New York Knicks: Avoiding a sophmore slump for Tom Thibodeau

New York Knicks: Finding the right balance of players’ minutes

As Jon Krawczynski wrote in his piece for The Athletic, Thibs was fired, in part, not because of how many minutes he played stars like Jimmy Butler, Zach LaVine, Karl Anthony Towns, and Andrew Wiggins, but because he leaned heavily on his veterans and players like Tyus Jones and Gorgui Deng were left out in the cold. Additionally, any changes in minutes were not necessarily communicated to the players.

This past season, in New York, fans were worried that a trade for Derrick Rose would cut into the minutes of promising rookie Immanuel Quickley. That just wasn’t the case. Post Rose trade, Quickley averaged in the neighborhood of 19 minutes per game. There was a drop-off between the months of March and April, but close to 20 minutes a night for a rookie is nothing to sneeze at.

However, it is fair to say that Thibodeau leaned heavily on his vets. Throughout the season, fans clamored for Kevin Knox and Frank Ntilikina to play more, especially when Elfrid Payton looked like he lost all confidence for most of the season. Add on the fact that, Julius Randle and RJ Barrett were number one and two respectively in total minutes played, and you can see how some of Thib’s old habits tend to die hard.

In year one we saw adjustments from Thibs and now it’s time to build on that. He’ll have to collaborate with the Sports Science staff, and figure out a way to keep Randle’s and RJ’s minutes down, while also crafting a more expanded role for Obi Toppin (if he’s still on the team).