Bridges Calls Thibs Out For High MPG

[hugepatsfan]

I posted on another thread how in 1990 the stars all played pretty much every game, pretty much always big minutes. While the response to that change in the NBA game tends to be "Today's players are pussies," that doesn't really get at the issue, because today's players aren't missing games for their spa days. They are getting hurt. AD is legit hurt, and Luka was legit hurt, and Kyrie is legit hurt, and LeBron is legit hurt, and Brunson is legit hurt. And so forth.

I don't know what the reason is for the change, but the bottom line is that while Bridges' comment would have made little sense in 1990, it does today. It's quite possible that those minutes will contribute to an injury for him.

I think you're talking about different things. MJ missed basically his whole second year. Larry Bird missed the 88-89 season. Spurs got Duncan because of a year they tanked with DRob injured. Bernard King missed 85-86. So on and so forth. Om sports you're always going to have freak injuries that wipe guys out long term and for whole seasons.

People might complain about a guy being injury prone, but no one has a big picture problem with guys missing time for actual injuries. Their issue is the load management and rest days. That's what people call "pussies".

[DimesandKnicks]

Shamet has played 27.4 MPG in this league... You truly believe 11.8 MPG is all he can muster?

Payne has played 23.3 MPG in the NBA, he's really only good for 14.2 MPG this season?

Wright has played 30.8 MPG before, he can't get off the bench?

I have Knicks fans on the GB telling me Robinson can play 27 MPG again no problem...

Anyone telling you Robinson can play 27 minutes is an anomaly and Wright just got here.

But I do agree that guys like Shamet Precious Payne Deuce Mitch Huk before he got hurt is more than enough to keep all our starters under 35 minutes. Thumbs simply does a really weird job of staggering minutes. It’s weird watching Bridges play 40 minutes a game but him not really have the offense run through him with the second unit

There are Knicks fans on the GB who swear up and down Robinson will start and play 27+ MPG as soon as next month.

There are fat women married to professional athletes, the exception isn’t the rule

[Roger Murdock]

It was 4 seasons (not counting the Beilen fiasco where he coached 11 games) and only three where we weren't rebuilding. Who are the players who should've gotten run but didn't?

The first season we were good (when no one thought we'd be), Rubio and Sexton had season ending injuries a couple months in. We were so bereft of ballhandlers besides Garland that we had to overpay for LeVert at the deadline (he promptly got injured). Mobley got injured in March. Allen got injured with two weeks left in the season.

Second season we ship out Lauri, Sexton, and Agbaji (who we drafted to fill a glaring 3&D hole) for Mitchell two weeks before training camp. Rubio is unavailable the first half of the season and a shell of his former self when he comes back. Love starts fading in the second half of the season, and Wade, who was supposed to fill his role, promptly gets injured.

I covered last season, so I'll ask again, who was he supposed to give run to who was on the roster? All I'm seeing are guys who are no longer in the NBA or are bouncing between the 15th man and the G League. All of Rondo, Danny Green, and Morris got real playoff minutes and we picked them up of the waiver wire (or in Rondo's case, for a fake second).

Altman is a better coach for this team and likely a better overall coach, but the idea that JBB had untapped potential waiting on his bench is just fantasy.

Fantasy that turned reality when Merrill, Wade, Okoro, LeVert all started getting utilized better without him

Better utilized in that they all got bumped down in the rotation (or traded). The issue with Wade was and is availability, but Hunter has taken his slot as the first bench big. Merrill and Okoro are still very much situational guys. Atkinson has had the luxury of not having to leave them out there when it's not working. It's taken Hurclean efforts by Garland to get past the Pistons and Nets when we were short handed and Atkinson didn't have that luxury.

Kenny is a better coach than JBB, but fans who are dismissing depth and health are kidding themselves. Kenny's dedication to his regular rotations when we were shorthanded lead to Niang posting some miserable +/- performances in January. Altman was smart to trade Niang and remove him as an option.

It’s further than just that.

Last year Mitchell played 36+ minutes in 30/55 games.
This year it’s 5/60 games.

Garland was 22/60 games over 36 minutes, this year it’s 3/60 games

Mobley was 7/50 games last year and 4/58 this year

Allen was 16/77 games last year and 1/65 this year

A bit is chicken egg. We can play our starters less minutes because we have a system that makes our players more useful. We are healthier because we aren’t grinding our players into the ground to win regular season games. We aren’t then over playing our healthy guys when we are faced with injury, causing further injuries and further over use.

