Knicks fire head coach Mike Woodson, rest of coaching staff

In a move that many have seen coming ever since Phil Jackson's arrival in New York several weeks ago, Knicks head coach Mike Woodson has been relieved of his duties, along with the rest of his staff, the team announced Monday. 

It's long been rumored that Jackson intends to bring in his own guy, most likely Steve Kerr, as his tenure as Knicks president officially begins. 

A year after finishing second in the NBA's Coach of the Year voting, while leading the Knicks to a surprising 54-28 record and a berth in the Eastern Conference semifinals, Woodson struggled to find a similar blueprint for success this season. 

It didn't help that defensive centerpiece Tyson Chandler was hobbled for most of the year, that management decided to bring on a completely ineffectual Andrea Bargnani, that J.R. Smith, last year's Sixth Man of the Year, saw almost four points lopped off his PER, that Woodson's best player was heard calling him out in the huddle, or that Raymond Felton decided New York gun laws oughtn't apply to him. 

The Knicks season was a disaster for a number of reasons that had nothing to do with Woodson. But the axe had to fall somewhere, and the guy who's job it is to fit all the pieces together tends to make an easy target when things don't compute. 

Ultimately, Woodson failed to live up to the lofty expectations that he'd helped create for himself, after going 72-34 with the Knicks in the two seasons previous to this one. Instead the Knicks stumbled out of the gate and didn't find their bearings until it was far too late, finishing 37-45 and missing the playoffs for the first time in four years.