3 Bad habits the New York Knicks have to avoid

New York Knicks: Tom Thibodeau Overplaying His Starters

I’ll be honest, when the Knicks hired Tom Thibodeau to lead the ship, I hated the call. I thought Thibs had not adjusted to the times, and he would burn his players out.

I’m not here to say I was right all along, I was dead wrong. I was actually so painfully wrong considering Thibs won NBA Coach of the Year last season.

Thibs is more comfortable with his guys taking threes on fast breaks and shooting a few feet behind the arc (paging the fearless Immanuel Quickley).

However, it does feel like he is overworking his starters, and it needs to stop.

I’ve actually mentioned this before, specifically regarding Julius Randle in the playoffs.  Many responses claimed I was overreacting, and maybe I was, I mean, the last time the Knicks made the playoffs, the most popular things on the internet were the app Vine and The Harlem Shake, so maybe I was a tad on edge.

I genuinely stand by the fact that Thibs still overworks players.  Obi Toppin was picked 8th overall in 2020 and was seen as pretty NBA ready.  He’s now in his second season and clearly seems ready for bigger minutes.

It honestly makes no sense to me why Julius Randle is playing 36 minutes per night.  They do not need Randle out there constantly to succeed. This team is much more talented than last year’s team.

Right now, with 69 games left, Randle is projected to get 2484 minutes for the rest of the season if his minutes per game stay at 36. If the Knicks gave Toppin even 4 of the minutes Randle gets, that would add up. If they cut 4 minutes off per night for Randle, he will get 276 more minutes of rest.  That totals up to an estimate of 6 fewer games played for the Knicks star.

Tom Thibodeau needs to cut Julius Randle’s minutes. He looks exhausted, he does not have the same explosion late in games because he plays too much.

Carrying around 250 pounds while being the first option on a playoff team is exhausting.  He deserves rest, as do the rest of the starters, especially when your bench may be playing better than your starting rotation.