INDIANAPOLIS — Jalen Brunson didn’t respect the query.
But it surely needed to be requested.
And Brunson didn’t go away any grey space in his response.
Is Tom Thibodeau the suitable coach to take this Knicks crew to the following stage?
“Is that a real question right now? You just asked me if I believe he’s the right guy,” Brunson mentioned after the Knicks’ 125-108 Recreation 6, season-ending loss to the Pacers on Saturday evening at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. “Yes. Come on.”
Thibodeau accomplished his fifth season with the Knicks, which additionally marked his most profitable with the crew.
He took over a perennial bottom-feeding franchise and reached the postseason 4 of his 5 seasons.
There was year-over-year enchancment almost each season.
This 12 months, he acquired the Knicks inside two wins of the NBA Finals.
However he additionally has by no means reached the Finals in his lengthy profession as a head coach.
It’s led some to wonder if there could be somebody higher to raise the Knicks to that stature.
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For his personal half, Thibodeau believes that subsequent step is inside attain.
“There’s disappointment because you fall short of what your goal is,” Thibodeau mentioned. “And in the long run there’s solely going to be one crew that achieves the objective. So I feel the problem for us is to have a look at it for what it’s. We completed within the prime three. However we’re falling wanting the last word objective.
“For us, it’s to use that as motivation and determination to work all summer to prepare ourselves to make the final step to keep improving so we can achieve our goal. I think that’s the way we have to approach it and that’s the way we have to look at it. It’s improvement from last year, but it’s ultimately not what our ultimate goal is.”
