[The Athletic] NBA Players are wrong about Thibs

[Clyde_Style]

nice to see thibs finally getting his flowers

Happy to hear that the payers love being around eachother and love to play for Thibs...

Actually, it's kind of like us on this board

[FrozenEnvelope]

Winning cures most ailments. Thibs isn't perfect but he's more good then bad. He deserves his flowers and an extension. Coaching in this town is not easy. The type of fans who blame Thibs for everything will blame the next coach for everything too.

[Wildcat]

It's obvious this group enjoys playing for Thibs. And that's a culture created by Thibs with the right guys that embraced that culture. Of course, he's not without his faults because I'll go to my grave in saying the Knicks beat the Knicks in that Miami series. I've been pushing back on the whole "Thibs grinds his players" notion after I looked at the league averages. Clearly Josh understands. Same with Deuce. These injuries were just awful, terrible luck for the exception of I-Hart, but again, with so many big men already down, it had to be done.

[GONYK]

Were there quotes from players other than Donte

The players - especially the Villanova group - obviously buy in but that stuck out to me.

Yes, but it's other Nova players

[Fat Kat]

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[8516knicks]

The Ahtletic has an article about why Thibs' reputation around the league is wrong and our players lay out why they love playing for him

Last April, as the playoffs approached and the New York Knicks were well on their way to the franchise’s best season in a decade, The Athletic published an anonymous player poll in which their coach, Tom Thibodeau, was the leading vote-getter in a most unflattering category: The coach whom players would least like to play for.

It wasn’t even close, either, with Thibodeau receiving 43.6 percent of the votes and then-Houston Rockets coach Stephen Silas a distant second at 14.5 percent. Add in the fact Thibodeau had become a two-time winner of this unwelcome award, having also taken the (dis)honor when this poll was last published in 2019, and it’s safe to say his reputation as an old-school leader in these new-age times was alive and well.

“That poll, for me — and excuse my language — but it doesn’t mean s—,” DiVincenzo, who played for Golden State last season and signed a four-year, $50 million deal with New York last summer, told The Athletic after the Knicks’ win over the Warriors on Monday night. “I’ve seen the poll, but I signed here.”

His ringing endorsement continued from there.

“I don’t care (about Thibodeau’s reputation),” DiVincenzo continued. “I don’t care. Guys in the NBA now (are different) than before. Everybody wants the game all offense. Nobody wants to come in and practice. But me, being my first year here, I think he’s done a great job of balancing things.

“From the outside world, there’s always (a different view). But in our house — in-house — we have a good dynamic and we enjoy it and everybody enjoys being around each other. To the outside world, you don’t really know. All you know is perception. All you know is the history from other teams (Thibodeau has coached) and his years with different organizations. But we’ve had plenty of rest days, plenty of off days.”

And rumor has it, I shared with DiVincenzo, that Thibodeau practices aren’t nearly as hard as advertised these days.

“They’re not,” DiVincenzo confirmed. “I played for (the Warriors’ Steve) Kerr and played for Coach Bud (former Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer). It’s not like you come here and all of a sudden you’re just running track every day (in practice). I think what he does by far better than anybody I’ve been around is he’s the most prepared. So it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go for two hours on your feet and running. But when you’re in there, you’re gonna lock in and you’re gonna get the stuff done and we’re gonna get out of there.”

As is the case with any coach whose contract situation is in question, the outcome of the postseason will surely matter when it comes to what comes next. His current deal runs through the 2024-25 season, but league sources say he hopes to secure his future with the Knicks when both sides plan to revisit the topic this summer. At this rate, the Knicks might wind up hoping they’d decided to get something done with Thibodeau before the recent explosion of coaching salaries.

For those who might have missed the economic boom on this front, take a look at this list of recent deals that have drastically changed the market:

Monty Williams signs a six-year, $78.5 million deal with Detroit in May.
Gregg Popovich signs a five-year extension reportedly worth more than $80 million with San Antonio in July.
Erik Spoelstra signs an eight-year extension worth more than $100 million with Miami in January.
Doc Rivers signs a deal with Milwaukee in January that runs through the 2026-27 season and is worth approximately $40 million combined.
Steve Kerr signs a two-year, $35 million extension with Golden State in February.
League sources say Thibodeau, by comparison, makes an annual salary in the neighborhood of $7 million. All signs point to a well-deserved raise likely coming his way.

In the here and now, though, Thibodeau’s focus is on these Knicks fighting through all this adversity and raising as much hoops hell as they can when it matters most. And the coach so many players would least like to play for, it seems, has total buy-in from the ones who couldn’t be happier that he’s their coach.

“I think confidence comes from demonstrated ability, like the fact that we’ve won with players being out (means) there’s a belief that we can do it. If we stay disciplined and do the things that we should do, we’ll have a chance to win.”

