{"id":104696,"date":"2025-08-29T04:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T04:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/104696\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T04:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T04:56:08","slug":"knicks-tom-thibodeau-firing-still-doesnt-make-sense-to-ty-lue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/104696\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks’ Tom Thibodeau firing still ‘doesn’t make sense’ to Ty Lue"},"content":{"rendered":"

An esteemed member of the NBA coaching circle believes Tom Thibodeau\u2019s dismissal was nonsensical.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould he have been fired? Hell no,\u201d Ty Lue, the current Clippers coach, said on the \u201cClub Shay Shay<\/a>\u201d podcast. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s the first time they\u2019ve been to the conference finals in 25 years. Twenty-five years! And so, the city was on fire, the fans were on fire. The players did a hell of a job. And Thibs did a hell of a job. And to take a team to their first [conference finals] in 25 years and then get fired, like, it just doesn\u2019t make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still with three years and over $35 million remaining on his Knicks contract, Thibodeau was surprisingly fired<\/a> just a few days after his team was eliminated by the Pacers in Game 6 of the East finals.<\/p>\n

Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau reacts during a game against the Celtics last season. Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/p>\n

The reasons were never explained on the record by the Knicks, other than a news release statement from team president Leon Rose that began, \u201cOur organization is singularly focused on winning a championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lue, meanwhile, rejected the idea that Thibodeau should\u2019ve been punished for losing to the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals, an opponent that looked inferior on paper but caught fire in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Indiana fell one win short of the championship after Tyrese Haliburton blew out his Achilles in Game 7 of the Finals against the Thunder.<\/p>\n

The Pacers also beat Doc Rivers\u2019 Bucks and Kenny Atkinson\u2019s Cavaliers in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo everybody that Indiana beat, you want to fire their coach?\u201d Lue, who was mentored by Thibodeau when they both worked on the Celtics staff over a decade ago, said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lue, considered among the NBA\u2019s elite coaches, indicated the Knicks circumstances bring unfair pressure to Thibodeau\u2019s replacement, Mike Brown<\/a>, who needs a rapid NBA Finals appearance to outshine his predecessor.<\/p>\n

Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau speaking to his team. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

Lue compared it to his first head coaching opportunity with the Cavaliers in 2016, when he took over a squad that advanced to the NBA Finals the season prior. It worked out for Lue and the Cavs, who immediately won the championship.<\/p>\n

But the bar was certainly high \u2014 and the Knicks, unlike the Cavaliers back then, don\u2019t have the benefit of rostering a prime LeBron James.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a tough spot to be in,\u201d Lue said.<\/p>\n

Clippers coach Tyronn Lue on \u2018Club Shay Shay\u2019 Club Shay Shay\/YouTube<\/p>\n

Further defending Thibodeau, Lue dismissed the common critiques about minutes distributions and overworking players. As the Clippers coach, Lue handled two aging and brittle stars \u2014 Kawhi Leonard and Paul George \u2014 while accumulating winning records in each of his five seasons.<\/p>\n

Before the last campaign, Lue hired Thibodeau\u2019s good buddy and longtime colleague, Jeff Van Gundy, as an assistant.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever it takes. Do whatever it takes to win,\u201d Lue said about the complaints about Thibodeau\u2019s minutes distribution. \u201cYou don\u2019t want guys to practice, now you don\u2019t want guys to play? They already get games off, but you don\u2019t want them to play minutes either?\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever the reason for firing Thibs, Lue thought the decision was nuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike I said, I thought Thibs did a great job,\u201d Lue said. \u201cBut you never know the inside of what\u2019s going on with the organization. But everywhere he\u2019s been, he wins. Everywhere. Chicago, Minnesota, Knicks, every team he\u2019s been on has gotten better, you know? And to do that, I thought it was crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An esteemed member of the NBA coaching circle believes Tom Thibodeau\u2019s dismissal was nonsensical. \u201cShould he have been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,2901,3543,82,59948,59949],"class_list":{"0":"post-104696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-new-york-knicks","12":"tag-ny-sports-minute","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tom-thibodeau","15":"tag-tyronn-lue"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}