It’s time for Knicks to fire Tom Thibodeau after disgraceful loss
I feel like most Knicks fans feel as if it has been time for Tom Thibodeau to no longer be the head coach of the New York Knicks. However, with the Knicks’ disappointing start, and after a disgusting display of coaching in the team’s most recent loss to the Thunder, it may be time for Thibs to pack his bags.
There were so many things wrong with Thibodeau’s coaching approach in Sunday’s game. What we’ll focus on for the most part, though, is how Thibs distributed minutes and his overall rotation decisions.
Honestly, this game disgusted me as a fan, as I really just do not understand what Thibs was doing as a coach. Obviously, part of this loss falls on the players, however, it would not have nearly been so bad if Thibodeau coached better.
Knicks fans are sick of Tom Thibodeau after 145-135 loss to Thunder
I’ll start by saying that this was a pretty solid game by the Knicks. You can’t be too upset at all of the players when the team dropped 135, however, Thibodeau’s rotations were absolutely unacceptable.
This was a rough game for RJ Barrett, but to bench him for the entire second half of play (except for two minutes) two days after he dropped 30 against the Pistons? Unless it comes out that Barrett is injured, this is close to a fireable offense, especially when you look at how horrible Barrett’s replacement was.
Again, Barrett did not play well, but to play Evan Fournier the ENTIRE fourth quarter just for him to drop a whopping zero points on 0-of-5 shooting from the field is absolutely disgusting. It gets even worse when you consider how awful Fournier is defensively.
Barrett had a rough offensive game, but he can still provide some very solid playmaking and defense when he is called upon to. For Thibs to completely ignore Barrett the entire second half is not only horrible coaching, but it also can cause the coach to lose the locker room if he hasn’t already.
In addition to not playing Barrett, Thibodeau gave Jalen Brunson an incredible zero minutes in the fourth quarter and only 24 in the entire game. While Immanuel Quickley did a great job as the team’s PG without Brunson, why not run both in the same lineup?
Thibodeau already runs two small guards in Quickley and Rose off the bench, so why not run Quickley and Brunson together? Especially with, again, how awful Fournier was, it just makes no sense at all.
Brunson dropped 17 points, seven assists, and three steals while shooting 5-of-9 from the field and 0-of-2 from three. I’m very interested in Thibodeau’s reasoning for not giving him a single second in the fourth quarter.
In other news, this was a great game for the bench, which has struggled recently. Julius Randle was inconsistent for the majority of the game but could have been worse, and Cam Reddish looked elite as a starter.
Reddish has struggled in recent games since being named a starter, but this game he really found his stride, dropping 26 points and four steals while shooting 10-of-17 from the field and 2-of-5 from three.
It is going to be really beneficial if Reddish can find some consistency on offense. The Knicks have been in need of more consistency on the offensive side of the ball and this game was a big showcase for it. Hopefully, players like Reddish and Quickley can continue to step up when the big three fails.
With how well most Knicks players performed today, it is tough to be upset at them. Hence why most fans of the team have begun to call for Tom Thibodeau’s job. If he does not improve his level of coaching, we could see a new coach for the Knicks very soon.
