Thibs vs Nurse: Who out taskmasters who?

[Ssj16]

In the Knicks vs Philly, we have 2 coaches who would player their best players 50 minutes in a 48 minute game.

Fans of Chicago, Minnesota and now NY, no all to well of Thibs penchant for running his players into ground during the regular season for better or worst.

Raptors fans recall Nurse telling Thibs to hold his beer in his last several seasons as a coach in Toronto while he played his vets an exorbitant amount of minutes.

When was the last time we had 2 old school-mentality coaches go head to head?

Which coach is going to play their starters the most minutes collectively?

Who is the biggest taskmaster?

[MrGoat]

It'll be a tie because both coaches are going to run 5 man rotations

[durden_tyler]

Thanks for reminding us who the coaches are for this series. Now time to bet on ALL unders on ALL games in this best of seven.

[NoStatsGuy]

im gonna die on that hill.

this is false narrative at least for thibs. i understand everybody likes to ride this narrative and go with it. but none of the knicks players are high up in the minutes per game. brunson and randle are tied and play 35 a game and are 15th in minutes per game. just like any other starplayer for their team. bookers, bridges, tatum, luka, maxey, Fox,KD, etc they all have played more minutes. but nobody talking about their coaches running them into the ground.

im not with it and think its stupid to keep this narrative alive until someone actually proves me wrong. there were spurts were Hartenstein and donte needed to play 40 a night on ocassional weeks, where other players werent rdy to go. but cmon man

[magee]

Nurse will run a numerous amount of zones to get the ball out of Brunson's hands. Knicks have adapted a lot to those 4-on-3 situations. Drawing Embiid out of the paint a little will open up enough looks from 3 for the Knicks. Up to them to knock them down.

Main thing for Philly will be how to maximize Embiid's spacing around him if he's not able to draw the fouls he needs in order to get Hartenstein and Robinson in foul trouble. If Maxey doesn't get the spacing he needs to rev up on his drives (this is where 15+ minutes of McBride's defense comes into play), do they have enough to keep the ball moving into the right spots.

I see Knicks going up 2-0 and if Philly doesn't get enough out of the supporting cast (Buddy Hield's offense is my X-factor for their success), it's hard to see them stretch this to any more than five games.

[Childs]

Nurse: 47 mins?
Thibs: 48 minutes
Handshake

[cgf]

Thibs used his bench more than any other coach that won a playoff series last year and didn’t have anyone in the top 20 for minutes until we got hammered by injuries this year.

The old memes are old.

[dans1230]

The numbers dont back up this argument at least this year.
Maxey was 2nd in the league in mpg at 37.5, then noone else in the top 30.
Brunson was 14th in the league in mpg at 35.4, Randle and OG didnt qualify but were at 35.4 and 34.9 respectively. For a team desperate to win games, with everything to prove. i see nothing wrong with that.

[docholliday99]

I'm not sure task master is the right words in this case, as name a player that will want to come off the floor in a big game? Both coaches tend to lean more on their veteran players but that's not really out of the norm for nba coaches who are not tanking. Out side of games, I think Thibs is known to run hard practices, which are heavily laden with physical conditioning, thus earning the moniker of being a taskmaster. That's something Nurse isn't known for.

[Jadoogar]

all teams shorten their rotations in the playoffs. These 2 guy just extend that mentality to the regular season.
In the playoffs, every team is going to play 7-8 players.

[eyeatoma]

Nurse, he's the new version of Thibs, has all sorts of great tactical schemes, and yet runs his players into the ground ala Thibs.

[cgf]

I'm not sure task master is the right words in this case, as name a player that will want to come off the floor in a big game? Both coaches tend to lean more on their veteran players but that's not really out of the norm for nba coaches who are not tanking. Out side of games, I think Thibs is known to run hard practices, which are heavily laden with physical conditioning, thus earning the moniker of being a taskmaster. That's something Nurse isn't known for.

Even the Thibs won't play kids meme has not really been true of his time in NY (so far).

He started RJ & Mitch as soon as he got here, had no qualms about letting a rookie Grimes win the starting job from Fournier, he's played Quickley big minutes since his rookie year, he kept trying to find ways to get Obi minutes despite Randle's breakout, he's given Sims big minutes when injuries called him into action, and when McBride's shooting started to translate to this level, Thibs started trusting him in all scenarios despite his inexperience.

Thibs favors serious players over knuckleheads, but he's been great with almost all of the kids he's had to work with in NY. Reddish is the only one who just didn't work out at all, and even him Thibs gave a real shot too...Cam just squandered it by doing stupid s*** and getting outplayed by Grimes.

[Hatrick Ewing]

Nick Nurse used to coach the Raptors.

[cgf]

all teams shorten their rotations in the playoffs. These 2 guy just extend that mentality to the regular season.
In the playoffs, every team is going to play 7-8 players.

Thibs hasn't run a 7-8 man rotation unless forced to do so by injuries. Thibs will shorten the rotation rather than bleed points while the regulars sit, but when we've been healthy...or the 3rd stringers have held their own...Thibs has stuck with the 9 man rotation that we've been rolling with since he cut it down from 10 back in December of 2022.

Even in the playoffs last year 8 knicks averaged 20mpg (or more) and a 9th (Toppin) averaged 15.9mpg while playing in all 11 games...just like they had in the regular season...and last year, Thibs relied on his bench in the regular season more than any other coach that won a playoff series.

[KnicksGadfly]

When the stakes are worth it, it’s not a bad thing to lean on your best players. Denver did it last year too…they basically relied on 6 core players.

You just gotta know when to best do it.

[Sixerscan]

Nurse benched Tobias down the stretch of the Heat game because he wasn’t playing well.

Embiid and Maxey will play as much as possible but everything else is pretty fluid.

[Ckay]

Amazing show btw.

[sasquatchBob]

Thibs is a top 3 coach in the league. His coaching style is made for playoff basketball. If only players wouldn't get tired and injured in playoffs haha. But really, Thibs is top 3 even though his methods are questionable. I hope he gets a title one year.

Edit:
Just thought of this. Thibs should be paired with ironman Mikal Bridges. Perfect marriage.

[cgf]

Amazing show btw.

Every time I see this thread I'm disappointed it's not about the show.

[cgf]

Thibs is a top 3 coach in the league. His coaching style is made for playoff basketball. If only players wouldn't get tired and injured in playoffs haha. But really, Thibs is top 3 even though his methods are questionable. I hope he gets a title one year.

Edit:
Just thought of this. Thibs should be paired with ironman Mikal Bridges. Perfect marriage.

Even if we got Mikal, Miami would break him before we made it to the playoffs with him...just like they've broken Julius the past two seasons