JayTWill wrote:Doctor MJ wrote:JonFromVA wrote:
Well, the Knicks have surely done their exit interviews, and what the stars on the team think matters a lot; and they no doubt have some opinions on Johnnie Bryant if the Knicks move fast before Phoenix or another team hires him.
Very true. On the other hand, if you're firing Thibs, you're not really expecting to be able to hire someone else who will miraculously make KAT into a good defender or decision maker, right?
I do think there are better coaches than Thibs, but I don't know if any coach exists that can be expected to solve the KAT issue, and the franchise is probably stuck with KAT now.
Further, well and good to say that Thibs runs his guys into the ground, but from a perspective of improving depth, well, this wasn't a situation where the Knicks Big 5 starting lineup won all matchups and the team just lost because of bench issues. Out of all their 10 main lineups in this post-season, their Big 5 had the worst +/- with -7.4. By contrast, if we do the same thing for other teams that went deep (Indy, OKC, Min), they were all positive.
I think the Knicks franchise has to get their head around the fact that they really don't have a Top 4 level Big 5, despite the fact that they are paying those guys enough that just those 5 salaries will surpass the salary cap next year, and when you do that and fail to win a chip, it's really on the FO rather than the coach.
As I said before: This was a great year for the Knicks and they should be over the moon about it given what a laughing stock they were for 20 years...but right now it looks like that's not how they feel at all and while I applaud ambitious goals, scapegoating your coach when you just went further than you should have expected to go with your core is a path that can easily take you back to being an overpriced lottery team.
Not predicting that any time soon, but I worry the FO drinking their own Kool-Aid is a bigger concern than Thibs coaching was.
I agree the Knicks have issues with their starting 5 that another coach may not be able to fix but part of the problem was that Thibs continued trying to play them together as much as possible and has been struggling to make that 5 man unit work well together since the beginning of the New Year.
He did not invest time in the young players to put them in a better position for next year. He did not invest much time in the experienced bench players to build their chemistry with the team. He put as many minutes as possible into a lineup that wasn't working even when there were other lineup combinations that clearly worked better together. Some of that wasn't his fault due to some injuries throughout the year but some of that was just Thibs being Thibs.
I understand they may be politics behind starting and playing your highest paid players more but Mikal actually went to the press and said he did not need to play so many minutes and guys from the bench can get some more minutes. I think I heard Hart went to Thibs and said he was willing to come off of the bench for someone else to start and Thibs still kept starting and closing with the same lineup most of the time.
In game 1 of the ECF with the Knicks growing the lead to double digits with Brunson and Mikal on the bench Thibs for some reason went back to the one lineup that his been struggling to play together for months and was already -10 on the court together in that game before the 4th quarter. A new coach may not have more success but I hope they have the willingness to try something new way earlier than Thibs did instead of reverting back to what they are most comfortable with even when it is obviously failing.
I wasn't a huge fan of the roster the front office assembled but they have been changing the roster for years under Thibs yet he continues to do the same things with different players and skillsets. There is no real point of changing the roster once again without changing the coach. Yes, they could have made the finals if the team did not collapse at the end of game 1 of the ECF but they also could have lost in round 1 if the Pistons did not collapse in game 1 of the 1st round and the ref didn't swallow his whistle in game 4 on the obvious Hart foul.
Oh come on guys, this isn't so mysterious.
A number of Knicks fans had been clamoring to see Robinson moved in to the starting unit to take the defensive pressure off KAT. Thibs got around to eventually doing that, but it didn't have to be a desperation move. He could have had them prepared.
Also KAT has some serious lower extremity issues and yet he was being played the most minutes since he was 23?
So, yeah, bring in a head coach who knows how to run a rotation and who's willing to cut minutes and you can hope it will lead to better healthy, more energy, more guys able to contribute seamlessly, better injury maintenance, happier players, happier locker room, etc, etc.
Of course as a Cavs fan I have a unique view of all this given the Cavs had the same goal when they replaced Bickerstaff with Atkinson, but in the end they still ended up plagued with injuries and young players still seemed to end up worn down at critical times.
So who knows for the Knicks, they too may not make it back to the ECF under a new coach, but trying to keep players healthy is very important in the long-term. Pushing players as hard as you can like Thibs and Bickerstaff do, is typically not viable over the long run.
