NY Knicks: For and Against the idea of hiring Tom Thibodeau

Against Hiring Thibodeau

1) No offense

One of the gripes with a Tom Thibodeau led team is that the offense is very lacking. The Bulls were one of the best defensive teams in the league, but when it came to offense, there was a lot of Iso and hero-ball. They often relied on Rose to bail them out, or ran some sets with Noah at the point.

Chicago ranked in the mid-twenties for offensive rating throughout Thibs’ time with the team. That was one of the reasons he struggled in the playoffs and was fired. You would think if the Knicks buy into Thibodeau’s defensive principles, it should lead to easy baskets on the other end of the floor.

The problem was the Bulls were a poor transition team, ranking 20th, 18th, 30th, 30th and 24th, respectively, during the five years under Thibodeau. In other words, they did not take advantage when they got stops and teams were on their heels as they are getting back on defense.

2) Played best players too many big minutes/wore them to the ground

The biggest complaint with Thibodeau is the amount of minutes he plays his starters. You see guys like Luol Deng or Jimmy Butler playing 44-46 minutes every night, and it is troublesome to modern thinking about “load management.”

Instead of looking at the season as a marathon to pace his best players, he would play them too many minutes and they would then looked tired as they entered the stretch run and postseason. He only knew one way to coach and that is full throttle with high intensity, which can rub many players the wrong way. It wore out his welcome in Chicago, and Minnesota. This has to worry the Knicks decision-makers, if Thibs hasn’t shown an ability to adjust and learn from his mistakes over time.