Thibs

[cgf]

He's definitely not on the hot seat at all. Most of the injuries were just bad luck, there's something to be said about Josh Hart's minutes in particular this playoff run, though

Against Philly
Game 1: 41:52
Game 2: 48:00
Game 3: 43:22
Game 4: 45:41
Game 5: 53:00!
Game 6: 46:29

Against Indiana
Game 1: 48:00
Game 2: 48:00
Game 3: 43:08
Game 4: 23:51
Game 5: 39:06
Game 6: 30:45
Game 7: 36:33

FWIW Hart's minutes started to spike after January 27th...which was the last game Randle played all season and the last game OG played for a month & a half...before then I don't think he was even in the 30s.

Without either of our starting forwards, Hart & Achiuwa are the only PF options on our roster...and giving Achiuwa too many minutes at the 4 is tricky because of spacing and because, when Robinson's injured, Precious also had to be our backup 5.

[hundreth]

The only thing you can fault Thibs for is leaving starters in game during the regular season when it's a blow out. That's how Rose got injured, that's how Randle got injured.

As a Knicks fan, it's really upsetting to see because it's so easily avoidable. Extra minutes don't necessarily lead to injury, but there's no reason not to reduce the chance for it if you can.

Now, on the other hand - he's an unbelievable coach. New York has been through so many coaches, and each time we've looked like a joke. No defense, no culture, no work ethic. It can never work in NYC. We have no patience for that. If you play in the garden and don't give it your all like a Thibs team, we're going to boo you. If you aren't playing hard here, the city will chew you up and spit you out. There is no other style that will work here.

Thibs is our guy, he started here under Riley. There is continuity from his time here in the 90s all the way to present day with Brunson. He's going to get the extension, and Knicks fans should be very grateful.

The heat having been less than 20pts down with more than 4 minutes left when Randle got hurt really blows this "leaves guys in during blowouts" narrative up. Without pretending that Thibs could've already emptied his bench when Randle got hurt, folks are stuck relying on an injury from a decade ago as the lynchpin of this "argument".

It isn't just the Randle incident with a blowout win, we had others - like this one where RJ got injured.

https://www.aol.com/rj-barrett-injured-knicks-blowout-043000472.html

DENVER — It was a blowout, an embarrassing blowout in an embarrassing season. The game was over, creeping toward Tuesday’s 132-115 final in favor of the Nuggets. Yet Tom Thibodeau still had starters on the court, most notably RJ Barrett, who, with meaningless seconds remaining, twisted his ankle.

I love Thibs, but he needs to stop doing this.

[cgf]

This thread was made before with the Bulls and the Wolves, people saying the injuries weren't his fault. This thread was literally made before in 2013 and 2018, it's the same thing then as it is now, people will defend him saying it's not his fault, even though Randle got hurt in a game where we were up 15 with 4 minutes to go, just like Rose got hurt late in a game.

I'd move on from him, thank you for building the culture, but it's not a coincidence when I can go through threads on here from 2013 and see the same complaints and defenses as the ones in 2018 and they now fit in with what I watched in 2024.

When do you see teams pull players up 15 with over 4 min to go in today’s NBA? Unless they’re blatantly tanking, players are playing in those moments.

Yeah. The part people like to gloss over when pushing this narrative is that if Thibs had emptied his bench before Randle got hurt, we lose that game. So what they really are arguing for is for Thibs to sacrifice some wins in order to lower the risk of injury to important players...but that's a dangerous game with how competitive the east is.

...and as we've seen with the Clippers, even if you play that game, you don't guarantee s***. All you can do with a regular season that's this long is try to keep enough depth for the eventual injuries not to wear you down, and hope that it's not your irreplaceables that are hurt in the playoffs.

[Woodsanity]

The only thing you can fault Thibs for is leaving starters in game during the regular season when it's a blow out. That's how Rose got injured, that's how Randle got injured.

As a Knicks fan, it's really upsetting to see because it's so easily avoidable. Extra minutes don't necessarily lead to injury, but there's no reason not to reduce the chance for it if you can.

Now, on the other hand - he's an unbelievable coach. New York has been through so many coaches, and each time we've looked like a joke. No defense, no culture, no work ethic. It can never work in NYC. We have no patience for that. If you play in the garden and don't give it your all like a Thibs team, we're going to boo you. If you aren't playing hard here, the city will chew you up and spit you out. There is no other style that will work here.

Thibs is our guy, he started here under Riley. There is continuity from his time here in the 90s all the way to present day with Brunson. He's going to get the extension, and Knicks fans should be very grateful.

