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ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins is warning New York Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau ahead of this year’s postseason. With the playoffs only weeks away, Thibodeau rested most of his starting lineup, a strategy hoping to give his guys extra juice ahead of what the Knicks hope is a deep playoff run. If not, Perkins predicts New York will go its separate ways with the veteran head coach.
Perkins believes the Knicks are heading into the playoffs with Thibodeau on the hot seat, per ESPN’s Get Up.
“I’m looking at Tom Thibodeau right now, and I’m saying you’re in the hot seat. You’re under pressure. What they gave up to get Mikal Bridges, you go and you get Karl-Anthony Towns in the off-season. So, you basically went all in, and the Knicks are on record saying that we’re on record saying that we’re trying to get the personnel to match the defending champs,” Perkins said. “So, I’m looking at what’s happening across the league.
“We watched the firing of Taylor Jenkins. We watched Michael Malone get fired. Tom Thibodeau had better make it to the conference finals; otherwise, I don’t see him being the head coach of the New York Knicks past this season,” Perkins concluded.
After seeing two playoff-bound head coaches, former Memphis Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins and former Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone, relieved of their duties, Kendrick Perkins’ point is valid. An early playoff exit from the Knicks could result in Thibodeau becoming the next NBA coach to lose his job.
Does Kevin Durant to the Knicks hinge on playoff run?
One NBA writer believes Suns All-Star Kevin Durant’s potential move to the Knicks hinges on the playoffs. In an attempt to catch up to the champion Celtics, the Knicks could be in the market for Durant, per the New York Post’s Stefan Bondy.
“It all depends on what happens in the playoffs. Mikal Bridges, they traded five 1st round picks to get him,” Bondy said. “If for whatever reason they bomb in the playoffs and Mikal Bridges is up for a contract extension after this season and they decide that’s not the direction they want to go, then I could see a movement towards a player like Kevin Durant.”
However, if the Knicks’ season were to end in a best-of-7 Eastern Conference Finals defeat against the Celtics, they’ll most likely run it back with a relatively similar team in 2025-26.
