cgf wrote:Sane wrote:
Listen man I don't want to sit here and talk sh*t about the difficulties the fans have gone through, but at the top of this league there's no room for a mediocre offense and $68m of cap space (i.e. limited real estate) dedicated to Jalen Brunson, Julius Randle and Evan Fournier. Ask any team that has been to a conference finals recently, all of them understand that even ONE guy getting paid a lot and not contributing is a problem cause the other top teams don't waste dollars and keep throwing weapons at you.
None of the young players are star in the making except RJ. None of the vets are MVP calibre. The coach will never have a good enough offense to get to an NBA Finals.
It's a step up but it's the wrong step. I'm telling you during a big winning streak so that you understand how well I understand this: you're going to have to fire Thibs or face a lot of heartache feeling like you were close... and then you're going to have to fire Thibs.
I'm glad you're happy it took 2 years and a slump for Thibs to realize he must play the young guys rather than his old friends. You have 4 incoming picks from other teams, don't waste them on Thibs. The arguments you're making I've heard them from Chicagoans, Minnesotans and now Knicks fans. Just study the history, it will go exactly the same way and those teams had their peaks as well and those fans felt like you feel right now.
As a chicago based Knicks fan whose best friend is a huge bulls fan and adopted the TimberBulls as her second team while Thibs was there, I know Thibs has his limitations and at some point, I hope we'll be able to do better...but I've also watched Thibs coach for long enough to notice that he has changed and seems to have learned some things from his failure in Minnesota.
On top of being much more amenable to modern offensive concepts, using a softer touch with more-mercurial kids, and showing a willingness to experiment with unusual lineups in a way that the old thibs never had...like using Randle as a smallball 5 or Toppin as a Jumbo 3, to get them on the court together...Thibs has also been playing our kids consistently since he arrived in NY.
RJ & Robinson were immediate starters; Quickley and Grimes both earned significant roles as rookies, with Grimes even becoming a starter before he got hurt last year; Sims was allowed to push Thibs' bff Taj Gibson out of the NBA over the course of his rookie year despite being a raw 2nd round pick; he stuck with Toppin even when Obi looked full-deer-in-the-headlights as well as the Obi-Julius lineups he's played around with...Thibs even gave Knox & Reddish fair chances to learn on the job & show growth, trying to work with both of those airheads.
He doesn't rush kids into roles that they're not ready to succeed in and only started regularly playing Deuce McBride after the recent rotation shake-up, but if we're going to crucify Thibs for not rushing to give a 2nd-year SRP minutes ahead of Rose, Reddish, & Fournier; then we're holding Thibs to some pretty unrealistic standards.
The offense is still not very cutting-edge, despite his increased focus on 3pters & transition buckets, the defensive gives up too many 3s, and he still plays Randle & Barrett too much...but that doesn't mean that he hasn't changed or learned from his previous stops and that all of the old criticisms of him are still applicable.
