Tom Thibodeau did something no New York Knicks head coach hadn’t been able to do in 25 years. Make the Knicks relevant again.

In his fifth season, Thibodeau led New York to a top-three seed in the Eastern Conference. However, the playoff run ended in disappointment, as the Knicks fell to Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers in the conference finals.

Just as Thibs seemed poised to lead the Knicks back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999, the rug was pulled from under him. In a major shift, the Knicks fired the defensive-minded Thibodeau and replaced him with Mike Brown, a coach known for favoring a faster tempo. Brown, a disciple of Steve Kerr’s pace-and-space methodology that powered the Golden State Warriors to four NBA championships in eight years, brings a new approach.

Brown takes over a Knicks squad led by reigning Clutch Player of the Year Jalen Brunson.

Brunson, who averaged 26.0 points and 7.3 assists per game last season, is the unquestioned leader of the Knicks and arguably the franchise’s best star player since Patrick Ewing. Brunson, along with Knicks teammates Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges, played college ball at Villanova.

In Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, the Knicks have one of the best guard-center combos in the league, and Brown will lean on both to help him establish a more diversified offensive attack.

Towns fit in seamlessly with the Knicks and earned a fifth All-Star selection. OG Anunoby, Bridges, and Hart formed a sturdy perimeter wall, locking down opposing wings and bringing toughness on both ends of the floor. The Knicks, with their core under contract for the next few years, are well-positioned to contend for a championship. The last time the Knicks won an NBA title, “The French Connection” won Best Picture at the Oscars. That was 54 years ago.

OneManFastBreak projects the top eight teams in the Eastern Conference.

1-New York Knicks — Devastating Achilles’ injuries to Boston’s Jayson Tatum and Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton open the door for the Knicks to climb into the top spot and become beast of the East. The addition of free agents Jordan Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele should bolster the Knicks bench.

2-Cleveland Cavaliers — The Cavs won 64 regular-season games a season ago but got bounced early in the postseason. The pressure is on All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell to help the Cavs rebound from last season’s disappointing finish.

3-Detroit Pistons — Cade Cunningham took his game to a new level under J.B. Bickerstaff. Motor Cade got a taste of the postseason last season, and another year under his belt will only increase his stock. Jaden Ivey returns to the lineup after missing 52 games due to a knee injury.

4-Milwaukee Bucks — Giannis Antetokounmpo is coming off a superb summer, leading his Greek national team to a bronze medal at EuroBasket. As long as the Greek Freak is healthy and happy, the Bucks will always be a threat.

5-Orlando Magic — The addition of shooting guard Desmond Bane should make life a little easier for Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero. Wagner is coming off a sensational summer after helping Germany win a gold medal at EuroBasket.

6-Atlanta Hawks — The Hawks opted not to offer point guard Trae Young a max extension. Trae will be highly motivated to show the Hawks that he’s worth the $229 million investment.

7-Miami Heat — Heat Culture took a hit last season, winning only 37 games and finishing 12th in the conference. Erik Spoelstra won’t let it happen again, and he’ll have a new spark plug in Norman Powell to fire up the offense.

8-Boston Celtics — Tatum’s Achilles’ tear drastically alters the Celtics’ plans for this season, but it doesn’t mean they are going to tank. Finals MVP Jaylen Brown is still on the roster, and expect expanded roles for Payton Pritchard and Derrick White.

Play-In teams: Chicago Bulls and Philadelphia 76ers

LeBron James is defended by Jimmy Butler. (GETTY IMAGES)

The Miami Heat are 41-3 in their last 44 games, an incredible run that makes you wonder if anyone can beat the Heat in a seven-game series. Don’t tell that to the Chicago Bulls.

The Heat have lost just three games in the last four months, but two of those losses came against the Bulls. One of them was the epic battle in Chicago on March 27 that ended the Heat’s 27-game winning streak. During the regular season, the Bulls and the Heat split their four-game series. It doesn’t matter if the Bulls are healthy or not, they give the Heat a run each and every time. And since 2010 when LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade joined forces in South Beach, the Bulls are the only NBA team to have a winning record vs. the Big 3.

After Monday’s stunning 93-86 win in Miami in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals — with no Derrick Rose, no Kirk Hinrich, and no Luol Deng — the Bulls are now 3-2 against the Heat this season and 9-8 since 2010. The Heat have been held under 90 points only 11 times during the season, and the Bulls have done it three times to the Heat.

So why do these Bulls give the Heat such a hard time? We could go several ways, but the simply answer lies in the foundation laid down by head coach Tom Thibodeau.

