Is Tom Thibodeau part of the future?
There are plenty of uncertainties revolving around the New York Knicks and one of the bigger ones involves who will end up leading this franchise into its new era of basketball. A couple of years ago, the expectation was that it would be Tom Thibodeau. However, there are no guarantees that he’ll be the man for the job.
Thibs is in this third season as head coach of the Knicks but has been pretty average. He hasn’t been terrible but he also hasn’t been anything special. In fact, you can make the argument that he’s taken a bit of a step back this season.
During Thibs’ first year with the Knicks, he led the team to have a top 5 defense. In their second year, the Knicks had the 12th-best defense. This year, Thibs’ specialty, has not been a specialty for the team. New York has the 23rd-best defense in the league.
If Thibs is not improving the team’s overall defense, you can make the argument that there isn’t much upside to having him on the sidelines. There may be more to it but there has to be at least some doubt that Thibs may not be the future at head coach for the Knicks.