Knicks Interviewing Timberwolves Assistant for Vacant Coaching Job

The 2024-25 NBA season is officially over, after an early Tyrese Haliburton achilles tear in game 7 gifted the OKC Thunder a Larry O’Brien Trophy. Now, the entire league is officially in offseason mode, where the Minnesota Timberwolves have been for a few weeks already.

Since the moment their season ended, speculation and uncertainty throughout the Wolves’ organization. From roster questions to ownership change — Tim Connelly’s expiring contract and, of course, a wild Kevin Durant goose chase, there’s been a lot happening.

The New York Knicks even called trying to smuggle Chris Finch out of Minnesota, not that long ago, after they shockingly fired Tom Thibodeau — who had just led the Knickerbockers to their first East Finals since the Y2K.

Of course, the Wolves denied New York’s request to interview their head coach, but they won’t be able to do the same with their top assistant, Micah Nori. If you’ll remember, Nori was listed by The Athletic as a possible candidate for the Knicks’ head coaching job, when it first came available.

New York Knicks move from interested to interviewing Micah Nori

That was before they started calling around on every big name head coach already employed around the league, a plan that did not bear any fruit. So now, the Knicks are being forced to seriously consider more realistic candidates, like Minnesota Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori.

According to Shams Charania (ESPN) the New York Knicks have officially made Nori the third candidate to interview for their vacant head coaching job. The other two are veteran NBA head coach Mike Brown and former Grizzlies head coach (2019-2025), Taylor Jenkins.

The New York Knicks are interviewing Minnesota Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori for the team's head coaching job, sources tell ESPN. Now three candidates – Nori and two former head coaches Mike Brown and Taylor Jenkins – have done formal interviews for the Knicks' vacancy.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 24, 2025

Micah Nori started his NBA coaching career as an assistant with the Toronto Raptors (2009-2013) before landing in Sacramento from 2013-2021. It wasn’t until 2021 when Nori first linked up with Tim Connelly in Denver, before following him to Minnesota that offseason.

This isn’t the first time Nori has been linked to head coaching jobs around the NBA. Nori interviewed with the Cleveland Cavaliers last June. The LA Lakers also showed interest in May, 2024, before they eventually hired JJ Redick. In other words, even if it doesn’t happen this time around, Nori’s time as an assistant appears to be limited.

Minnesota Timberwolves offseason in flux…

Naz Reid and Julius Randle have player options they’re mulling. Both could very-well opt out. Nickeil Alexander-Walker is due to hit unrestricted free agency, as well.

Nobody is quite sure what will happen with those three, probably because we’ve spent most of the last two weeks trying to figure out if the Minnesota Timberwolves roster would be blown up by a Kevin Durant trade that never materialized.

Related: Local Insider Scoops Timberwolves Plan for Multiple Key Contributors This Offseason

And let’s also not forget that president of basketball operations, Tim Connelly, still isn’t under contract beyond this summer. Of course, that will likely change shortly after the team is officially sold to new majority owner Marc Lore, a process that is expected to be completed within the next week.

Now, we can officially add “will Micah Nori be hired by the Knicks” to Minnesota’s list of items currently in flux.