Bridges Calls Thibs Out For High MPG

[Effigy]

It's one of the reasons Thib's teams do well in the regular season and not as well in the playoffs. They have an advantage playing their starters more minutes, but in the playoffs when other teams play their starters more, the Knicks can't really do that. So they don't have as much room to improve as the other teams. (in addition to the wear and tear stuff)

[cgf]

All 5 suck, bub.

Good luck with that 0-7 record vs the actual good teams in the NBA though lol

Way to deflect.

There's nothing left to be said lol

If a dude thinks being ranked 27th or 29th in the league in bench minutes vs 30th, is an accomplishment, i can't help him. I gotta leave that man in fantasy land.

One is a solid turd and the other diarrhea, either way, they're both bowel movements, i wouldn't brag about that.

My team is 3rd in bench minutes this season though, so i can't really relate to someone cheering for being bottom 10 in the league, 4 seasons in a row, in bench MPG.

Not all of us feel compelled by our insecurity to brag about our teams accomplishments in every post. Sometimes some of us just want to discuss what's actually happening.

That's why the question has never been about whether 17th or 23rd is good or not, it's whether 12.3 bench minutes per game is meaningfully different from 15.1-17.6...and it obviously is, which is why every time you quote me you try to change the conversation to one that lets you keep making lame jokes as you attempt to dunk on knicks fans.

I wonder if that comes from the same insecurity that makes you incapable of letting Pistons fans enjoy their season or recognize that Bickerstaff may have learned a thing or two from his failure in cleveland, pal?

[M2J]

Who exactly has thibs had on the bench this season who has warranted significantly more PT than they have received?

That's not the question. The question is who can fill in with other players so that their core can play less minutes? Plenty

Because Bridges is saying if they played less, they'd have more energy to play the type of defense needed more consistently.

I don't see the difference but fine, answer your question instead; who exactly are you talking about that should be taking PT from our starters? Cam Payne? Landry Shamet? Pacome Dadiet? Jacob Toppin? Matt Ryan?

Thibs has proven time & again that when he has a competent bench, he'll lean on it. That's why this season has been such an outlier.

Dude you're not even naming guys that are clearly in the rotation that could play a few more minutes here or there. McBride for instance could play a few more minutes to rest Brunson so that Brunson can give more effort on the other end. Precious can fill in for 3 positions truly if needed. With Robinson playing more and back Kat can play 4 or 5 to rest OG and Bridges. Yes, Shamet can fill in a bit for the wings too

This isn't rocket science, if guys need rests... Give it to them

[CharityStripe34]

They don't make em like they used to.

Go look at Stockton and Malone's minutes while playing 82 virtually every year lol.

Yeah, but they played against HS janitors and the local 7-11 cashier, right?

[LFGK]

Which one is not like the others: 17.6, 17.1, 16.2, 15.1, or 12.3?

All 5 suck, bub.

Good luck with that 0-7 record vs the actual good teams in the NBA though lol

2nd in defensive rating in the league since Mitch has come back(22nd through the games mitched missed). Pretty confident you will see a team defense closer to last year come playoff time, but hey, what do i know?

[cgf]

That's not the question. The question is who can fill in with other players so that their core can play less minutes? Plenty

Because Bridges is saying if they played less, they'd have more energy to play the type of defense needed more consistently.

I don't see the difference but fine, answer your question instead; who exactly are you talking about that should be taking PT from our starters? Cam Payne? Landry Shamet? Pacome Dadiet? Jacob Toppin? Matt Ryan?

Thibs has proven time & again that when he has a competent bench, he'll lean on it. That's why this season has been such an outlier.

Dude you're not even naming guys that are clearly in the rotation that could play a few more minutes here or there. McBride for instance could play a few more minutes to rest Brunson so that Brunson can give more effort on the other end. Precious can fill in for 3 positions truly if needed. With Robinson playing more and back Kat can play 4 or 5 to rest OG and Bridges. Yes, Shamet can fill in a bit for the wings too

This isn't rocket science, if guys need rests... Give it to them

Bro, McBride already plays 5mpg more than he ever has before, and Achiuwa missed the first ~20 games of the season, needing to work his way back into game shape when he did return. How many more mpg do you think any coach could've squeezed out of them, 2-3mpg more that needed to be split 5-ways?

