Miller movesm to K Knicks as assistant
The Knicks have rounded out their th coaching staff, with former m Westchester coach Mike Miller moving up to join David Fizdale’s staff in the Garden for next season, and his former assistant Derrick Alston taking over o the G-League reins.
Miller — not the former NBA champ with the Heat, but the 55-year-old coach — won GLeague Coach of the Year in 2017-18. Now he’s gotten a promotion, filling the last vacancy on Fizdale’s bench. He also neatly fits the newfound player-development ethos the Knicks are trying to enact.
“Mike is an accomplished and respected coach who has been an integral member of the Knicks family the last four years with Westchester,” Fizdale said in a statement. “Mike is a great addition to the staff, a relentless worker who shares our approach to the game with an expertise in player development.”
That skill in player development isn’t shocking, considering Miller is an extended part of the San Antonio coaching tree. While he never served directly under Gregg Popovich, he was an assistant with the Austin Toros, their G-League squad. And since taking over in Westchester in 2015, Miller has acquitted himself well and honed talent.
Westchester was coming off a horrible 10-40 season when Miller arrived, but are 108-92 since. And over the past two years, the Knicks’ affiliate has gone 61-39 with consecutive trips to the conference finals and nine call-ups to the NBA, the most in the G-League. Granted, those call-ups were impacted by the Knicks’ own sorry roster, but still impressive.
Miller’s promotion fills an opening created when assistant Howard Eisley left to take a spot on Juwan Howard’s Michigan Wolverines coaching staff. It rounds out a group that includes Jud Buechler, Kaleb Canales, Royal Ivey, Keith Smart and Pat Sullivan.