Jackson offered Hornacek the spot after considering former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt and Indiana Pacers Frank Vogel, as well as interim Kurt Rambis, who guided the Knicks to a 9-19 record after Derek Fisher was dismissed.
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Recently-hired New York Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek has officially been given the keys to one of the NBA’s most storied franchises.
When the New York Knicks introduce the 28 head coach in team history tomorrow at noon from the MSG Training Center, MSG Network (NYSE:MSGN) will be there to telecast the entire proceeding live.
“Jeff has a tremendous basketball acumen and possesses strong leadership skills”, Jackson said in a statement. Both are players who the Knicks coach will have no interest in because of the style of play he wants to implement.
“The team that was featured here three years ago, although they had come from a rather decent year four seasons ago, where they did win [54] games, they had a collection of older players, veteran players”, Jackson said. In his previous two seasons he had finished 48-34 and 39-43. Outside of that, there are not going to be a ton of scoring-point guards available in free agency. I was hoping the Knicks would go after someone like former Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, former Golden State assistant Luke Walton, or former Knicks guard and Warrior’s coach Mark Jackson, but I think Hornacek will be just fine.
“There must be something about the phrase “triangle offense”, Hornacek said. If we can find a middle guy to bridge those two guys, it would be good.
– Jackson suggested that Hornacek was actually the first coach he spoke to – in LA around when Hornacek’s daughter was graduating from USC. Jackson has previously only had guys that have run the triangle offense.
Conversely, Hornacek’s teams in Phoenix during his first two full seasons at the helm ranked eighth and third in pace.
Hornacek was previously with the Phoenix Suns as their head coach for the last three seasons and went 101-112 in his time; he was sacked in late January after starting the season at 14-35. NBA Rookie of the Year Karl-Anthony Towns and Porzingis were unanimous selections to the NBA All-Rookie First Team.
Young, athletic, and with a seemingly endless ceiling, Hornacek has already dreamt up ways to utilize his budding star as an offensive focal point on his quest to remodel one of the NBA’s most stagnant offenses.
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Porzingis exceeded all expectations past year, averaging 14.3 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game in 72 games (all starts).