That's not what Mikal is talking about, the thing that's made this season unique is there hasn't been a 3rd or 4th bench player who has been worth even close to 20mpg...and for a while there we didn't even have a second one, it was just McBride.

Robinson coming back to give Thibs a 3rd significant minute bench guy, should make a huge difference and help a lot as he gets into game shape again...but Mitch has been injured most of the season. Thibs couldn't have given him more minutes than he's gotten.

That's why we're talking about playing Shamet / Dadiet / Toppin / Ryan, or giving Payne-Brunson lineups more minutes despite how they get cooked defensively.

EDIT:
I'd be down for Shamet to get a little more PT now that he's hitting 3s & not just chippy on D, but he also missed ~30 games with injury & his shot was off when he first got back. So he's had to play his way into being worth more than the 12mpg that he is averaging to this point.

FWIW he has been getting more pt of late; averaging 14.9mpg over the last 13 games and likely to see that average continue to increase while Brunson is out.

We've been lucky with injuries to our starting 5, but really unlucky with our bench health, which is a big part of our insane minutes this year. Getting our starters under 170mpg (34min each) wouldn't take much if we ever get fully healthy, just ~45mpg from McBride + Robinson & ~25mpg from some combination of Payne / Shamet / Achiuwa.

We just have had at least 1 rotation guy out in every game this season and at many times it's been 2-4, with at least 1 of those being one of our top 7, after whom there is that significant drop off. But if that ever changes we could give guys real rest running blended lineups for significant minutes:

Payne - McBride* - Bridges* - Achiuwa - Towns
Payne - McBride* - Anunoby* - Towns - Robinson
Brunson - Shamet* - Hart* - Anunoby* - Robinson

[cgf]

Which one is not like the others: 17.6, 17.1, 16.2, 15.1, or 12.3?

All 5 suck, bub.

Good luck with that 0-7 record vs the actual good teams in the NBA though lol

2nd in defensive rating in the league since Mitch has come back(22nd through the games mitched missed). Pretty confident you will see a team defense closer to last year come playoff time, but hey, what do i know?

I'm optimistic about Mitch's return, both in the way he seems to have handled his recovery more seriously than he has in the past, and in the impact it'll make once he's in game shape...both the option of throwing KAT-Rob lineups out there and just having another rotation guy who can give us an impactful 20mpg or more.

But even if that doesn't close the gap with the top 3, this season has been a ton of fun against the other 26 teams in the league, plus I'd like our chances if those top 3 choke and none of them make it past round two.

[SeattleJazzFan]

OMG, how dare they have to play 36 out of 48 minutes!
Wilt says, today's players are soft.

bridges is soft? he's played what, 500 straight games and he's soft. he just thinks there are good players on the bench who can help the team be better.

[dballislife]

whats crazy about all this is even if thibs is up big late against a tanking team he still has his big boys out there lol

[Handlez]

They don't make em like they used to.

Go look at Stockton and Malone's minutes while playing 82 virtually every year lol.

Yeah, but they played against HS janitors and the local 7-11 cashier, right?

Lol

[JayTWill]

It's not just the average minutes for the players. It's things like playing Mikal the first 46:30 of 48 minutes against a struggling Hornets team missing 3 of their 5 starters in a game where the Knicks were up by 25 going in to the 4th and the rookies didn't come into the game until the last 1:30.

It's playing 40+ minutes against a struggling Sixers without Embiid and other rotation players while Shamet gets a DNP and Payne only plays in the first half. It's playing certain starters the entire second half depending on the score no matter how poorly the starters are playing at the time or how well the bench played in the first half.

There are many examples like that where no matter the time or score or level of competition he was going to ride the starters without even giving the bench a chance to fail. Obviously it puts extra strain on the starters and I can't imagine it is a confidence builder for the bench players.

You can scroll through Mikal's gamelog and see far too many 40+ minute games against the bottom of the league. The Knicks bench could be better but if you need to ride your starters even against the worst teams in the league something is wrong.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

There have been several games where Mikal or Hart, and sometimes both of them, will play the entire second half of a game without being subbed. It has happened several times this season, that is just coaching malpractice.

