Coach Thibs or Coach Carlisle

[cgf]

Knicks are riddled with injuries, Bogy, Randle, now Mitchell. Thibs is doing what he does, which is run players to the ground.

Mitchell was averaging 19 minutes per game in the playoffs. He injured his previously injured ankle. Seems more like a Knicks medical staff thing than a Thibs thing. Guy has missed a ton of time his whole career.

Bogie averaged less than 13mpg in the playoffs. Just over 19 mpg in the regular season w/the Knicks...10 below his career average.

Randle crashed to the ground on a drive where someone else tried to take a charge.

Doesn't appear any of these have anything to do w/Thibs.

No, Mitch being hurt was 100% an Embiid thing.

[Rockazoids]

Thibs & their FO got the Knicks doing things no one would had believe.

[dygaction]

I think Thibs needs to go. His problem is not just grinding players in the playoffs, but regular season. When players get hurt, his immediate reaction is not to see who else on the bench can contribute, but who on the main rotation can carry heavier load.

[Hoop Hunter]

I think they have both got the maximum out of their teams. Both are great coaches. Just different styles.

They are both great styles for the teams they are with.

[SearsTower]

Carlisle is the much superior coach and lock HOFer. I can't believe this is even a question. He's been consistently elite his entire career -Pistons, Pacers, Mavs, and now Pacers again. Him beating the super Heat team with that Mavs squad is one of the all time great underdog sports stories ever. His resume and legacy speaks for itself.

[xxSnEaKyPxx]

Carlisle has now made a conference finals with 4 completely different teams.

That is pretty remarkable.

Yes, I understand the Pacers played some injured teams this postseason, but the teams they played were loaded with veteran/battle tested players, where as the Pacers pretty much had no experience at all outside of Siakam.

Experience matters a lot in the playoffs, there is a reason these college teams loaded with 5* recruits who are future NBA All-Stars, lose out to the teams with juniors and seniors, where maybe one player will be a late pick.

[Forbes]

Carlisle is excellent at getting teams to overachieve. No idea why people doubt him.

[HeatRing2012]

joke thread?

Carlisle all day.

[pinoy4lyfe89]

I’ll take Carlisle. He knows the old school tricks to get the refs in his favor.

[SearsTower]

Carlisle has now made a conference finals with 4 completely different teams.

That is pretty remarkable.

Yes, I understand the Pacers played some injured teams this postseason, but the teams they played were loaded with veteran/battle tested players, where as the Pacers pretty much had no experience at all outside of Siakam.

Experience matters a lot in the playoffs, there is a reason these college teams loaded with 5* recruits who are future NBA All-Stars, lose out to the teams with juniors and seniors, where maybe one player will be a late pick.

People also never mention the injuries the Pacers have. Bennedict Mathurin, anyone?

[DOT]

Fun fact

Last year was the first time Thibs had ever beaten a 50-win team in the playoffs.

[ArksNetsSince99]

1 Spo
2 Carlisle
3 Pop
4 Kidd
that’s my current top 4

[xxSnEaKyPxx]

Carlisle has now made a conference finals with 4 completely different teams.

That is pretty remarkable.

Yes, I understand the Pacers played some injured teams this postseason, but the teams they played were loaded with veteran/battle tested players, where as the Pacers pretty much had no experience at all outside of Siakam.

Experience matters a lot in the playoffs, there is a reason these college teams loaded with 5* recruits who are future NBA All-Stars, lose out to the teams with juniors and seniors, where maybe one player will be a late pick.

People also never mention the injuries the Pacers have. Bennedict Mathurin, anyone?

While the Mathurin injury has sucked for the Pacers, I'm not going to pretend its the same level as what the Bucks/Knicks were missing.

Also, Mathurin being injured has really given Sheppard a chance, who has absolutely thrived in his place. Different kind of player, but Sheppard has been great in the playoffs. If Mathurin were healthy, Sheppard likely never got those minutes to prove himself.

[boomershadow]

A lot of those first round exits Carlisle had in Dallas were with teams I was impressed even made the playoffs in the brutal West.

[KodiakBear]

I think Thibs needs to go. His problem is not just grinding players in the playoffs, but regular season. When players get hurt, his immediate reaction is not to see who else on the bench can contribute, but who on the main rotation can carry heavier load.

Thibs is a great coach. He is more likely to get an extension than be fired. The Knicks overachieved this year. The fact they were almost in the conference finals down so many guys was impressive.

[dhsilv2]

Obviously I'd rather see teams have fresh legs. But knicks...at least this year have injuries. Meanwhile a lot of what the pacers do this year is based on constant movement, they lead the league regular season and playoffs in distance traveled. So that's gonna be rough. Effectively, in a 7 game series the pacers are almost trying to run teams ragged...either fatigue or injure them (not intentionally) or both through pace and distance traveled. You need a bench to do that.

[tamaraw08]

Thibs has been playing extremely heavy minutes for his top players with Hart, Brunson, and OG averaging 47, 44, and 42 minutes over the past 7 games. Thibs was assistant coach to JVG, who was known to play key players for 40+ minutes.

In contrast, no one on Rick Carlisle's Pacers has averaged more than 38 mpg.

Which way do you prefer?

Well, in Thibs case, what choice does he have? He's constantly had to adjust with guys who were in and out of the lineup due to injury. For example, Josh Hart doesn't have anyone right now who can spell him minutes other than Precious. Just look at his bench, it's slim pickings out there.

That's true... I just checked his minutes distributions for earlier seasons, it is not as bad as JVG, who used to player 2 or 3 players to 40mpg in the regular season.

But Thibs also had a history of using his players extensively. Jimmy Butler averaged almost 39 mins/game while Deng AND Rose at 37.4 mins/game at Chicago.
Personally, I believe in wear and tear, as in the more you play them, the tendency to get tired and/or injured in the long run gets higher. Butler now has been missing many games and it's due to wear and tear iMO.