Through the years, Tom Thibodeau has garnered the status of the top coach who runs his gamers into the bottom by enjoying them extreme minutes.
Throughout final yr’s playoffs, the Knicks misplaced OG Anunoby and Mitchell Robinson to accidents, and even franchise star Jalen Brunson ended his postseason marketing campaign with a fractured hand. After New York crashed out of the playoffs, Celtics legend Paul Pierce blamed Thibodeau for mismanaging his gamers and inflicting them to endure accidents.
This season, Thibodeau is seemingly proper again at it once more. By the primary quarter of the season, three of the highest 10 gamers in minutes per game are Knicks starters — Mikal Bridges (1st: 38.2), Josh Hart (sixth: 37.2) and Anunoby (tenth: 36.6). Though Jalen Brunson (34.8) and Karl-Anthony Cities (33.5) are logging fewer minutes, each All-Stars have seen a major uptick in minutes over the previous week or so.
On Wednesday, Brunson logged 36 minutes within the second evening of a back-to-back towards the Mavericks after enjoying 38 minutes the earlier recreation. Cities, too, logged 70 minutes throughout the 2 video games. The 129-114 loss in Dallas wasn’t stunning, as New York was coming off enjoying within the Denver altitude lower than 24 hours earlier than.
The Knicks starters have been clearly fatigued, and in a great world, Thibodeau would have been clever sufficient to cut back their workload, particularly after the Mavs ran away with a 60-37 lead on the half. Nevertheless, even because the Knicks starters have been out of fuel — and struggled to run again on transition — Thibodeau saved them within the recreation for prolonged stretches.
At that time, one could not assist however marvel if Thibodeau hadn’t discovered his classes from his earlier years within the NBA.
Knicks want a bench
It additionally would not assist that the Knicks have an almost nonexistent bench, with solely Miles McBride (25.6) and Cameron Payne (18.3) enjoying over quarter-hour an evening.
Compared, their Japanese rivals such because the Celtics, Cavaliers and Bucks all have a number of gamers off the bench logging over quarter-hour. Whereas the Celtics have 4 such gamers — Payton Pritchard (27.3), Sam Hauser (21.3), Neemias Queta (19.2) and Luke Kornet (17.2) — the Cavaliers are blessed with a deep bench within the type of Caris LeVert (24.4), Georges Niang (20.0), Sam Merrill (19.5), Isaac Okoro (20.8), Dean Wade (21.9) and Ty Jerome (19.3). Even the Bucks have Gary Trent Jr. (25.5), AJ Inexperienced (19.8), Pat Connaughton (17.9) and Delon Wright (16.7) to assist ease the workload on the starters.
The Knicks must desperately bolster their bench. If not, they might be staring down a redux of the 2024 postseason.