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Avery Johnson deserves a look. I personally would be absolutely fine with the Knicks hiring Mark Jackson but Johnson is to young and to good of a head coach to ignore.

Johnson was “relieving him of his duties” with the Dallas Mavericks Wednesday. This season Johnson found himself a victim of circumstance. His team made itself worse with a trade for Jason Kidd with the New Jersey Nets. He also found himself leading a talented team with title aspirations that is still a major player away from getting over the hump and becoming legitimate title contender. On top of everything the Mavericks window of opportunity to contend is quickly closing. When you add two seasons of being knocked out in the first round and he finds himself unemployed.

This termination should not make anyone believe Johnson is not a qualified applicant. Johnson was the Maverick’s head coach for three-plus seasons. In his first season Johnson guided the Mavericks to the NBA finals for the first time. The following season he led the team to a club-record 67 wins. Johnson also brings with him a poor post-season history. He coached his team to three straight postseason blunders. During that time, the Mavericks lost all nine road games and 3-12 post-season record. Johnson leaves the Mavericks with a 194-70 record in the regular season and a 23-24 playoff record.

What kind of coach is Avery Johnson? He’s a young, proven coach who preaches defense and discipline. He’d be an absolutely wonderful choice as our new head coach. In my eyes, ideally, we’d have a staff of Johnson as out head coach with Herb Williams, Mark Jackson and Patrick Ewing as bench coaches. That would be a dream!

The bottom line is Johnson’s name has been added to the Knicks’ ever-growing list of coaching candidates. Donnie Walsh wont be able to interview head coaching hopefuls like Orlando Magic assistant coach Patrick Ewing or Boston Celtics associate head coach Tom Thibodeau for the position until their respective teams are out of the playoffs. He can talk to Johnson now.

Johnson, at 43, is the exact type of young, energetic coach who should appeal to the Knicks, and more importantly, Donnie Walsh. However, Johnson will find heavy competition in Mark Jackson who offers those same qualities. Walsh is friends with legendary college coach Ben Jobe who is Johnson’s mentor. Johnson is expected to meet with Walsh next week. The Chicago Bulls are also rumored to be interested in sitting down with Johnson. At this point, Mark Jackson still appears to be the front-runner for the job but the competition for the position has just gotten that much tougher with the addition of Avery Johnson.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 2:59 am and is filed under Patrick Ewing, Mark Jackson, Bulls, Tom Thibodeau, Herb Williams, Donnie Walsh, Avery Johnson, Knicks, Chicago Bulls, Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, Dallas Mavericks, Knicks Coaches, New York Knickerbockers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.