The New York Knicks are in the final stages of making Mike Brown their next head coach, and they have an ideal candidate for their top assistant job, too. According to Marc Stein, the Knicks have eyes for New Orleans Pelicans assistant James Borrego the right-hand man to Brown. They interviewed Borrego for the head coaching position last week, making him the fourth candidate for the job.
The Pelicans, Stein reports, prefer that Borrego remains with them as the top assistant to Willie Green. NBA teams can prevent assistant coaches from leaving for lateral moves so long as they are under contract. Should the Pelicans block the Knicks from making a move on Borrego, it would not be the first time in this process a franchise stood in their way. Multiple teams stonewalled the Knicks in their search for a Thibodeau replacement, denying them the ability to speak with sitting coaches.
Borrego does not have any experience on Brown’s previous staffs and, in fact, spent most of his career in the opposite conference as the potential soon-to-be Knicks coach.
Borrego landed the interview with the Knicks three years removed from his first and only stint as a full-time head coach. He served a four-year tenure from 2018-22 with the Charlotte Hornets and went 138-163, missing the playoffs in each of those four seasons. Borrego also coached 30 games for the Orlando Magic in an interim capacity during the 2014-15 season and went 10-20 at the temporary helm.
The Pelicans brought Borrego on board as an assistant more than a calendar year after his firing from the Hornets. He is in his second stint with the franchise and held an assistant title from 2010-12.
The best years of Borrego’s career came at his first NBA stop. He debuted in the league in 2003 with the San Antonio Spurs — on the heels of a quick stop at his alma mater, San Diego — and won two championships under Gregg Popovich.
New York’s is the only open coaching job, and it always figured to be an appealing one considering the amount of talent on the roster. Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns headline a squad that won 51 regular-season games, good for the Knicks’ most since the 2012-13 season. Their trip to the Eastern Conference finals marked their deepest playoff run since they advanced to the same round in the 2000 postseason. They squandered their opportunity to reach the NBA Finals, though, when they conceded home-court advantage in a series loss to the Indiana Pacers.
