Although it's unclear if the New York Knicks consider David Blatt to be a serious coaching candidate, the former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach believes he is.
According to The New York Times‘ Harvey Araton, Blatt walked away from his meeting with Phil Jackson last month believing he was a “legit coaching candidate:”
“According to a person close to Blatt, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the current coaching search, Blatt at least came away from his chat with Jackson with the belief that he was a legitimate candidate for the Knicks job.”
Blatt is one of the biggest names on the free agent coaching market. He was relieved of his head-coaching duties with the Cavaliers in January of this year despite compiling a 30-11 record this season. No coach in sports history had a better win percentage (.732) through that many games in a season when they were fired.
However, the Knicks seem very keen on making Kurt Rambis the full-time head coach. Rambis served as the interim head coach for New York during the finals 28 games of the 2015-16 season.
The question is, what was Blatt's selling point during his interview with Jackson? Apparently, he pitched himself as a defensive-minded coach willing to embrace the triangle:
“He pitched himself to Jackson as a defensive-minded coach who, while playing collegiately at Princeton, was reared on the joy of a deliberate, five-man offense and therefore amenable to embracing Jackson's beloved triangle. He reminded Jackson that he initially went to Cleveland in 2014 to coach a young, undisciplined Cavaliers team, a work in progress. That was before James suddenly returned as the homecoming King, when the Cavs were essentially the Knicks, minus the veteran shotmaking of Carmelo Anthony.”
The bottom line is, if you want to coach the Knicks, you're gonna have to run the triangle offense. In other words, you're going to do what Phil Jackson tells you to do.
While Rambis' relationship with Jackson may be too strong for New York to hire Blatt, it's at least nice to know the former Cavaliers head coach knows what the Knicks job will entail.