Knicks Firing Tom Thibodeau Reportedly Not Seen as 'Great Shock' by NBA Personnel

The New York Knicks' decision to fire head coach Tom Thibodeau reportedly didn't exactly send shockwaves throughout the rest of the league.

"I think the response I got yesterday from around the NBA yesterday when I talked to them was not so much surprise that Thibodeau had been fired," The Athletic's Mike Vorkunov said during an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show (10:20 mark). "I think there was some uncertainty about his job status going into the playoffs, some belief that the win over the Boston Celtics would keep his job, but obviously the Eastern Conference Finals also wasn't a great showing for Thibodeau. So I don't know if there is some kind of great shock that he got fired. There obviously is some belief that he could've kept his job, but that's the choice that the Knicks made."

While Thibodeau led the Knicks to four playoff appearances in his five seasons as head coach and led them to their first ECF appearance since the 1999-00 season, there were questions about whether he was getting the most out of his talented roster.

He was late to move away from the starting five of Jalen Brunson, Karl-Antony Towns, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart despite their struggles together in the postseason. By the time he moved Hart to the bench in favor of Mitchell Robinson in the ECF, for instance, the Knicks were already in a 2-0 hole against the Indiana Pacers.

And his insistence on playing his starters heavy minutes—a trend throughout his coaching career that has seemed to wear down key players by the time the playoffs rolled around—was publicly called out by Bridges earlier in the season and left the team with a short bench against a high-pace Indiana team who raced them into the ground throughout the series.

The Knicks invested heavily to put together a core group of Brunson, Towns, Bridges and Anunoby, and the expectation was simple—win titles. Instead, the talented Knicks failed to get past Indiana despite having home-court advantage in the series. It was clear the team's leadership, led by president Leon Rose, felt Thibodeau took the Knicks as far as he could.

Who the team hires to replace him will be vital, of course, as will moves they make to better complement the main core and add depth. But a change in leadership, given the context outlined above, wasn't really all that surprising.