[HangTime]

He hasn't missed a game since high school.

He's like the ultimate stress-test for Coach Thibs.

[cgf]

It's not just the average minutes for the players. It's things like playing Mikal the first 46:30 of 48 minutes against a struggling Hornets team missing 3 of their 5 starters in a game where the Knicks were up by 25 going in to the 4th and the rookies didn't come into the game until the last 1:30.

It's playing 40+ minutes against a struggling Sixers without Embiid and other rotation players while Shamet gets a DNP and Payne only plays in the first half. It's playing certain starters the entire second half depending on the score no matter how poorly the starters are playing at the time or how well the bench played in the first half.

There are many examples like that where no matter the time or score or level of competition he was going to ride the starters without even giving the bench a chance to fail. Obviously it puts extra strain on the starters and I can't imagine it is a confidence builder for the bench players.

You can scroll through Mikal's gamelog and see far too many 40+ minute games against the bottom of the league. The Knicks bench could be better but if you need to ride your starters even against the worst teams in the league something is wrong.

TBF to Thibs, we did watch the bench regularly give leads away early in the season; when Robinson, Achiuwa, and Shamet were all injured. For a while there, Deuce was the only healthy bench guy Thibs could give more than 12-14mpg without just conceding those minutes; as Payne-Brunson lineups get murdered defensively (123 drtg).

That struggling Philly squad took us to OT without KAT, so not exactly a night for experimenting...and at that point Shamet was 4-20 from 3 (20%), since that DNP he's been 18-41 from 3 (44%). So in hindsight, it looks like giving Shamet that night off was a brilliant decision by Thibs that's given our starters more rest in the longrun.

Similarly in that Hornets game, Shamet wasn't even on the roster because he was hurt, Achiuwa was making his season debut, and Payne was injured, so after Deuce and an out of shape Precious, our next best bench guys were Toppin & Ryan. Neither of whom you want to put out there when a team has cut the lead to less than 20.

...was that the one when Thibs actually had Toppin start warming up only to sit back down when the lead dropped under 20 before he could sub in, or am I mixing it up with another game?

EDIT:
Not saying no coach could've gotten more minutes out of our bench, just that those specific examples ring hollow to me and the bigger problem has been the options available to Thibs. He's using our bench 20% less than he ever has before and 30% less than he did before we started consoldiating talent, so even by Thibs' standards this has been an outlier.

We've been lucky with our starters health...KAT's 7 missed games is the most of any starter atm...but our bench lost McBride for 10 games, Achiuwa for ~20, Shamet for ~30, and Robinson for ~60. Add in that this is the least bench talent we've ever given Thibs, and I'm not sure any coach would have this bench getting meaningfully more PT without sacrificing that 3 seed.

Hopefully this summer we can bring precious back at a discount so we can use the taxpayer MLE on someone like LaRavia, our kids progress, and not having to deal with Embiid intentionally injuring him means we don't see Mitch miss the first 59 games of next season.

...although with Mitch's history, maybe it's a good thing he's had less chances to get hurt before the playoffs

[-HB-]

Olajuwon, during his back to back titles, averaged 40 minutes a game and 42.5 during the playoffs lol.

Olajuwon AVERAGED 36 MINUTES A GAME OVER AN 18 YEAR CAREER.

GOAT

[JayTWill]

It's not just the average minutes for the players. It's things like playing Mikal the first 46:30 of 48 minutes against a struggling Hornets team missing 3 of their 5 starters in a game where the Knicks were up by 25 going in to the 4th and the rookies didn't come into the game until the last 1:30.

It's playing 40+ minutes against a struggling Sixers without Embiid and other rotation players while Shamet gets a DNP and Payne only plays in the first half. It's playing certain starters the entire second half depending on the score no matter how poorly the starters are playing at the time or how well the bench played in the first half.

There are many examples like that where no matter the time or score or level of competition he was going to ride the starters without even giving the bench a chance to fail. Obviously it puts extra strain on the starters and I can't imagine it is a confidence builder for the bench players.

You can scroll through Mikal's gamelog and see far too many 40+ minute games against the bottom of the league. The Knicks bench could be better but if you need to ride your starters even against the worst teams in the league something is wrong.

