{"id":87326,"date":"2024-07-25T11:05:21","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T15:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=87326"},"modified":"2024-07-25T11:05:21","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T15:05:21","slug":"knicks-add-big-man-coach-mark-bryant-to-assistant-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/25\/knicks-add-big-man-coach-mark-bryant-to-assistant-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks Add Big Man Coach To Assistant Group"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Bryant<\/a> will be joining the sideline for the New York Knicks<\/a> as an assistant coach. Bryant joining New York was first announced by SNY<\/a>. The 59-year-old has become known as one of the better big-man coaches during his lengthy time as an assistant.<\/p>\n

The Seton Hall graduate has been part of the NBA for numerous decades. Bryant played 15 years in the league spanning from 1988-89 to 2002-03. He then became an assistant coach in the NBA, a position he has held since 2004-05 with five different teams. The Knicks will become the sixth.<\/p>\n

Knicks Add Big Man Coach To Assistant Group<\/h2>\n

Joining A Knicks Team Still Looking For A Reserve Big Man<\/h3>\n

Bryant is joining a Knicks team with two centers currently on their roster. They are often-injured Mitchell Robinson<\/a> and 2021 second-round pick Jericho Sims<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old Robinson has looked the part of a sometimes elite defender and one of the best offensive rebounders in the league. His problem has been an inability to stay on the court for a sustained period. He has averaged about 53 games a year over his first six seasons and played just 31 in 2023-24.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old Sims has received spot starts from New York over his first three seasons but hasn\u2019t developed into a rotational piece. The Knicks have long been rumored to be bringing back free agent Precious Achiuwa<\/a>. While the six-foot-eight Achiuwa is a bit undersized for the five position, he performed admirably in manning the middle for the Knicks last season.<\/p>\n

Mark Bryant Joins The Knicks With Extensive Experience As An Assistant<\/h3>\n

Bryant\u2019s journey as an assistant coach began back in 2004-05 with the Dallas Mavericks. He followed that up as an assistant with the Orlando Magic<\/a> for two seasons. His longest stint was with the Seattle SuperSonics\/Oklahoma City Thunder. He was with Seattle in 2007-08 before sitting on Oklahoma City\u2019s bench for the following 11 seasons after the franchise moved.<\/p>\n

For the past five seasons, he has been an assistant under head coach Monty Williams<\/a>. From 2019-20 to 2022-23, that was with the Phoenix Suns. Bryant was a part of the Detroit Pistons<\/a> coaching staff last season. Williams was fired by Detroit<\/a> after just one season manning the bench.<\/p>\n

Busy Day For Knicks Coaching Staff<\/h3>\n

While the addition of Bryant should help New York, it wasn\u2019t the biggest news on Wednesday regarding Knicks coaches. Head coach Tom Thibodeau agreed on a three-year extension<\/a> with the team. Terms of the deal have yet to be announced. The 66-year-old had just one year remaining on his contract prior to the extension.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the offseason, the Knicks hired<\/a> Basketball Hall of Famer Maurice Cheeks<\/a> to be an assistant coach with the team. The 67-year-old Cheeks was an assistant under head coach Billy Donovan<\/a> for the last nine seasons (the last four with the Chicago Bulls<\/a>, the previous five with Oklahoma City). He has prior ties with Bryant as both were assistants for the Thunder for eight different seasons.<\/p>\n

Bryant\u2019s playing tenure saw him as a member of the Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets, Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs<\/a>, Philadelphia 76ers, Denver Nuggets, and Boston Celtics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Bryant will be joining the sideline for the New York Knicks as an assistant coach. Bryant joining New York was first announced by SNY. The 59-year-old has become known as one of the better big-man coaches during his lengthy time as an assistant. The Seton Hall graduate has been part of the NBA for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5060,"featured_media":87355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1608,62,3],"tags":[49374,2162,215],"class_list":["post-87326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-knicks","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-mark-bryant","tag-maurice-cheeks","tag-tom-thibodeau"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}