Knicks Plan to Interview Hammon, Udoka, Delany, and Fleming for Head Coach Position

Leon Rose and the New York Knicks are on the hunt for a head coach. Tom Thibodeau, Kenny Atkinson, the incumbent Mike Miller, and former Knicks' head coach Mike Woodson have been brought up as candidates for the position, but Wednesday afternoon brought Knicks fans a barrage of updates - and new candidates.

Shams Charania first reported that the team is planning to interview Ime Udoka, current Philadelphia 76ers assistant coach and former assistant to Gregg Popovich. When it was announced the other day that the Bulls were planning to interview Udoka, Dave Early wrote this piece on Udoka and his potential fit in Chicago; the article doesn't perfectly translate to New York's situation, but should still give Knicks fans an excellent look at what Udoka might be able to bring to the team.

Adrian Wojnarowski then reported that the team is also planning to interview Orlando Magic assistant coach Pat Delany, who has been an assistant under Steve Clifford for the past five years. Delany was featured in this article by Kevin Arnovitz which discussed the "hottest names" on the NBA coaching market. Arnovitz wrote about how Delany has "huge" fans around the league who believe "there are few assistants with greater fluency of the NBA game." Ime Udoka is featured in Arnovitz's article as well. 

Steve Popper followed up the Udoka and Delany reports by adding another name to the list - my personal favorite of any of the candidates rumored to be receiving interviews so far - Becky Hammon, Spurs assistant coach. Hammon has spent the past six years working under Gregg Popovich in San Antonio, and her impressive resume as a basketball player and coach can be found here. Interviewing Hammon shows, to me, that the team is at the least doing its due diligence on all qualified candidates, and have done a good job at narrowing those candidates down if Hammon is part of the final group of 8-10.

Chris Fleming, current Chicago Bulls lead assistant and former Brooklyn Nets assistant (under Kenny Atkinson, 2018-2019), was added to the list of candidates as well. This video took a quick look at what, from Brooklyn, Fleming could look to implement as part of Chicago's offense before the 2020 season began.

Whoever is brought in to coach the Knicks will certainly have a tough job - not just because coaching in the NBA, or at any professional level, is difficult. From the candidates rumored to be getting interviewed thus far, it seems to me that Leon Rose is doing everything he can to find the right person for that job. It will be interesting to see who he hires, especially considering the amount of roster flexibility the team (and whoever they choose as their coach) will have going into next season.