TBF to Thibs, we did watch the bench regularly give leads away early in the season; when Robinson, Achiuwa, and Shamet were all injured. For a while there, Deuce was the only healthy bench guy Thibs could give more than 12-14mpg without just conceding those minutes; as Payne-Brunson lineups get murdered defensively (123 drtg).

That struggling Philly squad took us to OT without KAT, so not exactly a night for experimenting...and at that point Shamet was 4-20 from 3 (20%), since that DNP he's been 18-41 from 3 (44%). So in hindsight, it looks like giving Shamet that night off was a brilliant decision by Thibs that's given our starters more rest in the longrun.

Similarly in that Hornets game, Shamet wasn't even on the roster because he was hurt, Achiuwa was making his season debut, and Payne was injured, so after Deuce and an out of shape Precious, our next best bench guys were Toppin & Ryan. Neither of whom you want to put out there when a team has cut the lead to less than 20.

...was that the one when Thibs actually had Toppin start warming up only to sit back down when the lead dropped under 20 before he could sub in, or am I mixing it up with another game?

EDIT:
Not saying no coach could've gotten more minutes out of our bench, just that those specific examples ring hollow to me and the bigger problem has been the options available to Thibs. He's using our bench 20% less than he ever has before and 30% less than he did before we started consoldiating talent, so even by Thibs' standards this has been an outlier.

We've been lucky with our starters health...KAT's 7 missed games is the most of any starter atm...but our bench lost McBride for 10 games, Achiuwa for ~20, Shamet for ~30, and Robinson for ~60. Add in that this is the least bench talent we've ever given Thibs, and I'm not sure any coach would have this bench getting meaningfully more PT without sacrificing that 3 seed.

Hopefully this summer we can bring precious back at a discount so we can use the taxpayer MLE on someone like LaRavia, our kids progress, and not having to deal with Embiid intentionally injuring him means we don't see Mitch miss the first 59 games of next season.

...although with Mitch's history, maybe it's a good thing he's had less chances to get hurt before the playoffs

In that Philly game where Thibs for whatever reason decided not to play Shamet against a Sixer's bench consisting of 4 players with maybe a little more than 1 full season of experience combined between them at the time Thibs and his shortened rotation blew a 13 point lead in the 3rd quarter. His response to that was not to play Payne at all in the 2nd half when he was not the one that blew the lead. At that point in the season Payne had the 3rd highest net rating on the team behind KAT who was not available and Deuce who played the 2nd least amount of minutes that game.

Not including Sims who was removed from the rotation when Precious returned and the rookies who were never really in the rotation Precious had the worst net rating, Brunson had the 2nd worst and Hart was the 3rd worst at that point. Thibs actually played the guys that blew the lead more minutes. I'm not sure if blowing the 3rd quarter lead, scratching and clawing to keep it even in the 4th and finally prevailing in overtime against a bad team shows that him shortening his rotation was a good idea. Benching Shamet wasn't some brilliant plan by Thiibs that made him shoot better. He would have benched Hart by now if it was that simple

And please don't try to normalize playing a guy almost the full 48 and a 7 man rotation against the Hornets missing 2 of their best players in a game that was won by 24 points

If you can't find a way to re-balance your rotation where Bridges played 47, KAT, Hart and OG played 38-40 and somehow Brunson and McBride ended up with less than 27-28 minutes something is wrong. Sims had played all season up until that point and even Kolek had picked up some experience when Thibs had few other options. If a 23-24 year Kolek can't help to give your starters some rest against a shorthanded Hornets team then there was no point in drafting him.

I have no idea if playing the bench guys would have resulted in more wins or losses. There have been games where the starters just gassed out in the 4th or barely scrapped by for a victory. The heavy minutes don't always have a positive result. Honestly I don't care too much about seeding as I have watched Thibs' team lose as a higher seed in the playoffs year after year for many different reasons. I just want to see the team healthy and playing well going in the postseason.

As far as improving the bench I hope the Knicks can attract a quality bench piece with the taxpayer MLE but they held onto the space under the 2nd apron to use it this past off-season for almost a month and didn't sign anyone with it. I'm not sure players around the league are watching the way Thibs handles his bench players and would want to join this team for less than $6M. Developing the young players is going to be a very slow process if he doesn't play them, Mitch's health can't be relied upon unfortunately and i'm not sure what Precious' role on the team is other than to eat minutes when someone is out as he has fallen out of the rotation 2 years in a row.