The Bulls’ head coach comes from the Pat Riley coaching tree. He was an assistant under Jeff Van Gundy — a Riley protege — for seven seasons with the New York Knicks and four seasons with the Houston Rockets. Van Gundy learned all his defensive philosophies from Riley, and Thibodeau picked Van Gundy’s brain and added his own slice. Much like those Knicks teams in the 1990s, Thibodeau’s Bulls subscribe to three things: effort, energy, and execution. The Bulls play with passion, they work hard on every possession, and they follow the game plan to near perfection.

“Coach [Thibodeau] always harps on winning your matchup,” Bulls guard Nate Robinson said. “We play as hard as we can for as long as we can.”

Thibodeau is great at identifying a team’s weakness and exploits it. Oftentimes, great scorers struggle against the Bulls because Thibodeau knows how to make star players feel uncomfortable and force the supporting players into tough situations.

“They play Bulls ball. They’re rugged,” says James, who has seen his share of struggles against Thibodeau-coached teams going back to Thibs’ days as an assistant with the Boston Celtics when James was a Cleveland Cavalier.

The Heat love to isolate LeBron or D-Wade at the elbows, and they are very successful against most teams but not against the Bulls. James and Wade struggle to get to the rim because the Bulls load up on James or Wade and force them to give up the ball. If the Heat role players end up shooting the ball, the Bulls have done their job.

Loading up basically means taking away what the opposition likes to do, forcing a team’s best player into a crowd and taking the ball out of his hands. For this to work, you need a strong perimeter defender and a big man who is strong enough to protect the rim and quick enough to close out on shooters. The Bulls have lockdown defenders such as Hinrich, Deng, and second-year player Jimmy Butler. They also possess athletic big men such as Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson, who cover the rim and recover on shooters. It’s basically a soft zone defense, with an emphasis on constant ball pressure.

If a player gets beat off the dribble, one player steps in to help and the man he’s guarding is then picked up by another teammate. Thibs calls this “helping the helper” or “playing on a string.” You’ll hear this a lot from Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who also runs the Riley system and preaches the same defensive philosophies.

The beauty of the Thibodeau scheme is that the parts are interchangeable. Each player’s role is defined, which makes is easier to plug in guys in case of foul trouble or injuries. That’s why the Bulls keep on winning despite not having All-Stars Rose and Deng because the next guy up knows the scheme. Robinson steps into the vacuum left by Rose and Butler is more than capable of filling in for Deng. Robinson may not duplicate what Rose does, but he’s confident enough to carry the team for stretches. The same can be said of Butler, who is an emerging star in the playoffs. Thibodeau loves tough-minded, two-way players, and Robinson and Butler are capable scorers who defend their positions. They can win their matchups.

Imagine if the Bulls had a starting five of Rose, Hinrich (who makes life miserable for Wade), Deng, Carlos Boozer, and Noah. And coming off the bench you have Robinson, Butler, Marco Belinelli, and Gibson. Talk about a formidable nine-man rotation.

If there’s a team that can knock out the Heat in the playoffs, it’s Thibodeau’s Bulls.

Joel Huerto is the editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @onemanfastbreak.

Carlos Boozer is averaging 22 points and 10 rebounds in his last seven games. (GETTY IMAGES)

Don’t look now but the Chicago Bulls are beginning to look like contenders again. The Bulls manhandled the Atlanta Hawks on Monday night, 97-58, and star point guard Derrick Rose is reportedly on schedule to return to the lineup after the All-Star break.

That’s great news for the Bulls, bad news for the rest of the league.

“I see him in the gym working really, really hard. He wants to come back 100 percent, so for us we’re just trying to hold it down until he gets back,” Bulls guard Nate Robinson said about Rose, who is close to going full speed in practice.

Robinson has been a pleasant surprise for the Bulls this season. He’s averaging nearly 11 points per game off the bench (playing 21 minutes) and has energized the Chicago second unit.

Rose says he has gained some muscle rehabilitating and his jump shot has improved. If that’s true, look out!

Head coach Tom Thibodeau is not going to rush Rose back into the lineup, and he wants to make sure the face of the franchise is completely sound before he even gets into full scrimmages at practice.

In the meantime, the Bulls are holding it down until Rose returns. The team has won five out of seven and even much-maligned forward Carlos Boozer is playing well. Boozer is averaging 22 points and 10 rebounds in his last seven games, and his frontcourt partner Joakim Noah is averaging a double-double (12 and 10) for the season.

The Bulls held the Hawks to just five points in the second quarter and led 48-20 at the break. Ivan Johnson had a basket for the Hawks with 2:54 left in the first quarter, and Atlanta did not score again until Al Horford’s tip with 5:15 left in the second. The Hawks missed 17 consecutive shots during the drought while getting outscored 14-0.

