BBALLER4FR wrote:I'm not even worried about Kemba. He's done in NY. Rose went down, Burks hasn't worked, IQ's less than ideal and Kemba still didn't take off the warmup (thank goodness cause we needed to see McBride). Thibs let you know he doesn't want to see Kemba on the floor for whatever reason. And anyone who says it's because of his defense, make it make sense why Fournier gets the minutes he gets. Neither play defense but I trust Kemba's shooting FAR more than Evan's.
I'll take a shot at unpacking this. I have no idea btw.
There are various factions in the Knicks FO, and Thibs is a faction himself. Thibs might have been ok with Fournier but not with Walker. It's possible he's not wild about either.
In any event, the amount of money Kemba makes made it easy to bench him, while with Friar Suck, it's harder to justify.
Thibs has had his FO run ins over the years and probably learned a thing or three.
He knows he has to win.
He also knows he has to make a case for why some players aren't good.
Thibs figured maybe he could bench Kemba and team would get better, but if he had an inkling it wouldn't work, that maybe it would spotlight Fournier.
Maybe he thought that Fournier and Kemba and Randle too many lackluster defenders and tried removing just one.
I think Thibs kind of knows what the issues are and makes changes incrementally, trying to fix the issue with the smallest changes possible just for himself, but also because of FO dynamics.
I have no idea what the alliances are or how they shift.