How a Knicks fan feels about Tom Thibodeau seems to change depending on the current streak the team is on. During an eight-game winning streak in December that may have saved Thibodeau’s job, fans claimed that he had finally figured it out by switching to a nine-man rotation. During the five-game losing streak that followed, fans were convinced Thibodeau was misusing the roster. So, which really is it?
My feelings have remained the same since the beginning of the season. Tom Thibodeau needs to go. His old-fashioned style of coaching is outdated and doesn’t fit the roster the Knicks have constructed. Regardless of how much they’re winning, a lot of the Knicks’ issues stem from Thibodeau’s coaching.
Tom Thibodeau has proven he’s not the right coach for the Knicks
One of the major themes coming into the 2022-23 season was the abundance of depth the Knicks possessed and how it would benefit the team over the course of a grueling 82-game season. How is it that we’ve now convinced ourselves a nine-man rotation, that on some nights is really only a six-man rotation, is somehow beneficial?
I don’t mean to be the “minutes police,” but there is no way possible that playing your starters close to 40 minutes a night is sustainable. No elite team does this, especially when the offense is heavily predicated on isolation.
In a 125-116 loss to the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 22, Obi Toppin scored 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting which included four made 3-pointers in just 11 minutes of play. With the recent thumb injury to Mitchell Robinson, it is inexplicable that he only played 11 minutes against a team that doesn’t play a traditional center.
Now, I get it. Toppin has a lot of room to grow and he has games where he looks lost out on the floor. Part of that has to do with Thibodeau’s use of Toppin as a floor spacer instead of as a roll man. I’m not campaigning for our offense to run through Toppin, but someone with as much upside and explosive athleticism as Toppin should not be camped out in the corner all night, even if he does drain them.
The Knicks are in the bottom five of the league this season in bench points per game. In 2020-21, the Knicks were 29th in assists per game. Last season New York was dead last. Even now with Jalen Brunson averaging 6.3 assists per game, the Knicks are still among the worst in the league. The only common denominator is Tom Thibodeau’s offensive system.
Thibodeau has simply been unable and seemingly unwilling to construct a rotation that includes Derrick Rose and Cam Reddish, who can be the bench help the team needs. It’s entirely possible that Rose and Reddish sit out to avoid injury as we approach the trade deadline.
However, to me, that raises more questions. Is anybody we get back in a trade going to drastically change the trajectory of this season? Why trade a first-round pick to acquire Reddish if you’re likely going to have to trade another pick to unload him? That type of decision-making is the typical Knicks’ lack of long-term thinking and clear organizational direction.
I think it is understated how paramount coaching is. Look at the season turnaround the Nets have had after firing Steve Nash and hiring Jacque Vaughn. Think back at how firing Mike D’Antoni and hiring Mike Woodson turned the team around in 2012. Tom Thibodeau has had a great coaching career, but he is not the coach that will lead the Knicks back to relevance.
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