Jalen Bluntson wrote:Luv those Knicks wrote:Jalen Bluntson wrote:We'll never see any of them play. Kolek/Dadiet/Huk/Wright/Beauchamp/Watson/McCullar will never see the court. Precious is not even getting minutes with Mitch back and everyone healthy. I thought Warren would be here by now but, why bother? He'll never play either.
Brunson/Payne
Mikal/Deuce
Hart/Shamet
OG/Precious
KAT/Mitch
3 of those bench guys will fight for whatever they can get out of 25-30 combined minutes.
We've seen this play before. Short rotations giving up too many wide open 3s with dead legs late in games. Half the roster glued to the bench waving pom poms. Hoping we can stay healthy for the playoffs. Waiting for Mitch to get back into game shape.
That's what everyone says, but I don't believe it's fair. Huk had started to play bench minutes, even bumping ahead of Precious for a few games. Then he got hurt.
Kolek isn't playing, but I don't think he'd help our defense anyway.
And dipping into history, McBride played 417 minutes as a rookie 21-22, even starting 2 games and Grimes, 786 including 6 starts. Both rookies.
and Quick, a year before, 1243 minutes, 7th most on the team - firmly in the rotation, as a rookie.
I think it has more to do with how much they can contribute. Huk looks like he could be a rotation player, though with Mitch back, I'm not sure how much time he'll get this year even when he returns from injury. But I disagree with the argument that Thibs won't play rookies. He won't play players he doesn't trust, but he has played rookies.
As for Beauchamp, maybe he gets Jacob Toppin's minutes. He's worth a look, but he won't get more than trash time minutes until he earns them. Thibs plays the players he trusts.
Deuce played 5mpg his rookie season.
Grimes played 8-9mpg.
We played one rookie 5 years ago is your response? Obi was drafted 8th and played maybe 9-10 mpg his rookie year. Thibs doesn't play rookies like you are trying to make it seem bro. DNP-CD is a bench position here, It goes beyond rookies.
Last night we were short handed and we played an eight man rotation! A whopping 47 minutes for the bench! On the second night of.a back to back!! Thibs shortens the rotation every time we lose a rotation player. It's already short before we have issues to begin with. He SUCKS at using his bench. Always has and always will.
We won't see ANY of those guys play. Garbage time does not count as seeing them play. Thibs doesn't even believe in garbage time unless his team is up 30 with 3 minutes left.
My point is that these guys on 2-way deals and rookie deals this year aren't that good. Huk is OK and he's playing the most. Dadiet looks like he might become good, I don't think he's there yet. I don't think Thibs thinks he's there yet and similar for Kolek, though Kolek might be more of a case of being a pure PG and with Brunson and Payne ahead of him, he was out of the rotation most games.
Huk, however, was starting to earn some playing time before his injury.
Now, going back to 21-22, McBride played 9 minutes a game when he played. He had 42 DNPs/G-league games. It's more nuanced than just saying "5 MPG is garbage time".
McBride's rookie year, 21-22, over the Knicks first 27 games, he played about 12 minutes and had 19 DNPs - that's garbage time.
Then, for some reason, and it wasn't Kemba missing the game, because Kemba had missed like 10 games by then, Thibs inserted McBride into the rotation and he played 20 minutes, then 35, games 28 and 29. Kemba returns game 30, McBridge gets 5 DNPs, then games 35-37, he gets 24, 24 and 15 minutes.
THen he goes back to garbage minutes, until game 64, where Thibs puts him back in the lineup. Games 64-82 (19 games) about 190 minutes, 3 DNPs, about 12 minutes per game in the 16 he played and 6 times he played over 15 minutes.
And he saw the least time of the 3 rookies, but my point is, that's not garbage time. Thibs experimented with him in the rotation . . . twice. Games 28-37 when Kemba sat and at the end of the year, games 64-81. Thibs looked at him and gave him rotation minutes at least for short periods.
So you can't say Thibs didn't play McBride when he gave him 35 minutes one game, 20 plus minutes 6 more times. and 15 or more, 5 more times.
Want me to do Grimes?
Thibs looked at those players. It's incorrect to say Thibs didn't play McBride as a rookie when he has 15 minutes or more per game 12 times.
That's like saying he didn't play Sims. He did use Sims. He didn't use him a ton, but he played him.
McBride's rookie minutes: 40 games, 9.3 MPG
Grimes rookie minutes: 46 games, 17 MPG
compare that to Sims:
(and Sims as a rookie counts too)
Rookie year: 41 games 13.5 MPG
22-23 52 games, 15.6 MPG
23-24 45 games, 13 MPG
This year, NY 39 games 10.8 MPG
When Thibs played him, Grimes as a rookie averaged more minutes per game than Cam Payne averages this year. That's rotation minutes. Yes, he did get 36 DNPs or, technically 16 DNPs, 20 inactives. SOme of that might have been injury, but 17 MPG is clearly in the rotation, it's clearly playing, even if he didn't play every game.
I stand by what I said. If one of these two-way signings steps up, Thibs would probably give them minutes. Like Huk started to get minutes before his injury. Not a lot, but he did top 15 MPG 4 times in his most recent 8 games before his injury.
It has more to do with these kids earning the minutes than Thibs not playing rookies.
Now, should THibs use garbage time players more and rest his starters. . . . probably. But I still say that if a rookie earns playing time, THibs would play them.
God invented war so Americans would learn geography.
RIP mags
