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Five Dark Horse Candidates to Coach the New York Knicks
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The New York Knicks were reportedly rebuffed in their approach for Quin Snyder:
According to Shams, that’s now four teams in Atlanta, Dallas, Minnesota, and Houston that have rejected New York requests to talk to their head coaches. Jay Wright is reportedly uninterested in the job, so the Knicks are either 0-4 or 0-5, depending on whether or not Wright was on their shortlist. Coincidentally, 0-4 or 0-5 is how the New York Giants will begin their regular season.
With the rumor mill relatively quiet otherwise, here are some dark horse candidates to lead the Nova Knicks over the hump and into the NBA Finals for the first time since the second Harry Potter book was published:
Eddie Jordan
Jordan led the Sixers to 27 wins in the 2009-2010 season. What a year that was. Andre Iguodala led the team with 17.1 points per game. Lou Williams and a young Thaddeus Young kicked in 14 each. They had Elton Brand during his first Sixers stint and a rookie Jrue Holiday. If the Knicks need help installing the Princeton offense, they know where to look.
Doug Collins
Many believe the Knicks have reached their ceiling. One man who knows a lot about hitting ceilings is Doug Collins, who took the pre-Process group of Iguodala, Holiday, Lou Will, Evan Turner, and Spencer Hawes to a couple of .500ish seasons, including a miracle run to game seven of the second round. Who could forget Iggy jumping on the table after hitting a couple of free throws to sink the Derrick Rose-less Bulls? That team gave the Celtics fits in round two and maybe Collins brings some of that magic with him to New York.
Tony DiLeo
Is the Tony DiLeo bump a real thing? It must be said the Sixers had a winning record in the short time after he relieved Mo Cheeks back in 2008 and 2009. DiLeo took a 9-14 team, finished 41-41, and then went out in the first round to an Orlando team that went all the way to the finals. Unfortunately the combo of Iggy and Andre Miller was not enough for prime Dwight Howard, who averaged 24 and 16 in the series.
Jim Lynam
Coach is likely happy doing his postgame Sixers commentary and otherwise enjoying retirement. But what if the Knicks came calling? “Jim, we have a job for you, we need you to get us over the hump and into the finals.” He can’t say no to that. His assistant coaches could be members of the 1990 Sixers. Charles Barkley, Hersey Hawkins, and Johnny Dawkins lured away from UCF. Mike Gminski is President of Bball Ops and Rick Mahorn handles analytics.
Doc Rivers
Doc coached the 2008 Celtics to a title and then won the heralded in-season tournament with the Milwaukee Bucks. He has also won three games in a playoff series many times before. Perhaps the Bucks would be willing to let the Knicks make them an offer for one of the greatest coaches of all time.
Photos via IMAGN images
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com