INDIANAPOLIS — Jalen Brunson did not appreciate the question.
But it had to be asked.
And Brunson didn’t leave any gray area in his response.
Is Tom Thibodeau the right coach to take this Knicks team to the next level?
“Is that a real question right now? You just asked me if I believe he’s the right guy,” Brunson said after the Knicks’ 125-108 Game 6, season-ending loss to the Pacers on Saturday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. “Yes. Come on.”
Thibodeau completed his fifth season with the Knicks, which also marked his most successful with the team.
He took over a perennial bottom-feeding franchise and reached the postseason four of his five seasons.
There has been year-over-year improvement nearly every season.
This year, he got the Knicks within two wins of the NBA Finals.
But he also has never reached the Finals in his long career as a head coach.
It’s led some to wonder whether there might be someone better to elevate the Knicks to that stature.
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For his own part, Thibodeau believes that next step is within reach.
“There’s disappointment because you fall short of what your goal is,” Thibodeau said. “And in the end there’s only going to be one team that achieves the goal. So I think the challenge for us is to look at it for what it is. We finished in the top three. But we’re falling short of the ultimate goal.
“For us, it’s to use that as motivation and determination to work all summer to prepare ourselves to make the final step to keep improving so we can achieve our goal. I think that’s the way we have to approach it and that’s the way we have to look at it. It’s improvement from last year, but it’s ultimately not what our ultimate goal is.”
