New York Knicks: What if Mike Budenholzer had been hired in 2018?
What if the New York Knicks had hired Mike Budenholzer?
Throughout the course of NBA history, there are many “what if” scenarios that play out continuously in the minds of fans everywhere. One of the recent ones for the New York Knicks stems back to 2018, in which the team elected to hire David Fizdale as the team’s head coach.
While the Knicks firmly believed that Fizdale was the right hire at the time, it’s recently been revealed that Mike Budenholzer, now Milwaukee Bucks head coach, was genuinely interested in the job. And was nearly hired by the team, before they decided on Fizdale.
You can’t help but wonder, what if Budenholzer was the team’s choice over Fizdale?
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Would the New York Knicks be better off?
It’s almost impossible to look back and know what would’ve happened had the Knicks hired Budenholzer over Fizdale, but we do know the Fizdale experiment didn’t even make it two seasons.
Coach Fizdale was fired after just 22 games into his second season with the club. Even if coach Bud was hired during the 2018 offseason, he wouldn’t have had much to work with in New York. His roster during that first season (2018-19) would’ve included Tim Hardaway Jr. (before he was traded), rookie Kevin Knox, and an injured Kristaps Porzingis (who was also traded).
In short, the Knicks’ roster was a hot mess during that season. At the NBA Trade Deadline, the Knicks elected to trade away its franchise player (Porzingis) and were hoping that Zion Williamson would fall to them at the 2019 NBA Draft Lottery.
As we know now, that didn’t happen. Instead, the Knicks settled for RJ Barrett and are continuing to build a foundation.
Maybe with Budenholzer on board, the Knicks don’t trade Porzingis? Maybe, in some alternate universe, the Knicks still have Kristaps on the roster and coach Bud is helpful in cooling things off between the two sides.
Maybe Barrett and Porzingis create one of the East’s most dynamic duos in 2019-20? And with the emergence of Mitchell Robinson and the myriad of other contributors on the roster, coach Bud has the Knicks playing a little more like a playoff team in the East.
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Playing the “what if” game is never a good idea. However, you can’t help but feel like the Knicks would be in a better place had they hired Mike Budenholzer in 2018. If nothing else, there’s a good chance that they wouldn’t be heading into the 2020 offseason in search of a new leader.