Knicks coaching candidates: Michael Malone leads list of six names to watch, plus a wild-card option

Michael Malone, Jeff Van Gundy and Jay Wright are all on this list of possible Tom Thibodeau replacements

Tom Thibodeau was, by far, the best New York Knicks coach of the 21st century. He led the team to the playoffs in four of his five years on the job. The Knicks made the playoffs just four times in the 19 seasons before he was hired. He won four playoff series. Carmelo Anthony only won one as a Knick and he's revered as a team icon. He took a team from seven consecutive lottery seasons to six wins away from a championship.

And he still got fired. Those last six wins are the hardest. The Knicks are no longer grasping for respectability. This is a team that just invested six first-round picks into the trade market. The result was one more regular-season win, a slightly worse net rating, and a playoff run that at least partially boiled down to being healthier than they were a year ago. They are firmly in championship-or-bust mode in a wide-open Eastern Conference, and the Knicks, probably correctly, determined that Thibodeau is not the coach to take them over the top.

For everything Thibodeau did to build a culture in New York, he lacked the sort of adaptability and creativity championship coaches need nowadays. He rarely experimented with lineups in the regular season, so when the Knicks fell down 2-0 in the Eastern Conference finals at home, he was forced to do so from a position of desperation. His offense was bland and unimaginative, frequently boiling down to four players watching Jalen Brunson dribble. He had no defensive answer for Indiana's speed.