Posted by 4949:

I wanted to see what the coaches records where in the last ten years and ended up going a little further. Here are the results.

Isiah Thomas: 2006-07 to present
35 - 58

Larry Brown 2005-06
23 -59

Herb Williams 2003-04 to 2004-05
17 -27

Lenny Wilkens 2003-04 to 2004-05
40 -41

Don Chaney 2001-02 to 2003-04
72 - 112

Jeff Van Gundy 1995-96 to 2001-02
248 - 172
For a .590 winning % and two 50+ game winning seasons, over seven seasons.

Pat Riley 1991-92 to 1994-95
223 - 105
For an average of over 55 wins a season, over four seasons.
I wish they never let Riley go This guy is averaging over 52 wins a season in his 22 year coaching career.

Posted by BasketballJones:

Lenny Wilkins wasn't great, but he has the best post-van-gundy record of the lot. Why was he let go?

Posted by 4949:

Posted by BlueSeats:

Posted by BasketballJones:

Lenny Wilkins wasn't great, but he has the best post-van-gundy record of the lot. Why was he let go?

Because Isiah undermined him.

He'd lord over him from the tunnel, he fired the only assistant ennyw as allowed to choose for himself, he trade players Lenny wanted to keep, he told him who to play, and he let Marbury humiliate him in team meetings.

Lenny told us he could see he and Isiah would never be on the same page, and of all the stops in his very long career this was the one job he should never have taken.

That's kind of all news to me. I can't say I remember that going on, but if this is all true and if Isiah was setting everyone up, just to get the coaching job, then he is well paying for it now, isn't he? Sounds like a pretty abusive guy behind the scenes. Sounds like a lot of people with a lot of ego and no common sense. time to scrap this program. It's coming to an end soon. Even an evil monster can't survive its own self. They took our basketball team away, our pride and turned it all into a psyche camp.

Yes, every bit of what I posted is true. Here's a sampling from Wilkens himself:

Neither the Knicks nor Brown have spoken publicly in weeks. But yesterday, a Hall of Fame Knicks coach did speak out about his short tenure at the Garden under Thomas' watch.

Lenny Wilkens, who coached just 81 games after replacing Don Chaney, told The Seattle Times that he and Thomas never were on the same page. Coincidentally, former Knicks forward Antonio Davis said the same thing about Brown and Thomas last February.

"I thought it would be an ideal situation," Wilkens told the newspaper. "But it just didn't work out that way. It was a mistake. I should have never gone there."

He added: "Me and the GM were never on the same page."

Wilkens was hired on Jan. 15, 2004, and reached the playoffs before the Knicks were swept by the Nets. Wilkens said the team's chemistry changed when Thomas traded Keith Van Horn in a deal for Tim Thomas.

"I thought I had Keith playing pretty well - I didn't think it was a good trade," Wilkens said. "And that made it difficult for me. The next year I hoped things would be different, but they weren't.

"He had his ideas and was pretty sure they would work and I had mine. I could see we had different ideas."

Wilkens knew his days were numbered when Thomas fired Wilkens' longtime assistant and friend, Dick Helm, the day after the Knicks were embarrassed in their home opener.

"I'm an optimist; I thought I could make it work," Wilkens said. "I knew it would require time. But for me, it didn't take long to figure out that we weren't going to be on the same page. And when he fired Dick Helm, I knew it wasn't going to work."

Both Brown and Wilkens were born in Brooklyn and each coached a team to an NBA Finals. They both coached in the Olympics and both romanticized about returning to New York to coach their beloved Knicks to a title. But Wilkens was fired after only 81 games, winning 40. If you take away the three games Brown missed because of illness, he coached only 79, winning 23.

"If I had it to do over again, it's the one job I've had that I probably wouldn't have taken," Wilkens said.

He added: "Me and the GM were never on the same page."

Wilkens was hired on Jan. 15, 2004, and reached the playoffs before the Knicks were swept by the Nets. Wilkens said the team's chemistry changed when Thomas traded Keith Van Horn in a deal for Tim Thomas.

"I thought I had Keith playing pretty well - I didn't think it was a good trade," Wilkens said. "And that made it difficult for me. The next year I hoped things would be different, but they weren't.