Knicks: Is it too early to criticize Tom Thibodeau?

The one criticism I have of Thibodeau is that he doesn’t see the forest past the trees. He hasn’t learned from his mistakes. He still doesn’t have patience for young players, and even in the era of “load management” he is still playing his stars 40+ minutes a game. Critics have said that he drives players into the ground in order to pad his win totals.

Now compare how the old-school Thibodeau handles his stars to the way the poster boy for modern NBA coaches, Steve Kerr handles his: He explicitly said he is not going to stretch Steph Curry’s minutes to ‘chase wins’.

What has saved Thibodeau from more criticism is the play of Immanuel Quickley. The rookie has burst on the scene and helped fill a gaping hole on the team. But his stellar play hasn’t guaranteed him minutes.

Even when Quickley plays well, he gets pulled for Elfrid Payton. Thibodeau is willing to give vets more rope than young players when it comes to poor play. But it should actually be the opposite. Elfrid Payton is still a low IQ player that can’t shoot despite this being his 7th season. Reggie Bullock for the most part has been a disappointment on offense while his defense has been good, but not great. Even Derrick Rose who is a great addition and an upgrade over Payton can’t play more than 24 minutes a night at this stage in his career.

I rather the Knicks give Obi Toppin, Frank Ntilikina, and Kevin Knox +20 minutes a night and live with the results. I truly believe the additional 3-4 wins Thibodeau thinks he will get by playing Randle and Barrett 40 minutes a night along with Bullock and Payton in the rotation are not worth it.

The Knicks are better served knowing for sure what they have in their young players who have more upside instead of relying on veteran players.