Knicks lose top replay man Scott King to Spurs in coaching quandary

The Knicks just lost their player development coach — and their challenge ace — when Scott King left for San Antonio.

King — well regarded in the Garden and in league circles — had not only risen to assistant director of player development, but was also in charge of coach’s challenges, responsible for advising head coach Tom Thibodeau with a thumbs up or down. And it’s been an area of strength for the Knicks.

“In certain situations, we feel there’s an advantage to knowing that you’re 100% certain, that you’re still gonna have one,” Thibodeau said during the Knicks’ run to the Eastern Conference semifinals this past season according to Yahoo.

King, according to Thibodeau, had been researching challenge trends across the rest of the NBA “and we’ve actually been very successful with it.”

Highly successful.

With this past campaign being the first full season that teams had been awarded an additional challenge, the Knicks were more aggressive utilizing challenges early in games from the midway point on.

King, ubiquitous with his iPad ready to advise Thibodeau, was a huge part of that.

The Knicks won 47 challenges, the 11th most in the NBA.

They led the league in both total challenges (8) and successful challenges (6) during the first round of the playoffs, saving an estimated 7.88 points in six games against the 76ers, a series that saw them outscore Philadelphia just 650-649.

King was largely responsible for that, along with two more successful reviews in their second-round opener against Indiana.

But now he’s leaving to take over as the head coach of the Austin Spurs, San Antonio’s G League affiliate.

The move was first reported by ESPN, and confirmed by The Post.

A former player for Stony Brook, King had spent the last six years in the Garden, coming up through the video room as so many recent top coaches have.

After getting his initial job doing basketball operations for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants back in 2017, he was a video intern for the Detroit Pistons the next year.

King came to the Knicks as assistant video coordinator in 2019, and earned a promotion to assistant director of player development.

Some may recall King for an incident in 2021-22 when Julius Randle disrespectfully brushed the former’s iPad away and walked away from the coach as he was trying to show the power forward something.

It wasn’t a good look for Randle, but the young coach was undaunted and stood up for himself.

Thibodeau downplayed the incident at the time, and is said to hold King in high regard.

Now he’ll have to replace the former Stony Brook product, and his replay right-hand man.