The Knicks’ franchise has finally found continuity

In sports, you rarely see a team pop up out of nowhere and win it all. An unfortunate truth of the nature of sports is that it might take four or five cracks with the same nucleus to get over the top. The Celtics finally got over the hump by adding strong reinforcements to their core centered around Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. The Nuggets got over the hump as their core of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Michael Porter Jr. matured under coach Michael Malone. The duo of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton took several years to make and win the NBA Finals. There’s also, of course, the Warriors. They won four titles with their continuity of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green under Steve Kerr (although two of those titles also came with a certain Slim Reaper). Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Phil Jackson won six titles. Do you see what I’m getting at here?

A level of organizational continuity is needed to get to the top, barring a godsend like prime LeBron James entering the fray. Unfortunately, for a long time, there were no two greater antonyms in the English language than the New York Knicks and continuity.

From 1968 to 2001, the Knicks had ten head coaches, a few being interim. Red Holzman coached twelve full seasons, Pat Riley coached four before he was lured to South Beach, and Jeff Van Gundy led the way for five full seasons. When Van Gundy was fired 19 games into 2001-02, the carousel began spinning for 20 years. Don Chaney replaced him, got a full season, and got canned with executive Scott Layden early in 2003-04. That ushered in the Isiah Thomas era. Former NBA champion with Seattle, Lenny Wilkens, got canned after 81 games in two partial seasons. Herb Williams had interim head coach titles in back-to-back seasons.

The Knicks scooped up a hot free agent in back-to-back Eastern Conference champion Larry Brown after he was bought out by Detroit. He went 23-59 in 2005-06 and got fired after an extremely ugly season. James Dolan then tabbed Isiah Thomas to be a Bill Belichick and also coach, but he got canned in both positions after two more seasons of tarnishing the Knicks brand. Donnie Walsh then hired Mike D’Antoni, who finally got the team back to the playoffs after a bit longer leash. His spats with new franchise star Carmelo Anthony led to his departure for Mike Woodson. When Woody got fired after a nosedive in 2013-14, things got really, really bad.

Derek Fisher won 40 games out of 136 as coach. Kurt Rambis finished out the 2015-16 season. Two seasons of former sharpshooter Jeff Hornacek. 104 games of David Fizdale. Mike Miller taking the team into the pandemic. All in all, from 2001 to 2021, the Knicks had fourteen different head coaches, starting with JVG and ending with Tom Thibodeau.

Barring a very un-Thibs-like scandal, Tom Thibodeau will start his fifth season as Knicks coach on October 22nd. The last Knicks coach to do that was Jeff Van Gundy. If Thibs finishes this and next season, he will be the first Knicks coach to coach six consecutive seasons in full since Red Holzman’s nine in a row, ending in 1977. That’s remarkable. Tom Thibodeau is 27 games away from fourth place in Knicks franchise history for games coached. This is only possible because, for the first time, there isn’t a dysfunctional chain in the organizational link. The players can be toxic and cause a negative environment. The coach can be stubborn and cause locker room strife. The front office can get embroiled in outside scandals and make terrible personnel decisions. This is brand new for the Knicks.

A further sign of this is the player personnel. Mitchell Robinson’s struggle to stay healthy has been a valid criticism in recent years. Robinson has a case to be the Knicks’ X-Factor for 2024-25 because of the shallow center depth chart following the departure of Isaiah Hartenstein. That said, if you bought a Mitchell Robinson jersey in 2019 (hopefully, you didn’t buy his 26 as a rookie), you could still wear it today. I got this idea for the article by reading this Stefan Bondy tweet about Mitch, which is absolutely wild:

If Mitchell Robinson finishes this season, he will be the first Knick to complete seven seasons with the franchise since Allan Houston. Houston played his last NBA game on January 19, 2005. 20 years and the 6.5 years of Carmelo Anthony have represented longevity. The Knicks spent a long time in the bottom half of the graphics of “longest-tenured player”. The pick that became Mitchell Robinson was acquired for Carmelo Anthony. He was drafted the same year as Trae Young, Jalen Brunson, and Luka Doncic. Even if injuries can sometimes make you forget about how much of a beast he is, he’s one of the longest-tenured Knicks in the 21st century and should be appreciated.

Another piece of stability and continuity can be found in the franchise’s superstar, savior, and captain. Not only is this the first time the team has felt confident enough to name a captain in six years, but Brunson is due to start at point guard for the third consecutive season. The last Knicks PG to do that was Stephon Marbury from 2004-07. Tommy Beer tweeted last week something incredible: the Knicks haven’t had the same head coach and same starting point guard on Opening Night in three consecutive years since Jeff Van Gundy and Charlie Ward from 1996 to 2000.

What if we add in the executive? Leon Rose is beginning his fifth year at the helm. Let’s assume Rose, Brunson, and Thibodeau all survive the 2024-25 season together. If that happens, that’s four straight years of the same GM/POBO, the same head coach, and the same starting point guard. Ernie Grunfield being dismissed midway through 1998-99 basically means this has been unprecedented for a while. In my extremely crude research, I determined that the last time the Knicks had four straight seasons with the same floor general, head coach, and executive was in the 1970s with Clyde Frazier and Red Holzman (who was both HC and GM). Wow!

Those teams in the ‘70s won two titles. Although they could be argued as having continuity, the 1990s Knicks still had moving parts. Pat Riley’s defecting for South Beach stops them from reaching 1970s levels. Would the Knicks have gotten over the top if he stayed? Who knows.

Continuity is important. Every single franchise pursues it. The Knicks, after years of chasing it, finally have it at a level that has been mostly unseen since the franchise’s glory days in the 1970s.

And boy, is it refreshing.