New York Knicks head coach Jeff Hornacek is safe.
For now.
On the heels of an 0-3 start that saw a couple of players question the engagement and execution of everything around them, some weren’t so sure Hornacek would last into the month of November. The Knicks were supposed to be bad, but another season of players questioning the direction and game plan of their squad didn’t bode well for the sideline-wanderer in charge.
But New York won’t be making any coaching changes right now, following two consecutive wins over the Brooklyn Nets and Cleveland Cavaliers, per the New York Post‘s Marc Berman:
In a State of the Knicks address on Sunday at Quicken Loans Arena, Knicks president Steve Mills said Ntilikina and Hernangomez are keepers. He also dampened speculation about Jeff Hornacek’s immediate future, saying he’s not being judged by a won-loss record, and Friday’s Brooklyn victory showed he has the team moving in the right direction.
“Jeff, [GM] Scott [Perry] and I are in this together,” Mills said Sunday.
Firing coaches this early into the season is taboo. Some guys enter the year on the hot seat, but if you’re only prepared to give them five or seven games to turn things around, you might as well have canned them over the summer or during training camp, so that the players have ample time and practice to get acclimated to a new world order and system. Changing things up this soon, in many ways, is pointless. (Just don’t tell that to the Phoenix Suns.)
That doesn’t mean Hornacek will last the year. The team needs to show improvement over a longer haul. Two straight wins doesn’t guarantee anything. But if the Knicks continue to sport a league-average defense and feature Kristaps Porzingis on the offensive end in volume, Hornacek won’t have much to worry about—at least not until the offseason.
