Are The Knicks Making A Mistake Not Making an Offer to Phil Jackson

Added by Stephen Zimkouski on May 17, 2012.

Should the Knicks have tried to bring Phil Jackson in as head coach?

It looks as if the New York Knicks are close to making an official offer to bring back interim head coach Mike Woodson. Is that a foolish move with the Zen master available?

Should the Knicks make a full court press in trying to get Phil Jackson to coach the team, or has Mike Woodson proven that he is the man for the job? With an early first round playoff exit, the Knicks can only focus on next year and who should coach the team moving forward.

The tale of the tape is pretty simple in comparing Phil Jackson to Mike Woodson, 11 championships coached to 0, as well as an NBA season record of 72 regular season wins to 53. Now, we all know about Phil Jackson’s championships and wins, but the most impressive stat to me is that in his 20 seasons as a head coach, nine with the Bulls and 11 with the Lakers, he has never had a losing record.

Phil is arguably the greatest coach in the history of the NBA (along with Red Auerbach, of course.) While that is impressive, we must now analyze who is actually the better fit for the 2012-13 New York Knicks.

Woodson finished the season strong with the Knicks, going 18-6 in the regular season after taking over after Mike D’Antoni’s resignation, and leading them to their first playoff win in 11 years. His coaching directly reflected on Tyson Chandler receiving the Defensive Player of the Year award.

The Knicks played much more intensely on the defensive end and overall with more cohesiveness under Mike Woodson. However, with Woodson, the offense struggled at times. Woodson is not known for his offensive game planning and seemed clueless in the series against the Miami Heat.

Much like Woodson was brought in for D’Antoni as a defensive assistant, if Woodson remains as the head coach, then the Knicks should look to bring in an offensive assistant to help. Woodson’s offensive philosophy was simple in the playoffs: get the ball to Carmelo Anthony. The Knicks will need to have better ball movement and better set plays in order to compete at a higher level with Woodson retained as head coach.

There are several knocks on the Knicks team this year. They don’t play well together, their stars don’t hustle or play hard enough, and they’re not passionate enough about winning. Phil Jackson might be the only man that could correct those issues. Phil is a winner and the players would respect him, which may be the most important thing. The Knicks have the talent to compete with any team in the league on any given night.

Phil Jackson is able to get the most out of his players and, if anybody could inspire Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony to crash the boards and play ferocious defense on a nightly basis, then it would be Phil. I like Mike Woodson, but I think the Knicks made a big mistake not contacting Phil Jackson about the coaching position.

I personally do not believe that Phil would want to coach this Knicks team, but it would be worth a try to get one of the greatest coaches and leaders in the history of the sport.