5 reasons Jeff Hornacek is right man for Knicks
By John Buhler
New York Knicks team president Phil Jackson pulled a fast one on us by hiring Jeff Hornacek as head coach. Here are five reasons this hiring wasn’t awful.
The New York Knicks have finally filled their head coaching vacancy by hiring former Phoenix Suns head coach Jeff Hornacek on Wednesday evening. Hornacek replaces interim head coach Kurt Rambis, who replaced the departed Derek Fisher mid-season for the Knicks in 2015-16.
While Hornacek was a fantastic sharpshooter in the 1990s for most notably the Suns and the Utah Jazz, he too was let go by his former club mid-season in Phoenix. The Suns wildly outperformed expectations during Hornacek’s fist season in the Valley of the Sun in 2013-14, winning close to 50 games and fighting for a Western Conference Playoff spot.
However, Hornacek’s Suns were never really able to recapture the magic that made that first year’s team so fun to watch. Phoenix stunk up the Western Conference in 2015-16 for several reasons, including questionable tactics coming from Hornacek’s end.
While this is an out-of-left-field hire for the Knicks –as many thought the job would go to either Rambis, former Indiana Pacers head coach Frank Vogel, or former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt– it’s not as bad of a hire as it seems at first glance. Hornacek was a serious contender for both the Pacers and Orlando Magic jobs. Here are five reasons the Knicks’ decision to hire Hornacek isn’t terrible.
Next: 5. It's not his first rodeo with chaos.