[cgf]

It's not just the average minutes for the players. It's things like playing Mikal the first 46:30 of 48 minutes against a struggling Hornets team missing 3 of their 5 starters in a game where the Knicks were up by 25 going in to the 4th and the rookies didn't come into the game until the last 1:30.

It's playing 40+ minutes against a struggling Sixers without Embiid and other rotation players while Shamet gets a DNP and Payne only plays in the first half. It's playing certain starters the entire second half depending on the score no matter how poorly the starters are playing at the time or how well the bench played in the first half.

There are many examples like that where no matter the time or score or level of competition he was going to ride the starters without even giving the bench a chance to fail. Obviously it puts extra strain on the starters and I can't imagine it is a confidence builder for the bench players.

You can scroll through Mikal's gamelog and see far too many 40+ minute games against the bottom of the league. The Knicks bench could be better but if you need to ride your starters even against the worst teams in the league something is wrong.

TBF to Thibs, we did watch the bench regularly give leads away early in the season; when Robinson, Achiuwa, and Shamet were all injured. For a while there, Deuce was the only healthy bench guy Thibs could give more than 12-14mpg without just conceding those minutes; as Payne-Brunson lineups get murdered defensively (123 drtg).

That struggling Philly squad took us to OT without KAT, so not exactly a night for experimenting...and at that point Shamet was 4-20 from 3 (20%), since that DNP he's been 18-41 from 3 (44%). So in hindsight, it looks like giving Shamet that night off was a brilliant decision by Thibs that's given our starters more rest in the longrun.

Similarly in that Hornets game, Shamet wasn't even on the roster because he was hurt, Achiuwa was making his season debut, and Payne was injured, so after Deuce and an out of shape Precious, our next best bench guys were Toppin & Ryan. Neither of whom you want to put out there when a team has cut the lead to less than 20.

...was that the one when Thibs actually had Toppin start warming up only to sit back down when the lead dropped under 20 before he could sub in, or am I mixing it up with another game?

EDIT:
Not saying no coach could've gotten more minutes out of our bench, just that those specific examples ring hollow to me and the bigger problem has been the options available to Thibs. He's using our bench 20% less than he ever has before and 30% less than he did before we started consoldiating talent, so even by Thibs' standards this has been an outlier.

We've been lucky with our starters health...KAT's 7 missed games is the most of any starter atm...but our bench lost McBride for 10 games, Achiuwa for ~20, Shamet for ~30, and Robinson for ~60. Add in that this is the least bench talent we've ever given Thibs, and I'm not sure any coach would have this bench getting meaningfully more PT without sacrificing that 3 seed.

Hopefully this summer we can bring precious back at a discount so we can use the taxpayer MLE on someone like LaRavia, our kids progress, and not having to deal with Embiid intentionally injuring him means we don't see Mitch miss the first 59 games of next season.

...although with Mitch's history, maybe it's a good thing he's had less chances to get hurt before the playoffs

In that Philly game where Thibs for whatever reason decided not to play Shamet against a Sixer's bench consisting of 4 players with maybe a little more than 1 full season of experience combined between them at the time Thibs and his shortened rotation blew a 13 point lead in the 3rd quarter. His response to that was not to play Payne at all in the 2nd half when he was not the one that blew the lead. At that point in the season Payne had the 3rd highest net rating on the team behind KAT who was not available and Deuce who played the 2nd least amount of minutes that game.

Not including Sims who was removed from the rotation when Precious returned and the rookies who were never really in the rotation Precious had the worst net rating, Brunson had the 2nd worst and Hart was the 3rd worst at that point. Thibs actually played the guys that blew the lead more minutes. I'm not sure if blowing the 3rd quarter lead, scratching and clawing to keep it even in the 4th and finally prevailing in overtime against a bad team shows that him shortening his rotation was a good idea. Benching Shamet wasn't some brilliant plan by Thiibs that made him shoot better. He would have benched Hart by now if it was that simple

And please don't try to normalize playing a guy almost the full 48 and a 7 man rotation against the Hornets missing 2 of their best players in a game that was won by 24 points

If you can't find a way to re-balance your rotation where Bridges played 47, KAT, Hart and OG played 38-40 and somehow Brunson and McBride ended up with less than 27-28 minutes something is wrong. Sims had played all season up until that point and even Kolek had picked up some experience when Thibs had few other options. If a 23-24 year Kolek can't help to give your starters some rest against a shorthanded Hornets team then there was no point in drafting him.

