Tag: mike woodson

Kings hire Mike Woodson as associate head coach

The Sacramento Kings announced today that Mike Woodson has been named associate head coach. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Mike Woodson brings decades of coaching experience to this staff,” said head coach Doug Christie. “His impact will be extremely valuable, and I’m looking forward to getting to work with him.”

Woodson joins the Kings after more than 40 years in the NBA community. Woodson played 11 seasons in the NBA (1980-1991), before transitioning into coaching where he served as head coach of the Atlanta Hawks (2004-2010) and New York Knicks (2012-2014), leading both franchises to multiple playoff appearances. In 2021, he returned to his alma mater, Indiana University, as head coach of the men’s basketball team.

He began his coaching career as an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks in 1996 and later held assistant roles with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Philadelphia 76ers, and Detroit Pistons, where he helped lead the team to the 2004 NBA Championship. In 2004, he was named head coach of the Atlanta Hawks. During his six-year tenure in Atlanta he led the Hawks to back-to-back 50-win seasons and three consecutive playoff appearances.

Jeff Van Gundy says coaching is not the problem with Knicks

The New York Knicks are off to a 3-13 start, which is the second worst record in the entire NBA right now, ahead of the 3-15 Milwaukee Bucks. Guard J.R. Smith missed time early in the season, and center Tyson Chandler remains out with an injury and only played in four games. Still, even with injuries, the struggle has been serious. Here’s the New York Post with more:

mike woodson

Former Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy, now the lead NBA analyst for ABC/ESPN, said he believes the Knicks’ troubles have nothing to do with embattled Mike Woodson but with the roster and the person who built it.

The Post reported in Tuesday’s editions owner James Dolan would consider Van Gundy as a future candidate if he had a vacancy. Van Gundy was until recently persona non-grata with Dolan because he quit on him early in the 2001-02 season.

“This isn’t a coaching issue,’’ Van Gundy said on an ESPN Radio show Wednesday. “This is a roster issue. The absolute most important position on any professional team is the people in charge of picking the players. They have to be talented enough and fit together and have an intangible. It’s a hard job but an important job. The last thing the Knicks have is a coaching issue.”

General manager Glen Grunwald built the roster and was fired four days before training camp.

Knicks must improve on defense, says Coach Woodson

Defense is half the game, people. That’s just your friendly reminder of something important that is somehow easy to forget. With that said, here’s a report from Marc Berman of the New York Post:

mike woodson

“We’re still not ready defensively,” Woodson said. “We got five, six days to get there and Friday we’ll play [just] our rotation guys. Overall, we’re competing, but we’re not doing what’s asked to be done on the floor before the game. We got off to a bad start. Even when we can’t make shots, we have to get it done on the other end. That has not been our team in the past. We got to get back to playing Knick defense.’’

The Knicks fell to 2-3 for the preseason, but this was the worst of the losses. Woodson railed in Manchester, N.H., 11 days ago when the Knicks were routed by the Celtics, calling the effort “embarrassing.” But that was mostly hot air: The coach didn’t play his starters in that game.