NY Knicks: 3 adjustments Tom Thibodeau failed to make in 2021-22
After an exciting end to last season, the New York Knicks are officially eliminated from the playoffs this year. There’s a lot that New York could change during the offseason, but according to reports, Tom Thibodeau’s going to be back at the helm for the Knicks next year.
Thibodeau was named the 2021-22 NBA Coach of the Year last season after leading New York to a fourth-place finish in the East. Here we are one year later, and the narrative’s been changed.
Knicks fans are no longer partial to Thibodeau or former All-Star Julius Randle and that’s because of the team’s disappointing finish. We can all hope that next season won’t be the same, but that’s going to require a change of mindset on Thibodeau’s part.
With three games remaining on the schedule for New York, now seems like a good time to reflect on Thibodeau and the Knicks’ season.
3 New York Knicks adjustments Tom Thibodeau failed to make in 2021-22
3: Changing up late game rotations
Ah, here we go. If you’ve even watched New York play in only one game this year, you likely got to witness the Knicks make their typical late-game collapse.
If New York has a lead at halftime or the start of the fourth quarter, it isn’t safe. It’s been tough for the Knicks to put together a full game, but Thibodeau’s to blame, too.
If there’s one thing about the coach, it’s that he’s going to stick with New York’s starting five. It doesn’t matter what’s going on, those five players (when healthy) are going to start the game and finish it.
In last Monday’s 109-104 win over the Bulls, the Knicks were up by one point with over three minutes left to play and Thibodeau decided to pull Obi Toppin in favor of Julius Randle. For reference, Toppin finished with 17 points (6-of-11) in 20 minutes and Randle had five points (1-of-9) in 28 minutes.
New York still won the game, yes, but Toppin having the hot hand didn’t mean much at all to Thibodeau. A similar occurrence happened two nights later in New York’s 125-114 loss to Charlotte.
The coach took Quickley out of the game with 4:59 left to play, after he had scored 11 points in the quarter, for Evan Fournier. At that point, the Knicks were down 107-102, and Quickley didn’t re-enter the game until the 2:48 mark when the score was 114-106.
If the second-year guard would’ve stayed in the game, would he have been able to combat Miles Bridges’ scoring run? There’s no way to know for sure, but while Fournier had a good shooting night (he finished with 30 points), he shouldn’t have replaced Quickley.
Thibodeau’s going to live and die by his ways. For a young team like New York to be successful, he’s going to need to have an open mind.