I have no idea if playing the bench guys would have resulted in more wins or losses. There have been games where the starters just gassed out in the 4th or barely scrapped by for a victory. The heavy minutes don't always have a positive result. Honestly I don't care too much about seeding as I have watched Thibs' team lose as a higher seed in the playoffs year after year for many different reasons. I just want to see the team healthy and playing well going in the postseason.

As far as improving the bench I hope the Knicks can attract a quality bench piece with the taxpayer MLE but they held onto the space under the 2nd apron to use it this past off-season for almost a month and didn't sign anyone with it. I'm not sure players around the league are watching the way Thibs handles his bench players and would want to join this team for less than $6M. Developing the young players is going to be a very slow process if he doesn't play them, Mitch's health can't be relied upon unfortunately and i'm not sure what Precious' role on the team is other than to eat minutes when someone is out as he has fallen out of the rotation 2 years in a row.

Something is wrong, we lack depth and what depth we do have has been injured a lot this season. I'm not saying it's good to be playing the guys these minutes, but I'm not sure what Thibs was supposed to do. Playing Payne over Brunson wasn't going to give Bridges, Anunoby, or Hart more rest, ya know?

[Wingy]

It's one of the reasons Thib's teams do well in the regular season and not as well in the playoffs. They have an advantage playing their starters more minutes, but in the playoffs when other teams play their starters more, the Knicks can't really do that. So they don't have as much room to improve as the other teams. (in addition to the wear and tear stuff)

The common narrative, but how many times have Thibs teams actually lost in the playoffs as the clear favorite?

[Ito]

Guy makes a good shot then he wants to call shots and put people in the hot seat wait for your opportunity role player

*edit.. spoke too fast without reading.. thought it was complaining bout playing time (not getting enough minutes) but in this case he’s complaining bout playing too much.. so I’ll say “cherish your opportunity role player”

[JayTWill]

TBF to Thibs, we did watch the bench regularly give leads away early in the season; when Robinson, Achiuwa, and Shamet were all injured. For a while there, Deuce was the only healthy bench guy Thibs could give more than 12-14mpg without just conceding those minutes; as Payne-Brunson lineups get murdered defensively (123 drtg).

That struggling Philly squad took us to OT without KAT, so not exactly a night for experimenting...and at that point Shamet was 4-20 from 3 (20%), since that DNP he's been 18-41 from 3 (44%). So in hindsight, it looks like giving Shamet that night off was a brilliant decision by Thibs that's given our starters more rest in the longrun.

Similarly in that Hornets game, Shamet wasn't even on the roster because he was hurt, Achiuwa was making his season debut, and Payne was injured, so after Deuce and an out of shape Precious, our next best bench guys were Toppin & Ryan. Neither of whom you want to put out there when a team has cut the lead to less than 20.

...was that the one when Thibs actually had Toppin start warming up only to sit back down when the lead dropped under 20 before he could sub in, or am I mixing it up with another game?

EDIT:
Not saying no coach could've gotten more minutes out of our bench, just that those specific examples ring hollow to me and the bigger problem has been the options available to Thibs. He's using our bench 20% less than he ever has before and 30% less than he did before we started consoldiating talent, so even by Thibs' standards this has been an outlier.

We've been lucky with our starters health...KAT's 7 missed games is the most of any starter atm...but our bench lost McBride for 10 games, Achiuwa for ~20, Shamet for ~30, and Robinson for ~60. Add in that this is the least bench talent we've ever given Thibs, and I'm not sure any coach would have this bench getting meaningfully more PT without sacrificing that 3 seed.

