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00:00We hope to have the coach J.Y. James Young here to end out this second hour for his scouting report ahead of game three of the 2025 NBA Finals tonight in Indianapolis and also get his thoughts on the Knicks coaching search, which has this additional wrinkled DRS in the last 10-15 minutes.
00:18Shamsharania reporting the New York Knicks did, in fact, request permission on this Wednesday morning to speak to Mavs head coach Jason Kidd, and Dallas gave a firm rejection.
00:31Of course, we shared earlier in our opening hour, the Knicks also reached out to Minnesota about Chris Finch and Houston about Eme Udoka and got a firm rejection in both of those spots as well.
00:44But in our discussions yesterday, DRS, with CP the franchise, he kind of made it seem that the sense around this Knicks organization, at least the New York fan base, was kind of fully in on Jason Kidd as that frontrunner and then deal with everybody else if Kidd was not a reality.
01:02It seems here that Jason Kidd is no longer a reality to be that next Knicks head coach.
01:08It doesn't.
01:09And understand this, too.
01:10Like, Thibodeau was a good coach for the Knicks.
01:13This is a team that didn't have a lot of success, let's just say, for 25 years.
01:17Back-to-back 50-win seasons.
01:18I don't know if the players, you know, out front weren't saying, like, hey, man, you'll be awesome if Thibs got fired.
01:23Jalen Brunson wasn't saying that.
01:25Maybe he had a little bit of issue with Carl Anthony Towns and playing some defense, and he wasn't doing that.
01:29But make no mistake about this.
01:31Like, if you are the Knicks ownership group, you fire Tom Thibodeau.
01:33Why, Ben?
01:34Because you have your coach already in hand basically saying to yourself, I just got to pick up the phone in 24 hours and make this happen.
01:42So the fact that you fired Thibodeau, like, all right, let's talk to the best coach in the NBA.
01:46Yeah, you can't talk to them.
01:48Jay Wright, Nova Knicks, baby.
01:50You don't want it either.
01:51I wonder where we're going to go now.
01:53Thibs, do you want to come back?
01:55Like, are we at that point right now?
01:56Like, what's going on with the Knicks?
01:57And, DRS, that is such a good point, right?
02:01Because it's not just you.
02:02Fire Tom Thibodeau after five years of mediocre basketball, a playoff run or two, but winning maybe one playoff series.
02:10You reached a stage in the Eastern Conference Finals.
02:13You had not been in two and a half decades.
02:16So the next guy you bring in better be the guy to elevate that ceiling.
02:20And there's only one more spot to go.
02:22That's the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999.
02:26So as we welcome in our coach, J.Y. James Young.
02:31J.Y., that is the conversation.
02:34Houston says no for Ime Udoka.
02:37Minnesota says absolutely not for Chris Finch.
02:40And the Dallas Mavericks say zero chance whatsoever.
02:44You aren't even speaking to Jason Kidd.
02:47Where do the Knicks go from here?
02:49Well, I'm sorry because I was just on the phone with Leon Rose, you know, campaigning for the Knicks job because no one else wants a job right now.
02:58But listen, for the first time in 25 years, the Knicks look like they're a well-run unit, a well-run organization.
03:08And now this comes back to remind everyone of who the New York Knicks are being run by James Doherty.
03:15When you make this move, Ben, and you are literally two wins away from the NBA Finals, and you fire a coach, a coach that brought stability and winning back to the organization, who also had ties to the 90s with Van Gundy, and you show them the door, you should have a plan in place when you did.
03:36And that's what everyone thought.
03:39But now it looks like their plan is coming up snake eyes because everyone they reach out to that's under contract doesn't want the job.
03:47They thought people said Jay Wright.
03:49He don't want the job.
03:50You know, so now New York is at a standstill where the draft is in two weeks away.
03:56We don't know who the coach is.
03:57We don't know who the candidate is.
03:59If it was Johnny Bryant, they would have hired him already.
04:02Dan Hurley said no.
04:04Rick Pitino, no one asked him, but he said no anyway.
04:06So no one seems to want the Knicks job or teams don't want to allow the Knicks to even interview for the job.
04:14Yeah, it's a tough scene, too, because let me ask you this question, too.
04:16Like, if you think, like, the Knicks should have had an opportunity already having a head coach in mind that they back-channel that said yes,
04:23let's just say they reach out to Kidd and Dallas says no, like, Ben brought up a pretty good scenario.
04:28Like, what would happen if you just said to yourself, well, I want to coach the Knicks.
04:31I don't want to coach the Mavericks anymore.
04:33Did the Mavericks then still want Jason Kidd as their coach?
04:35Or were they like, all right, first-round pick in 2035, you can have Jason Kidd.
04:39Is there a chance that you could still get a coach that's currently a head coach in the NBA to come to the Knicks
04:44because that coach just wants to coach the Knicks and not the team he's currently with?
04:49Yeah, I mean, you've got to remember the last coach to get traded was Jason Kidd.
04:53We went from Brooklyn to Milwaukee for two second-round picks.
04:56So it's not like it has not been done before, and it's going to take Jason Kidd to walk into Dallas and say,
05:01I don't want to coach here anymore.
05:03And honestly, he would have to do it publicly because then the leverage comes away from Dallas
05:08and now shifts to the Knicks to have all the leverage because there is an out.
05:12So I think that's the thing to look out for is there's, you know, Jason Kidd's been very quiet.
05:16Like, there's all these back channels and sources.
05:18Until Jason Kidd comes out and says, I want the Knick job, then Dallas has all the leverage to say,
05:24no, we're not going to allow you to interview with you.
05:27You know what's so interesting is we have seen players demand trades.
05:32Could a coach demand the same and basically hold Dallas over the fire?
05:37I am already sure there has been back-channel communication and some tampering afoot between Kidd and the New York Knicks and maybe some others.
05:47Final question, JY, on the New York Knicks.
05:49You'll be here with us in our following segment to give your scouting report for game number three of the 2025 NBA Finals
05:56on the other side of the break as well.
05:58Let's say it's Jason Kidd.
06:00Let's say it's Chris Finch.
06:02More than likely not.
06:03Let's say it's even Johnny Bryant.
06:05Will that next coach be the head coach to get the New York Knicks to the 2026 NBA Finals?
06:12They better be.
06:15I mean, if you're doing this to Tims, you better get this right.
06:20Because if you don't go, it's NBA Finals or Bust.
06:22And there's one thing to realize that I keep forgetting about the whole thing with Dallas.
06:26There is the whole thing of Jalen Brunson going to the Knicks and it being lined up.
06:31So there is a little bit of bad blood between Dallas and New York that easy Dallas could be like,
06:37no, we don't want to play this game with you again.
06:39So there could be back channel communications, but it's got to be something both sides.
06:42The Knicks have to get this right.
06:45You've not been this close since the 90s.
06:47You've messed this up.
06:48Legacies are on the line.
06:50And I'm talking about Leon Rose, World Wide West, and then the lesser except James Dole,
06:54who still all of a sudden is now loved in New York, but has been hated by Knick fans for nearly two decades.
07:00And it's not like, oh, you got so close.
07:03You got to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 25 years.
07:07But that's probably it.
07:09There is a good chance the New York Knicks in a changing Eastern Conference could be the favorites to win the East entry next season.
07:18Game three tonight in Hindi.
07:20Next.