They finished the 2 for 21 from the field in the second quarter, with Smith making a free throw and a jumper for Atlanta’s other points. The Hawks shot 20.5 percent on 8-of-39 shooting in the first half. Josh Smith was 3-for-10 and Horford 2-for-8 in the first half.

The Bulls set a record for the fewest points allowed, eclipsing the previous mark of 59 by Orlando last March 19. Atlanta’s 20 points in the first half also set a Chicago record for the fewest allowed in a half, bettering the 22 scored by the Knicks in 1999. The Bulls also limited New York to five points in the second quarter of that game.

”We have to play a certain way,” Thibodeau told the Associated Press. ”When we came out I thought Joakim and Carlos set the tone.”

Noah wasn’t surprise by the defensive performance.

”I wasn’t shocked, but our mindset was more be ready for the first 5 or 6 minutes of that third quarter. We had been in positions where we were up by 25, 26 points and lost before. So we feel no lead is big enough,” Noah said.

Chicago Bulls forward Carlos Boozer hasn’t lived up to his $80 million contract. (GETTY IMAGES)

Tom Thibodeau’s defensive scheme can most likely keep the Chicago Bulls afloat until superstar point guard Derrick Rose returns from ACL surgery. But as good as Thibodeau is as a defensive wizard, he’ll need one of his overpriced starters to help on the offensive end.

That means you, Carlos Boozer.

Boozer has been a model of inconsistency during his time in the Windy City. He often disappears in playoff games (sometimes an entire series) and he struggles against guys with length. In short he hasn’t lived up to his five-year, $80 million contract he signed three seasons ago as the Bulls’ big-splash acquisition in the summer of 2010.

For much of his career, Boozer has been able to ride on someone else’s back whether it was LeBron James in Cleveland, Deron Williams in Utah, and now Rose here in Chicago.

But because Rose won’t be ready until January or February, Boozer will need to step into the lead role.

“To me it all comes down to Carlos Boozer,” TNT analyst and Hall-of-Famer Reggie Miller said. “He has to find a way to regain that all-star form that he had in Utah. If he can do that, combine with Luol Deng, they can stay afloat but it’s gonna be very difficult.”

As a member of the Utah Jazz from 2004-09 Boozer averaged 19.2 points, 10.5 rebounds, and shot 54.4 percent from the field. Since signing that massive free agent contract with the Bulls in 2010 Boozer’s averages dipped. He’s only averaging 16.2 points and 9.0 rebounds, and his shooting percentage is now at 52.1 percent.

“If you’re Tom Thibodeau you’re going to have to run the offense through Carlos Boozer. But he’s gonna have to want or demand the basketball as well,” Miller said. “He’s had more of a supporting role the last couple of years playing behind Deng and playing behind Rose. This is a chance to be a star again.”

When Boozer was in Utah, he got a lot of easy baskets off Jerry Sloan’s flex offense. If Boozer can do something well consistently it is set screens.

When Boozer and Rose are on the floor together Rose tends to use screens to free himself instead of looking for the roll guy. Thibodeau will need to dust off Sloan’s flex offense to get Boozer more touches. When Boozer gets involved he goes harder on the boards.

Expect a big bullseye on Boozer’s chest this season because the entire Bulls franchise needs him now more than ever to hold down the fort until D-Rose returns.

Projected finish in Central Division: Second.

Derrick Rose grimaces in pain after suffering a knee injury in an opening-round game in Chicago. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The Chicago Bulls will have to go without All-Star guard Derrick for the remainder of the 2012 playoffs after the team reported that the 2011 MVP tore the ACL on his left knee in Saturday’s opening-round game against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Rose, who has battled all sorts of injuries all season, crumbled to the ground after he drove the lane with about 1:20 left and the Bulls leading by 12. He was going for one of his signature pull-up floaters when he came to a jump-stop and seemed to change his mind as the 76ers’ Spencer Hawes and Lavoy Allen rotated over, passing off to a teammate before an awkward landing.

Team medical personnel immediately rushed out and tended to Rose for several minutes as he was writhing in pain near the baseline before helping him to the locker room. Rose was taken to the hospital where it was discovered that he damaged his ACL after an MRI was done on his left knee.

Asked why Rose was still in the game, Thibodeau pointed out that Philadelphia was making a run. Rose checked back in with just under eight minutes left and the lead got as high as 20 shortly after that before the Sixers made another push.

”I don’t work backward like you guys do,” Thibodeau told the Associated Press as he defended his decision to keep Rose in the game despite the double-digit lead. ”The score was going the other way.”

The grim news is a devastating blow to Chicago, top-seeded team in the Eastern Conference and a favorite to reach the NBA Finals along with Miami, Oklahoma City, San Antonio and the L.A. Lakers.