Jeff Hornacek hired as Knicks coach after 32-50 season

New York Knicks president Phil Jackson praised Jeff Hornacek’s “basketball acumen” while announcing on Thursday that Hornacek will be the team’s new coach. Hornacek, Jackson, and Mills sit down with Al Trautwig in this 30-minute special to discuss the upcoming season and his thoughts as he embarks on the new journey with the New York Knicks.

News that the Knicks were leaning toward Hornacek had emerged in May, and it came as a surprise, given that he had not worked with team president Phil Jackson before.

– Hornacek was named Coach of the Month for December 2013, becoming the third person at the time to be named both Coach of the Month and Player of the Month (which he earned in December 1991) as well as the first person to win both awards with the same team. The Knicks finished the season with Kurt Rambis as interim coach after Jackson fired Derek Fisher in February.

“I am extremely excited and honored to be the next coach of such an historic franchise”, said Hornacek. Hornacek was 101-112 in two-plus seasons, which included a remarkable franchise turnaround in his first year.

Hornacek becomes the fifth Knicks coach in the past six seasons and the second Jackson has hired since taking the helm in the latter stretch of the 2013-14 season. Fisher, who went from being an National Basketball Association player to Jackson’s first head-coaching hire, posted a record of 40-96.

Now Hornacek, who prefers a run-and-gun system, will enter the great Knicks unknown and try to coexist with a roster that needs backcourt help this summer in free agency. As a shooting guard with the Utah Jazz, Hornacek competed against Jackson’s Chicago Bulls in two NBA Finals. Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reports that Hornacek and the Knicks agreed to a three-year deal, thus locking him in through the 2018-19 season.

The Knicks’ personnel now doesn’t fit that style, which is far different than the triangle. He, however, never reached the playoffs, and his won-loss percentage declined each season. Porzingis and Grant could thrive in the pick-and-roll game. The Suns bottomed out to 14-35 in 2015-16, which led to Hornacek’s dismissal. Now the two are on the same side and after the same thing.