The days of coaches running NBA teams like the military might be over. Weeks before the NBA Playoffs started, the Denver Nuggets fired Michael Malone less than two years after he led them to an NBA championship. On Tuesday, the New York Knicks fired Tom Thibodeau after leading the team to its first Eastern Conference Finals in 25 years.
I don't think either of these coaches should have been fired. I also think their firings point to a trend in the NBA — maybe not a new trend, but something that's more evident now than ever before: coaches can't be the gruff, honest, blunt type of leader who holds their players to a high standard anymore. That doesn't really exist. We're fully in the era of the "player's coach."
Coaches need to please players in the modern NBA
I get it. I understand that coaches and players need to have positive relationships. Like any job, success is easier when everyone gets along. But in the current NBA, a coach acquiescing to the demands of star players has almost become a prerequisite. I'm not saying that's why Tom Thibodeau got fired (I think he, Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and the rest of the roster got along well) but it's also hard to believe that Jalen Brunson wasn't asked about this decision before it was made.
If players are ready to move on from a coach, there's a pretty high chance the front office will grant their wish.
Thibs' and Malone's firings are the latest example that the "coach's coach" is no longer wanted by NBA teams or front offices. Michael Malone won a championship, had made the playoffs six times in a row, and hadn't won fewer than 46 games in eight years. Tom Thibodeau pulled the Knicks from the gutters of the NBA and overachieved this year. It didn't matter for either one, and I think it didn't matter because of the way they coach.