It's Time for the New York Knicks to Fire Tom Thibodeau

The New York Knicks lost to the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night and there is no need to say anything.

It's time to make a change.

This is presented with a lot of thought. Who doesn't like a joke and a meme? I don't like campaigning for people to lose their jobs when they are earning millions of dollars, and I don't like campaigning for people to lose their jobs when dispensability is the nature of the business

This is not an attempt to be provocative or angry after just seven games. This shouldn't be considered provocative or controversial.

This is a logical, level-headed response to what we've seen this season and last. Right now, unless something dramatically changes, it is necessary.

Falling to the Hawks isn't all it's cracked up to be. It is the most recent proof that the status quo isn't working.

New York led by as much as 23 and lost by 13 This was a huge collapse.

Tim Bontemps @TimBontemps

From the desk of the great @StatsWilliams:The 23-point lead for the Knicks tonight is tied for the team's 3rd-largest blown lead in a loss over the last 30 seasons.

Over that span, Knicks have led by 23+ points & lost in 5 games. 3 of those have come in calendar year 2022.

This is so egregious that it's almost impressive. All the others and Thibs will be blamed for the loss. He doesn't like playing games. He is supposed to manage them and evolve them over time. It is clear that he will not.

The Knicks are completely built as they are and Thibs needs to leave.

His mistake isn't the inability to transform this team into a contender. New York isn't constructed to compete with the top of the east.

Thibs' downfall is stubbornness. Inflexibility and lack of innovation are packages. It's getting old.

In All Things Thibs, New York's mistake against Atlanta was a perfect example.

Thibs doesn't like deviating from the norm so Obi Toppin didn't play enough. Maybe not.

Fred Katz @FredKatz

Tom Thibodeau said Mitchell Robinson isn't hurt. His 18 minutes were a coach's decision. "That was basically it," Thibodeau said. "We were searching."

It's beyond comprehension how a search for something didn't lead to more meaningful minutes for Toppin. Robinson wasn't on the field. In the second half, a bright spot this season, was not impacting the game as much as he had in the first half.

Is Thibs married to the man who made his way to Disaster? He could play both Toppin and Randle at the same time. He will not because he never does.

It's easier to suck Randle for Toppin than it is to practice. He is a franchise cornerstone. After an encouraging start to the season, he reverted back to his old ways.

Through the first three games of the Knicks' season, almost two-thirds of the baskets were coming off assists. Over the past four contests, his share has flipped in the opposite direction, and his total time of possession is in line with the increasing number of touches to nowhere. He is shooting 13.6 percent on jumpers and 0-of-11 from downtown.

He was reining in his minutes. Pulling him from the starting five won't be a problem. It would be better if you didn't suck him in for Toppin during the second quarter.

This is about more than one person. Thibs likes Evan Fournier a lot. That killed the Knicks.

Teg🚨 @IQfor3

Fournier exits game in Q1: 18-16 KnicksFournier returns to game in Q2: 53-36 Knicks

Fournier exits game in Q3: 77-71 Hawks

Thibs has a long standing loyalty to his starter. The opening five of New York are fifth in minutes. They're getting scored on by 9.6 points per 100 possessions, with below average offensive and defensive ratings, and downing just 32.3 percent of their triples.

The starting fives are more formal. "It's not who starts, but who ends" is a cliché. Who starts informs who plays the most. It also cements that people spend a lot of time together.

It's too much to say that it makes too much sense to put them together. The two of them are 15 of 67 from deep. To put it kindly, they don't complement one another very well.

More than 90 percent of Barrett's possessions have come along with him. If it holds, this will be a huge increase over last season.

Changing the starting five is not something Thibs likes. Let's go with it, that's ridiculous. It would be better to use the players within it in a different way.

Thibs decided to bring Rose off the bench first against the Hawks instead of Quickley because he doesn't really know what he's doing.

kris pursiainen @krispursiainen

I asked Tom Thibodeau postgame if anything specific went into his decision to bring in Rose as the team’s first substitute today over his usual choice of Quickley.

“No. We wanted to get a look at it, thought it would be beneficial” pic.twitter.com/CIpD6pzw05

Don't fret. There are weird things that Thibs says about IQ.

Kevin (Recently Non-Spooky) @knickerbacker

Thibs calling Quickley underrated is transcendent art

If you can identify the person responsible for obscuring IQ's play, please let us know. We want to find out who it might be.

This jab is a bit out of date. Quickley has not been underused relative to seasons past, and his shot selection is often difficult to understand.

This is the third year of the Tom Thibodeau experience. It's the third year in a row that the Knicks' reserves outplay their starting players. Thibs was the coach of the year in 2020. Everyone is still haunted by every single minute played by Elfrid Payton. There have been present-day complaints for a long time.

This is not all on Thibs. Maybe he will change the lineup. He's not going the Quickley route, so he's the obvious choice to replace Fournier, and he made his season debut Wednesday after missing the start of the season with a foot injury. It's a top-tier troll job to throw Grimes in for four minutes and change during garbage time. It's a great achievement.

It's possible that Thibs starts experimenting with the two of them. We know better than to hope for it. You don't know.

It's unclear whether a reformed version of Thibs would matter. New York isn't going to be a big deal just because he tinkers with his rotation.

The Knicks don't have the personnel to bomb away from deep and cold-turkey their junky twos and they don't necessarily have the talent to be better than they are now. With Thibs' departure, skill-set overlap won't diminish, and the talent in tow won't become high-end.

Thibs isn't taking advantage of either of the real depth and optionality of this squad. He isn't completely lost by himself. The front office, led by team president Leon Rose, built a mediocre roster. How far is it for a team to count Brunson as its best player?

There could be a huge discrepancy between the front office and the coach. It would be on the front office. They had to remove the two men from the belt.

The people upstairs deserve the same amount of criticism as the man they're tasked with leading. "If not Thibs, then who?" is a hard question to answer right now, but Quin Snyder could walk through that door tomorrow and it wouldn't change anything. The blend of non-stars and mystery-box or yet-to-be-fully-tapped prospects would remain the same in New York.

Leon Rose and his friends are not shooting themselves. It's much easier to switch up head coaches than it is to tear down the roster and admit to bigger-scale failures.

It's possible that Thibodeau is a result of convenience. His role in where the Knicks are now, teeters on the edge of aimlessness, slowly inducing their fans to bookmark Victor Wembanyama highlights, doesn't excuse his role. Someone who remains unwilling or incapable of coloring outside self imposed narrow lines is complicit in hurting their direction.

Thibs isn't qualified to reconcile: the Knicks are facing a harsher reality if they aren't a crisis of optimization.

Statistics courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference, Stathead Cleaning or the Glass and accurate entering Wednesday's games are the only ones included. Spotrac has salary information

The NBA is covered by Dan Favale. Don't forget to follow him on social media, and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks show co-hosted by Grant Hughes.