One of the reasons that the Knicks moved on from Tom Thibodeau was his refusal to play his bench. Mike Brown just made it extremely clear that the Knicks won't have that issue this season, saying that he plans for his rotation to be nine or 10 players deep.
Brown, speaking at the Knicks' Media Day, also noted that historically he has used a rotation of "9.5, 10 guys." One year ago, that would have seemed unheard of, as Thibodeau has a reputation for playing his starters lots of minutes and rarely experimenting with playing rookies or unproven players.
In fact, Mikal Bridges, who eclipsed over 3,000 minutes last season, even requested that Thibodeau play his bench more. Bridges stated that a deeper rotation was needed to keep the starters fresh, improve their play on both ends of the floor, and develop a true second unit.
The Knicks starters weren't very effective
It would have been a different story, perhaps, if the Knicks' starters had been playing everyone they faced off the floor. In reality, their starting group was pretty average during the regular season, posting a net rating of 3.3 in a whopping 940 minutes of sharing the floor.
That same starting group of Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Bridges, OG Anunoby, and Karl-Anthony Towns was even worse in the playoffs, where they posted a net rating of -6.2 in 335 minutes together. Eventually, Thibodeau made a switch, inserting Mitchell Robinson into the lineup for Hart, but ultimately it was too late.
Brown hasn't revealed who he plans to start with, yet. The important part, though, is that he is prepared to use the players he has and find out what combinations work best, something Thibodeau never took the time to do.
The Knicks bench is deeper and better
It is also important to note that it should be easier for Brown to go deep in the bench than it was for Thibodeau, for the simple reason that Brown has more talent at his disposal.
The Knicks upgraded their depth by bringing in Guerschon Yabusele and Jordan Clarkson on guaranteed deals, while also bringing in a slew of veterans on non-guaranteed deals who will compete in training camp to land a spot on the roster.
Thibodeau certainly had his shortcomings, but Clarkson and Yabusele are fairly significant upgrades from Cam Payne and Precious Achiuwa, both of whom remain without a team heading into the season.