GREENBURGH, N.Y. — The Knicks have developed an April tradition: While other teams prepare for the playoffs, the Knicks erect a temporary dais at their practice facility here to explain why, after another lackluster season that brought another early summer break, they are making coaching or management changes.

At this year’s installment, the team president, Steve Mills, and general manager, Scott Perry, wrung their hands while explaining the latest firing: Jeff Hornacek, the team’s 11th head coach in the past 16 years. They informed him of their decision in a conference room at Westchester County Airport at about 2 a.m. Thursday, after the team returned from its season-ending game in Cleveland.

Kurt Rambis, the associate head coach, was also dismissed.

“We thought it was important, and the timing was right, to get a new voice and a new presence in this locker room to lead our vision for this team moving forward,” Perry said. “We are in the early stages of the building process for this team and this organization.”

Knicks fans might find it difficult to keep track of which stage of which building process the team is in. The Knicks’ perpetual state of rebuilding — involving so many people making so many missteps over so many years — makes Boston’s Big Dig seem like a simple driveway repaving by comparison.