Knicks Planning to Interview Fired Old Coach for Head Coaching Vacancy
By Michael Luciano
The New York Knicks have apparently decided that they aren't sold on interim head coach Mike Miller, as they have already started to look at a few big-name candidates to coach the team in 2020, including deposed Brooklyn Nets coach Kenny Atkinson and former Chicago Bulls mastermind Tom Thibodeau.
Perhaps out of a need to recapture the Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire glory days, the Knicks are also interviewing former head coach Mike Woodson, who was was fired in 2014 after a disappointing 37-45 season.
In addition to Tom Thibodeau, Kenny Atkinson & interim HC Mike Miller, the Knicks are planning to interview former head coach Mike Woodson for their vacancy, per SNY sources. Woodson won 54 games with NYK in 2012-13 and won a playoff series that season, their only one since 2000
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) June 4, 2020
After a successful tenure with the Atlanta Hawks, Woodson landed in New York in 2010, where he helped Anthony and Stoudemire make the playoffs in each of his first two seasons as coach, even reaching the conference semifinals in Year 2. In 2013-14, however, a defensive-minded head coach in Woodson saw players lose faith in his scheme, and he was a dead man walking for the second half of the year.
Woodson spent the next four seasons as an assistant with Doc Rivers and the Los Angeles Clippers. Given his ability to instill a tough, physical defense and co-exist with James Dolan, he might be the man for the job.
MIKE WOODSON GANG STAND UP https://t.co/gog6OOzHFd
— B. W. Carlin (@BaileyCarlin) June 4, 2020
As puzzling a hire as it would be if Woodson were brought back, he was the last coach to have sustained success with the Knicks, so he must know how to co-exist with James Dolan. While Atkinson would be the better hire, Woodson would be solid, if unremarkable and unspectacular.