Ex Atlanta Hawks coach Mike Woodson hired by the New York Knicks – NBA Report
It has been confirmed that Mike Woodson will be at the sidelines for the New York Knicks next season as an assistant coach. The move had been rumoured in the press for a while and was finally confirmed on August 29.
New York Knicks head coach Mike D’Antoni was pleased with the signing of the experienced coach who would help him run the team next season. D’Antoni was under some pressure to hire a defensive minded coach after facing criticism
that he doesn’t pay enough attention on that end of the court. D’Antoni’s teams are usually face paced and offensive minded, as the Knicks demonstrated last season, but with Woodson’s help they will now be able to get up to par on the other end as well.
“The responsibility is that we’re hiring a good coach,” D’Antoni said during a conference call with reporters on Monday. “We’ll sit down the next month and figure everything out; how everybody’s going to play off each other and
whatever we do.”
The Knicks head coach though would not commit to the hiring being defensive specific. Whilst other NBA franchises, such as the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers, have specifically labelled assistant coaches as defensive or
offensive coordinators, Mike D’Antoni wasn’t too keen on the idea.
“I don’t know where that came from other than people writing about it,” he said. “But he’s a good coach. We expect him to add, in a very positive way, defensively, offensively, big guys, small guys. Whatever we need as a Knicks
organization for him to do, he’ll be able to do it. He’s an extremely talented coach.”
Mike Woodson comes into the side after years of experience in the NBA. He started his career at the New York Knicks all those years ago. He was a lead assistant to legendary basketball coach Larry Brown at the Detroit Pistons.
The Pistons won the NBA World Championship in 2004 under the guidance of Brown and Woodson.
The latter departed from the Pistons franchise to take a head coaching job with the Atlanta Hawks. He built up a shoddy Atlanta side into a respectable team in his six years at the helm. The Hawks qualified for the playoffs multiple
times with Woodson in charge but in 2010 the franchise decided he had taken them as far as he could.
He was let go from the Hawks after the playoffs that year. This summer Woodson has been linked with a wide number of head coaching jobs including with the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Detroit Pistons. He even interviewed for
one or two. However with most head coaching vacancies now filled, the coach has decided to take a side role with the New York Knicks.
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