Knicks hiring Billy Lange to run player development

Player development was said to be one of the Knicks’ key components as they searched for a head coach.

And now Mike Brown is close to putting somebody in charge of player development, tapping veteran Billy Lange for the important position, a league source confirmed.

Lange, 53, who spent the last six seasons as the head coach of St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, has served as a coach in college or the NBA since 1996.

He’s rooted in the Philly area like many in the Knicks organization and served as a Villanova assistant under coach Jay Wright, though well before Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges joined the program.

More recently, Lange oversaw player development for the Sixers from 2013-19 — a period spanning The Process — while helping groom youngsters Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, Jerami Grant, Michael Carter-Williams, TJ McConnell, Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor, among others.

With the Knicks, the youngsters include Pacome Dadiet, Tyler Kolek, Kevin McCullar Jr., Mohamed Diawara and Ariel Hukporti. All were drafted in the last two years but none higher than 25th and most in the second round.

Last season under Tom Thibodeau, the rookies played sparsely and were all out of the rotation in the playoffs. After Thibodeau was fired, the team emphasized player development and expanding the rotation during interviews with coaching candidates, a source said.

As it stands, the Knicks have a top-nine rotation set and a slot open to sign a veteran free agent. But injuries happen and rest days happen. That’s where development becomes more important, so long as the young players have enough talent to capitalize on opportunities. Summer League in July wasn’t encouraging for Kolek, in particular, as he struggled as the featured guard.

As St. Joseph’s head coach, Lange won over 20 games the last two seasons — including victories over Holy War rival Villanova. He played collegiately at Rowan University in South Jersey — not far from where Leon Rose, William Wesley and the Brunsons called home – and quickly transitioned to coaching. He has to step down from St. Joseph’s before taking the Knicks gig.

According to a source, Lange won’t be named as an assistant or occupy a seat on the bench as part of this role. The Knicks assistant staff is also filled with expected new hires/holdovers Chris Jent, Brendan O’Connor, Rick Brunson, Darren Erman, Mo Cheeks, TJ Saint and Jordan Brink, among others.