New York Knicks coach Mike Woodson reportedly won't be fired until after the season. Knicks owner James Dolan plans to fire Woodson in the summer as part of a pitch to soon-to-be free agent Carmelo Anthony, ESPN's Marc Stein reports.
The Knicks (22-40) snapped their seven-game losing streak on Wednesday with a 118-106 win at Minnesota. Although New York is a lottery-bound team, Dolan reportedly won't fire Woodson until after the season in order to make a show of change when pitching Anthony to re-sign.
Per Stein:
"The latest rumble in coaching circles holds that Madison Square Garden chairman Jim Dolan is keeping Woodson around purely because he knows that making major changes to the roster before next season -- given New York's lack of draft picks and cap space and limited trade assets -- will be extremely difficult.
"Which leaves Dolan, in terms of pitching Carmelo Anthony to stay this summer, with little else to say besides: Woody was the problem!
"In other words: Keep the alleged problem around to the very last drop of this nightmare season ... and then hustle him out the door by painting a coaching change as a cure-all."
It's uncertain who the Knicks will hire to replace Woodson. Although Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau and retired Lakers coach Phil Jackson both were mentioned as possible candidates, neither appears likely to take the job.
Chicago would ask a lot for Thibodeau, who's still under contract, and Jackson reportedly rebuffed the Knicks when general manager Steve Mills reportedly met with him.
Anthony, meanwhile, is expected to opt out of his contract and become a free agent in July. Chicago was mentioned as one of the teams interested in Anthony, with Bulls center Joakim Noah reportedly going as far as trying to recruit Anthony during the All-Star weekend in February.
New York hosts the Utah Jazz on Friday.