Everything spiraled and snowballed with JB.

[CIN-C-STAR]

good lord we have guys in here talking about stockton mpg. yea I'd truly love to see stockton guard the opposing teams best guard every game for 38 mins in 2025

if mikal was on the 90s jazz he could log 40 a game and not break a sweat. it's a different ball game now

Stockton had 3,265 steals and 15,806 assists and you want me to believe that Mikal Bridges is giving more effort?

Sent from my SM-S928U1 using RealGM mobile app

Naw man Stockton was a pussy the only reason he put up all those stats was because he was going against plumbers and traveling salesman

Watch on YouTube

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[stillgotgame]

Thibs is an idiot. The most durable player in the NBA is giving him a hint and he can’t figure it out. There will be nothing left of this team by the 2nd round of the playoffs again this year.

[floppymoose]

I averaged over 48 mins per game (due to occasional overtimes) for my entire nba career.

[tcheco]

I mean, I know thibs will thibs, but Knicks trading depth for star players won't help much on reducing minutes

[The Servant]

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

Its great if you want to peak 2 weeks after the ASG, suffer an injury in late March/before yoffs, and then limp in and exit early in the first/seconds rounds.

[jbk1234]

Fantasy that turned reality when Merrill, Wade, Okoro, LeVert all started getting utilized better without him

Better utilized in that they all got bumped down in the rotation (or traded). The issue with Wade was and is availability, but Hunter has taken his slot as the first bench big. Merrill and Okoro are still very much situational guys. Atkinson has had the luxury of not having to leave them out there when it's not working. It's taken Hurclean efforts by Garland to get past the Pistons and Nets when we were short handed and Atkinson didn't have that luxury.

Kenny is a better coach than JBB, but fans who are dismissing depth and health are kidding themselves. Kenny's dedication to his regular rotations when we were shorthanded lead to Niang posting some miserable +/- performances in January. Altman was smart to trade Niang and remove him as an option.

It’s further than just that.

Last year Mitchell played 36+ minutes in 30/55 games.
This year it’s 5/60 games.

Garland was 22/60 games over 36 minutes, this year it’s 3/60 games

Mobley was 7/50 games last year and 4/58 this year

Allen was 16/77 games last year and 1/65 this year

A bit is chicken egg. We can play our starters less minutes because we have a system that makes our players more useful. We are healthier because we aren’t grinding our players into the ground to win regular season games. We aren’t then over playing our healthy guys when we are faced with injury, causing further injuries and further over use.

Everything spiraled and snowballed with JB.

None of Wade, Ty Jerome, Rubio, or Sexton were playing serious minutes when they got injured. Three of the four got hurt early in the season. There's no getting around the fact that a guy like Cedi was, by default, an essential role player for the majority of JBB's time here. Same with Stevens who is barely an NBA player. We still don't have a true backup center on the roster.

I loved the Hunter trade and feel like the roster is in a much better place with a healthy Jerome, but it's still just as important to be lucky as good.

[Lalouie]

that's cuz bridges is looking around the league and he sees players getting it easier

i think salaries should be based on 36min game play

[Ainosterhaspie]

that's cuz bridges is looking around the league and he sees players getting it easier

i think salaries should be based on 36min game play

Are you sure you want to give teams a financial incentive to reduce player minutes?

[MrBigShot]

Knicks bench isn’t exactly loaded. I’m sure he could chop some minutes during blowouts either direction, but for the most part, this seems like what they likely need to do to win at a high clip.

This is what the JB Bickerstaff truthers said about the Cavs bench last year. But with a new coach who won’t yank around minutes or bench guys for missing 1-2 threes, all of a sudden Wade, Okoro, Merill, Niang, and Levert were able to play at a considerably higher level this season. Jerome being healthy obviously helped a ton, but we had 4 productive bench players that weren’t properly utilized last season with a budget Thibs type coach

The Cavs were riddled with injury all of last season. Mitchell missed 27 games, Garland missed 25, Mobley missed 32.

Atkinson will very likely win CoY and has done a fantastic job, but JB is also a damn good coach who is presently leading us to one of the biggest turnaround in nba history in terms of win percentage

[PhilBlackson]

Truly unbelievable level of stubbornness that needs to be studied.

