knickstape4ever wrote:Players drafted by Thibs in Minnesota:
2016:
Kris Dunn
2017:
Justin Patton
2018:
Josh Okogie
Keita Bates-Diop
none of his rookies played more than 25min per game, he definitely prefers the vets, but hopefully he has different directions from the FO, hated last year giving so many minutes to players who have no future here. dont want Thibs coming in playing Taj 30 min per game, or bringing in a Jeff Teague/DJ Augustin and playing them a ton of minutes over the young PG we draft
Thibs played a 22 year old Derrick Rose 37mpg, a 25 year old Joakim Noah 33mpg and a 25 year old Loul Deng 39mpg in his 1st season with the Bulls. Taj Gibson and Ronnie Brewer also logged major minutes and both guys were only 25 at the time. Jimmy Butler averaged 39mpg as a 24 year old. All these guys were seen as foundation pieces to the team at the time. Folks forget that Deng and Gibson were both young back then not the more familiar older players that most folks have in mind.
In Minnesota he played 3 21 year old players (Zach Levine, Karl Towns and Andrew Wiggins) each 37mpg in his first season. These were the Wolves defacto foundation players. Thibs entire starting lineup was under 29.
So the notion that Thibs only play older guys or hired guns isn't quite accurate. What seems consistent, especially in his Bulls days, is that he plays guys that most deserve the minutes regardless of age.
Does it seem like he has a tendency of playing guys a lot of minutes? Yes.
But there's no indication he favors anyone over anyone else other than guys that he thinks he can best win with. The hired guns the Knicks had last year were not world beaters by any stretch. I doubt if Thibs was in place that he'd have played them a lot over the younger guys tbqh. Only guys that I think would have gotten minutes would have been Reggie Bullock, Julius Randle and Marcus Morris. And Randle probably would have gotten the same sub 30mpg minutes that he gave Carlos Boozer when he joined the Bulls. Bullock would have probably gotten about 22-25 minutes a game like Ronnie Brewer had. Morris? Probably a bit more but I doubt more than he had last year under Fizdale/Miller.