Hopefully this summer we can bring precious back at a discount so we can use the taxpayer MLE on someone like LaRavia, our kids progress, and not having to deal with Embiid intentionally injuring him means we don't see Mitch miss the first 59 games of next season.

...although with Mitch's history, maybe it's a good thing he's had less chances to get hurt before the playoffs

In that Philly game where Thibs for whatever reason decided not to play Shamet against a Sixer's bench consisting of 4 players with maybe a little more than 1 full season of experience combined between them at the time Thibs and his shortened rotation blew a 13 point lead in the 3rd quarter. His response to that was not to play Payne at all in the 2nd half when he was not the one that blew the lead. At that point in the season Payne had the 3rd highest net rating on the team behind KAT who was not available and Deuce who played the 2nd least amount of minutes that game.

Not including Sims who was removed from the rotation when Precious returned and the rookies who were never really in the rotation Precious had the worst net rating, Brunson had the 2nd worst and Hart was the 3rd worst at that point. Thibs actually played the guys that blew the lead more minutes. I'm not sure if blowing the 3rd quarter lead, scratching and clawing to keep it even in the 4th and finally prevailing in overtime against a bad team shows that him shortening his rotation was a good idea. Benching Shamet wasn't some brilliant plan by Thiibs that made him shoot better. He would have benched Hart by now if it was that simple

And please don't try to normalize playing a guy almost the full 48 and a 7 man rotation against the Hornets missing 2 of their best players in a game that was won by 24 points

If you can't find a way to re-balance your rotation where Bridges played 47, KAT, Hart and OG played 38-40 and somehow Brunson and McBride ended up with less than 27-28 minutes something is wrong. Sims had played all season up until that point and even Kolek had picked up some experience when Thibs had few other options. If a 23-24 year Kolek can't help to give your starters some rest against a shorthanded Hornets team then there was no point in drafting him.

I have no idea if playing the bench guys would have resulted in more wins or losses. There have been games where the starters just gassed out in the 4th or barely scrapped by for a victory. The heavy minutes don't always have a positive result. Honestly I don't care too much about seeding as I have watched Thibs' team lose as a higher seed in the playoffs year after year for many different reasons. I just want to see the team healthy and playing well going in the postseason.

As far as improving the bench I hope the Knicks can attract a quality bench piece with the taxpayer MLE but they held onto the space under the 2nd apron to use it this past off-season for almost a month and didn't sign anyone with it. I'm not sure players around the league are watching the way Thibs handles his bench players and would want to join this team for less than $6M. Developing the young players is going to be a very slow process if he doesn't play them, Mitch's health can't be relied upon unfortunately and i'm not sure what Precious' role on the team is other than to eat minutes when someone is out as he has fallen out of the rotation 2 years in a row.

Something is wrong, we lack depth and what depth we do have has been injured a lot this season. I'm not saying it's good to be playing the guys these minutes, but I'm not sure what Thibs was supposed to do. Playing Payne over Brunson wasn't going to give Bridges, Anunoby, or Hart more rest, ya know?

He could have played Deuce or Shamet more minutes at the 2 next to Hart or Mikal or possibly OG at the 3 and he could have played Precious more minutes at the 4 next to KAT or possibly KAT at the 4 instead of trying to play all 3 wings together so many minutes. The 3 wing combination isn't even performing that well together.

https://www.pbpstats.com/wowy-combos/nba?TeamId=1610612752&Season=2024-25&SeasonType=Regular%2BSeason&PlayerIds=1628404,1628384,1628969&OnlyCommonGames=true

The rookies could have also gotten more in game experience especially in the weaker part of the schedule.

Precious came back and then Sims was removed from the rotation. Mitch came back and then Precious was basically removed from the rotation. Shamet seemed to eat away at Deuce's minutes a bit when he initially returned but Mikal's minutes did come down over time. They may ramp back up with Brunson out for an extended period and the playoffs around the corner. Hart's minutes have been increasing but there have been a couple injuries. KAT has been logging many minutes while not looking anywhere close to 100%.

The bench could be better and injuries were also an issue. There are a few coaches that may have done the exact same thing with the minutes as Thibs but there are others that would have been much more flexible with the lineups and minutes. I don't know what the right answer is but Thibs did have other options than the one he chose. I'm not sure what the reward for the option he chose will be.