It was said that players development was one of their most important priorities when the Knicks searched for a head coach.
And now Mike Brown is close to placing someone who is responsible for the development of players, who taps veteran Billy Lange for the important position, confirmed a competition source.
Lange, 53, who spent the last six seasons as head coach of St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, has served as a coach at the university or the NBA since 1996.
He is rooted in the Philly area, such as many in the Knicks organization, and served as a Villanova assistant under former coach Jay Wright, though Brunson, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges joined the program.
More recently, long supervision of players’ development for the Sixers of 2013-19-one period on the process, while young people Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, Jerami Grant, Michael Carter-Williams, TJ McConnell, Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor are provided, among others.
With The Knicks, the youngsters are Pacôme Dadiet, Tyler Kolek, Kevin McCullar Jr., Mohamed Diawara and Ariel Hukporti. All were drawn up in the past two years, but no higher than 25th and most in the second round.
Last season under Tom Thibodeau, the Rookies played sparingly and they were all out of the rotation in the play -offs. After Thibodeau was fired, the team emphasized the development of players and expanded the rotation during interviews with coaching candidates, a source said.
As it looks now, the Knicks have a top nine rotation set and a lock open to sign an experienced free agent. But injuries and rest days happen. That is where development becomes more important, as long as the young players have enough talent to take advantage of opportunities.
Summer League in July was not encouraging for Kolek, because he struggled as the recommended guard.
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