NFL
By: Mark T. Wilson
The New York Knicks losing to the Indiana Pacers does not fall on the shoulders of Tom Thibodeau. Once again, the naysayers are blaming him for heavy minutes and injuries that may have caused the Knicks to go down to the Pacers. So not true.
This is the playoffs where stars rise to the occasion and where legends are born. You don’t become that by sitting on the bench cheering your teammates on. You play. Simple as that.
Of course, as soon as the season was over, here were the sharks trying to take away what the team and Thibs accomplished. Forget the praise, the fingers are being pointed at his usage and why players such as Julius Randle, OG Anunoby, Bojan Bogdanovic, and Mitchell Robinson were out. Stop it. Had nothing to do with his style.
The New York Knicks Owe Tom Thibodeau
Randle came down awkwardly on his shoulder. Bogdanovic twisted his ankle on the foot of another player. OG landed awkwardly which caused his hamstring injury. Jalen Brunson fractured his hand on a defensive play. Josh Hart was getting abused playing on the blocks with taller and stronger players. And Mitchell Robinson, well he’s just injury prone.
While injuries have followed Tom Thibodeau wherever he goes, you also have to take into account the makeup of the roster. Some of these New York Knicks players were not supposed to see the floor the way they did but Thibs had no choice. You play with what you have.
Let’s also take into account that this is still the NBA playoffs where rotations are shortened. This is a known fact. Hart was not a starter. Isaiah Hartirywm was not a starter. OG came at the trade deadline and so did Bogdanovic. They were thrust into heavy minutes due to injuries that Thibs did not cause.
Yes, there are whispers around the league that players may not want to play for Tom Thibodeau due to his heavy usage of players. But what player who doesn’t want to win, doesn’t want to be on the floor? Are you trying to win or just there to watch? Just look at what Brunson had to say about his coach.
think Thibs has the same mindset we do as a team, Brunson said. “Thibs is the reason why we have that mindset. Thibs is the reason why night in and night out, we fight to the best of our abilities, even though things may not be in our favor, result-wise. He makes sure that we have that mindset night in and night out.
Throughout his tenure, Thibs has only had at least one high-volume scorer and all role players on his teams. Meaning, those star players had to carry the load. The real issue here is that Tom Thibodeau is a throwback coach to the style that most of us remember from the ’80s and ’90s when real NBA players wanted to play the entire game and got mad when they were subbed, especially in the playoffs.
The New York Knicks were unlucky in the health department at the wrong time. And this has been a thing in the NBA for decades. It happens. Thibs catches heat because of what happened to Derrick Rose. Cut the man some slack. At no point even when Randle and Mitchell went down, did this team quit on each other or their coach.
The New York Knicks have players who want to play. Who want to be on the floor when the game is on the line. They want to win. No days off. No lame excuses for not suiting up. No temper tantrums on the sidelines. They want to win for the city, each other, and for their coach.
