Monday morning the New York Knicks announced that head coach Derek Fisher (40-96) was fired.

The firing came somewhat surprisingly. Fisher has shown improvement this season, already surpassing the Knicks’ win total.  However, the Knicks have been playing disappointingly lately, causing some reasonable frustration from the Knicks’ front office.

The coaching change wasn’t the NBA’s first this season, as noted by ESPN’s Mark Stein.

Coaching rumors have circulated throughout. According to numerous sources, the Knicks are looking at Brian Shaw, Tom Thibedeau, and Golden State assistant Luke Walton.

Dennis Rodman also made himself available to coaching talks as well:

Coaching rumors aside, the Knicks announced that their interim head coach would be Kurt Rambis who has previously coached the Los Angeles Lakers (38 games) and the Minnesota Timberwolves (2009-11).

Upon being let go Derek Fisher made the following statement:

“This is a very talented team with strong character and I am confident they will succeed,” Fisher said. “Obviously, I’m disappointed, but have learned an immense amount from this experience and hope to grow from it.”

The Knicks (21-31), need to make a move quickly in order to stop free-falling out of the Eastern Conference playoff picture; however said move will not involve moving Carmelo Anthony or Kristaps Porzingis.

“Yeah, I think it is a known fact that Carmelo has a no-trade [contract]. And we like Kris. I think everybody likes Kris,” team president Phil Jackson said Monday. “There’s not too many people that ever would say that I would trade [him].”