem with the Knicks' lineup. Within this price range, the Knicks can still find many suitable reinforcement options, such as Dinwiddie, Horford, Oubre, Kennard and even Chris Paul. , these people may become candidates for strengthening under this price.

Finally emphasized that the decision to fire Thibodeau may fail or be successful. After the reality cannot be changed, it mainly depends on the subsequent reactions of the new coach and the players. From the perspective of the horse's back row, this is more likely to be seen as a mistake.

Sometimes, when the team changes the head coach, you can really see the new value of the same group of players under the new system; but from a pessimistic perspective, perhaps you will regret it after losing the key characters. It turns out that what you once had is so beautiful.