In an ideal Madison Square Garden world, the Knicks already would have made the phone calls, held the talks and had a coach ready to put into place when they fired Tom Thibodeau just days after the season finally came to an end.

Amid a critical offseason, the New York Knicks are still in the early stages of a desperate coaching search. After recently firing their coach, Tom Thibodeau, the Knicks are hard at work on his replacement, but it seems they'd rather steal a coach from a rival team over finding one on their own.

Though there is no indication Jackson is a candidate for a Garden return, Pitino — who coached the Knicks from 1987-89, and earned AP Coach of the Year this season for St. John’s — took to social media earlier this week to tell his former employer that there is an ideal candidate actually available.

When the Knicks fired head coach Tom Thibodeau last week even after Thibs led them to their most successful season in a quarter-century, one would have imagined they had a surefire succession plan already in the works.

The Minnesota Timberwolves can expect Chris Finch to stay with them amidst interest from the New York Knicks, but there is already a connection there.