[JujitsuFlip]

Knicks bench isn’t exactly loaded. I’m sure he could chop some minutes during blowouts either direction, but for the most part, this seems like what they likely need to do to win at a high clip.

This is what the JB Bickerstaff truthers said about the Cavs bench last year. But with a new coach who won’t yank around minutes or bench guys for missing 1-2 threes, all of a sudden Wade, Okoro, Merill, Niang, and Levert were able to play at a considerably higher level this season. Jerome being healthy obviously helped a ton, but we had 4 productive bench players that weren’t properly utilized last season with a budget Thibs type coach

The Cavs were riddled with injury all of last season. Mitchell missed 27 games, Garland missed 25, Mobley missed 32.

Atkinson will very likely win CoY and has done a fantastic job, but JB is also a damn good coach who is presently leading us to one of the biggest turnaround in nba history in terms of win percentage

jb is a decent to good regular season coach, his tactics go out the window in the post season. Ya can't just try to out muscle people, actually have to know x's and o's on both sides of the ball and not be so rigid. Playoff series are all about adjustments.

[Nuntius]

I think that all this discussion about "toughness" and how many minutes players played in past eras is misplaced. What is the ultimate goal of an NBA team? It's to make deep playoff runs and hopefully win titles. To achieve that, you need your main players to be relatively healthy come playoff time. If they aren't, you aren't going anywhere.

Overuse leads to injuries. There's no way around that. So, you have to be more strategic during the RS and use a wider rotation to make sure that your players actually have enough left in the tank to go on that deep run.

[tundraknight]

Watch on YouTube

[Sixers in 4]

Bridges is right to call this crap out. Thibs always does the same thing.

Thibs teams have always overperformed that is partially because he challenges players. He has had two losing seasons in 13 year career and got the most out of some pretty mediocre rosters. Bridges comes off as soft and not wanting to be challenged.

I mean sure he is playing minutes but he is also not being asked to spend a whole lot effort on the offensive end creating looks for himself or his teammates.

[M2J]

The Knicks lack some depth, but not really. They have versatile players that can fill 2 or more positions throughout their roster plus 5-6 guys that are legit stars in their role. You can plug and play some of these guys and give them real rests for a few more minutes. You have to listen to players or any personnel sometimes. Pretty much Bridges and maybe Hart are their only 2 players that aren't injury prone.

[Nuntius]

Bridges is right to call this crap out. Thibs always does the same thing.

Thibs teams have always overperformed that is partially because he challenges players. He has had two losing seasons in 13 year career and got the most out of some pretty mediocre rosters. Bridges comes off as soft and not wanting to be challenged.

We are talking about a guy who has literally never missed a game throughout his entire 7 year career. Not one. A guy who has averaged more than 34 MPG for the past 4 seasons while, again, not missing a single game. The dude even had a season where he played 83 games.

If that dude is soft then no one is tough.

[cgf]

'21:
Rose (26.8mpg)
Burks (25.6mpg)
Gibson (20.8mpg)/Noel (24.2mpg)
Quickley (19.4mpg)

'22:
Walker (25.6mpg)/Burks (28.6mpg)/Rose (24.5mpg)
Quickley (23.1mpg)
Noel (22.5mpg)
Toppin (17.1mpg)
and Grimes regularly getting over 20mpg once he cracked the rotation...at least until he got hurt.

'23:
Hart (30mpg)
Quickley (28.9mpg)
Hartenstein (19.9mpg)
Toppin at (15.7mpg)

'24: was messy because of the in-season trades and injuries but Thibs was bringing off the bench:
Hart (33.4mpg)
Hartenstein (25.3mpg)/Achiuwa (24.2mpg)
Grimes (20.2mpg)/Bogdanovic (19.2mpg)
Quickley(24.0mpg)/McBride (19.5mpg)

'25:
McBride (24.3mpg)
Achiuwa (21.6mpg)/Robinson (14.6mpg)
Payne (14.3mpg)
Shamet (12mpg)

This just hasn't been the norm in New York under Thibs so far. This is the first time he didn't start the year with a ten man rotation before whittling it down to 9 (8.5 in the playoffs), with 3-4 guys getting ~20mpg or more off the bench. So no it isn't Thibs being Thibs, it's our FO needing to rebuild our bench and Robinson missing the first 2/3rds of the season.