Somewhat surprised this was DDV. Jalen and Josh seem way more articulate usually. In comparison, DDV usually just mouths athlete's remote-control quotes when I've seen him on TV.

[8516knicks]

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Who'd have thought. But props to him.

[aggo]

adsdvsdf

[Gravy]

This quote sums up the Thibs era and his guys vs the rest of the league.

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[Capn'O]

This quote sums up the Thibs era and his guys vs the rest of the league.

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Notably, we're the only team in the NBA that plays a slower pace than the 2005 Phoenix Suns.

[Gravy]

This quote sums up the Thibs era and his guys vs the rest of the league.

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Notably, we're the only team in the NBA that plays a slower pace than the 2005 Phoenix Suns.

I read somewhere that offensive rebounds brings down the pace stats, I'm not sure how that's all calculated.

[Capn'O]

This quote sums up the Thibs era and his guys vs the rest of the league.

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Notably, we're the only team in the NBA that plays a slower pace than the 2005 Phoenix Suns.

I read somewhere that offensive rebounds brings down the pace stats, I'm not sure how that's all calculated.

That checks. They probably measure a possession by total time with the ball before the opponent gets it. So that slows us down but we're not fast.

I just find it amusing that Thibs is the one finding success bucking the pace trend. Because of course he would.

[FrozenEnvelope]

Thibs deserves a ton of credit for the development of Deuce. Of course it starts with the player but the coaching and development is needed and this staff has done such a great job with him.

[GONYK]

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Thibs the caregiver

[Phish Tank]

Thibs has the roster that he can work with and a front office that won't go behind his back to undermine him. Everyone's in alignment.

The Villanova guys are the perfect match for Thibs. Curious to see the conversations Jay Wright & Thibs had over the years. Outside of perhaps the minutes stuff, they seem like the perfect fit. Bunch of hard-nosed, blue collar players. Everyone underestimated a bit. No egos. If anything, just a bit of goofiness. Not the most athletic, but just workmanlike. That is infectious.

Then you got the buy-in from Randle (who seems to thoroughly enjoy Thibs) and the bigs, plus guys like Deuce & Precious, etc. who've developed into solid pieces.

The thing people don't realize is that all the players (plus the departed kids) all bought into the philosophy.

[Gravy]

Thibs deserves a ton of credit for the development of Deuce. Of course it starts with the player but the coaching and development is needed and this staff has done such a great job with him.

Yes, fans expecting a second round pick to get 30 minutes a game as a rookie while the team is fighting for the playoffs is unrealistic. Deuce was brought along slowly with as much as he could handle at the time and now its paying off. Most teams develop players that way, its not out of the ordinary.

[MrDollarBills]

This team saw its starting Center, Power Forward, and Small Forward go down with injury and the Knicks, as of today, are still within striking distance of a 50 win season and a top 2 seed in the East.

I am not a fan of playing guys 48 minutes. But say what you will, Thibs has not let this team falter and has kept the ship steady. That says a lot to me about the coaching happening, and the culture instilled in the building.

Pay the man.

[3toheadmelo]

Thibs deserves a ton of credit for the development of Deuce. Of course it starts with the player but the coaching and development is needed and this staff has done such a great job with him.

Yes, fans expecting a second round pick to get 30 minutes a game as a rookie while the team is fighting for the playoffs is unrealistic. Deuce was brought along slowly with as much as he could handle at the time and now its paying off. Most teams develop players that way, its not out of the ordinary.

And deuce didn’t look so good early on too. He was getting called deuce mcbrick because of how bad he was. Good thing Thibs brought him on slowly

[Gravy]

Thibs deserves a ton of credit for the development of Deuce. Of course it starts with the player but the coaching and development is needed and this staff has done such a great job with him.

Yes, fans expecting a second round pick to get 30 minutes a game as a rookie while the team is fighting for the playoffs is unrealistic. Deuce was brought along slowly with as much as he could handle at the time and now its paying off. Most teams develop players that way, its not out of the ordinary.

And deuce didn’t look so good early on too. He was getting called deuce mcbrick because of how bad he was. Good thing Thibs brought him on slowly

Deuce Mcbrick lol. Last year he was shooting under 30 percent from 3 which is worse than Burks now. He definitely needed time on the bench and in practice to grow. Game minutes is not the only place to develop.

[moocow007]

Every time I read or hear about something like this I remember Kobe Bryant and Mamba Mentality. The guys that hate Thibs long workouts and hard pushing style probably don't have Mamba Mentality. Those are the types of players that you probably don't really want. Doesn't mean Thibs is perfect. But if the reason you don't like playing for him is because you don't want to work extra hard and you don't want to do whatever it takes then that says more about you the player than it does about Thibs the coach.