The heat having been less than 20pts down with more than 4 minutes left when Randle got hurt really blows this "leaves guys in during blowouts" narrative up. Without pretending that Thibs could've already emptied his bench when Randle got hurt, folks are stuck relying on an injury from a decade ago as the lynchpin of this "argument".

How so? We were up 115-98 with 4:27 remaining. Ok, it was a 17 pt lead, not a 20 pt lead. Who cares? We ended up winning the game 125-109 without him.

Thibs could have more confidence in his bench to hold a 17 pt lead in the regular season. This was avoidable.

This is the only beef I have with Thibs. In scenarios like these where its almost impossible to lose let them rest especially in RS.

If its PS its a bit more tolerable and even in that case I would just see if the other team can get within 10. If they do put starters back in.

[cgf]

The only thing you can fault Thibs for is leaving starters in game during the regular season when it's a blow out. That's how Rose got injured, that's how Randle got injured.

As a Knicks fan, it's really upsetting to see because it's so easily avoidable. Extra minutes don't necessarily lead to injury, but there's no reason not to reduce the chance for it if you can.

Now, on the other hand - he's an unbelievable coach. New York has been through so many coaches, and each time we've looked like a joke. No defense, no culture, no work ethic. It can never work in NYC. We have no patience for that. If you play in the garden and don't give it your all like a Thibs team, we're going to boo you. If you aren't playing hard here, the city will chew you up and spit you out. There is no other style that will work here.

Thibs is our guy, he started here under Riley. There is continuity from his time here in the 90s all the way to present day with Brunson. He's going to get the extension, and Knicks fans should be very grateful.

The heat having been less than 20pts down with more than 4 minutes left when Randle got hurt really blows this "leaves guys in during blowouts" narrative up. Without pretending that Thibs could've already emptied his bench when Randle got hurt, folks are stuck relying on an injury from a decade ago as the lynchpin of this "argument".

It isn't just the Randle incident with a blowout win, we had others - like this one where RJ got injured.

https://www.aol.com/rj-barrett-injured-knicks-blowout-043000472.html

DENVER — It was a blowout, an embarrassing blowout in an embarrassing season. The game was over, creeping toward Tuesday’s 132-115 final in favor of the Nuggets. Yet Tom Thibodeau still had starters on the court, most notably RJ Barrett, who, with meaningless seconds remaining, twisted his ankle.

I love Thibs, but he needs to stop doing this.

Bondy is a s*** stirrer so he's going to push the most sensationalistic angle, but he's talking about a 13pt game with 4 minutes left when RJ checked back in after sitting the first 8 minutes of the 4th quarter that never got to a 20pt deficit. That just isn't "empty your bench" time for most NBA coaches, not just Thibs.

I'm open to the logical argument that with just 1 minute left a 15+ lead should be "empty your bench" time...although even that isn't a guarantee in today's NBA lol...but what I'll bring up against that is this team's never say die ethos and that instilling that feverish dedication to never quit would be undermined if Thibs started pulling the starters it games that were still winnable at the time.

Nobody just wakes up this obsessed with refusing-to-lose, that sort of mindset needs to be cultivated over time & consistently reinforced, even with players who are naturally wired that way. And part of that is giving his guys the chance to make an impressive comeback when games are still technically winnable, even if they fall short...and teaching them to never take their foot off the pedal, even if they see out the win comfortably.

[cgf]

The heat having been less than 20pts down with more than 4 minutes left when Randle got hurt really blows this "leaves guys in during blowouts" narrative up. Without pretending that Thibs could've already emptied his bench when Randle got hurt, folks are stuck relying on an injury from a decade ago as the lynchpin of this "argument".

How so? We were up 115-98 with 4:27 remaining. Ok, it was a 17 pt lead, not a 20 pt lead. Who cares? We ended up winning the game 125-109 without him.

Thibs could have more confidence in his bench to hold a 17 pt lead in the regular season. This was avoidable.

This is the only beef I have with Thibs. In scenarios like these where its almost impossible to lose let them rest especially in RS.

If its PS its a bit more tolerable and even in that case I would just see if the other team can get within 10. If they do put starters back in.

Less than 20pts with more than 4 minutes to go just isn't a done deal anymore. We've seen way too many teams lose in that scenario to just be emptying our bench.

And the east is just too tight to f*** around & find out. We finished with just 3 more wins than Philly. So it wouldn't have taken very many of those surprising defeats to have significantly changed our playoff path.

Plus it just makes it a lot harder to cultivate the never-say-die ethos that pervades this team, if Thibs is sacrificing still winnable games...which ~15pts absolutely is with time still on the clock.

[kenwood3333]

Thibs overchieved with this group of players, but doesn't mean he can do more with a healthier group.