With Jason Kidd out as the Dallas Mavericks head coach on mutual terms, new president Masai Ujiri is leading the search to find Cooper Flagg's next mentor, but they should stray far away from one veteran head coach who is a two-time NBA Coach of the Year.
Mike Brown has led the New York Knicks to the NBA Finals in his first season, and for Knicks fans, it was a reminder of what could have been years prior, but the team had to endure five seasons of Tom Thibodeau.
The veteran head coach has a history of being named NBA Coach of the Year, and he's linked as a candidate to take on the Mavs head coaching job, but is his playoff history too much baggage for the Mavericks to take on?
The Mavericks don't need to hire Tom Thibodeau as their next head coach
The Mavs have been linked to many exciting names, including San Antonio Spurs associate head coach Sean Sweeney, current Mavericks lead assistant Frank Vogel, Duke head coach Jon Scheyer and former Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan. Thibodeau has been one of the names deep down on the list of potential candidates, so it doesn't seem like Ujiri will give him a shot anyway.
Thibodeau had one of the best rosters in the NBA in his last two seasons with the Knicks, but was unable to get over the hump against the Indiana Pacers. He's always had a defensive-first philosophy, and it wasn't what the Knicks needed, hence the Knicks headed to the NBA Finals under Brown this season. The Knicks are on one of the hottest playoff streaks, having won 11 in a row going into the NBA Finals.
This isn't the fact to say that Thibodeau is a bad coach, but he doesn't fit what the Mavericks should be looking for. With much respect for what Thibs has done in his head coaching career, he's never made an NBA Finals, and he's also 68. The Mavs should be looking for someone who can be a head coach for the long run, with Flagg's career about to blast off.
Thibs led the Bulls to playoff success with Derrick Rose, but he also didn't get a fully healthy Rose, as many fans still wonder about the "what if" for Rose's career.
That's not Thibodeau's fault, but the fit between Flagg and Thibs isn't the perfect match we all think about. Thibodeau deserves to be a head coach, but he's not best suited to be the Mavericks coach.
It will continue to be a long search, but the NBA Finals send a clear message to the Mavericks that Thibodeau had chances to take the Knicks to the end goal, but that didn't happen, even when his team looked like the best in the East.
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