As Jeff Van Gundy watched game after G League game last year while putting together the USA national team that would qualify for the 2019 FIBA World Cup, he noticed the well-coached team from Westchester. He saw the organization and the discipline; even as he viewed so many games, those Knicks stood out. He could recognize a good coach when he saw him.



Van Gundy had no personal relationship with Miller — even in the small world of coaches — but Sean Ford, USA Basketball’s men’s national team director, knew the Knicks front office well. Those executives spoke highly of Miller. With that combination of references and tape, Van Gundy put Miller on his staff as an assistant in 2018.



“It was an easy decision to bring him on,” Van Gundy said. “When I got to know him during that period of time, he combined great knowledge with incredible humility and a tremendous teaching ability. It was fabulous. I saw first-hand why he’d been...