There will be no shortage of candidates. Colleague Sam Quinn made the case for seven candidates that could be in the running, starting with recently fired Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone. But the Knicks may also have some interest in coaches who are already employed with other teams, and I'm not talking about assistants.

The Knicks fired coach Tom Thibodeau on Tuesday after five seasons with the franchise. Thibodeau was fresh off a trip to the Eastern Conference finals, too, which is a place the Knicks hadn't been since 2000. By all accounts, Thibodeau’s time with the Knicks was a success. He just couldn’t get them over the hump and into the Finals.