Tom Thibodeau's dogmatic commitment to his starting line -up could cost the Knicks a trip to the NBA final

No structure in basketball has played more than the start of five for the New York Knicks. The group of Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Town played 940 minutes during the regular season, and only two more lineups played even half as many minutes. At that time it is a Tom Thibodeau cliché. No coach in the NBA clings to his best players as desperately as Thibodeau.

He has been head coach since 12 seasons and one of his players had the NBA in four games in four minutes. Even if they don't, some are often at the top of their list. His Timberwolves starters from 2018 also headed all NBA lists in the total number of minutes. This is perhaps his defined feature as a trainer.

It will probably also cost him his first trip to the NBA final.

Almost every line -up that puts the kinks on the floor works. Of the 18 most frequently used lists that New York has thrown out in the playoffs, 12 have a positive point difference and a 13th is neutral. Of the five negatives, three were only exceeded by single -digit digits. A fourth played only 11 minutes.

But the fifth is by far the most frequently used and-based on the first two paragraphs, probably know which group I am talking about. New York Starter played 308 minutes in the off -season and exceeded with 50 points.

This is basically statistically impossible. The last line-up minus-50 or worse was that Oklahoma City's starting was carried out in the Orlando Bubble in 2020. The installation data has been pursued since 2008. Since then, in addition to New York Starter, only seven lineups have reached the minus 50 threshold in a single off-season. Of these groups, only one other-die starter for the Portland Trail Blazer 2018-19 interior of this off-season played more than 200 minutes. This fact has a slight logic. If a line -up plays so badly in the post -season, the team is generally smart enough to no longer use it. If this is not the case, you will only be removed before you can install high minutes or negative plus-minus sums.

It's so crazy here. Any other line -up that the kinks use works. But they keep returning to a group that no longer and not for some time. New York Starter dominated December with a plus 63 point differential in 241 minutes. Otherwise, the group was at best pedestrian and did not go a single month with a better point difference than plus 15. When it entered the final of the Eastern Conference and in four of the first 12 playoff games in New York was exceeded in double digits.

In game 1 of the Pacers series, New York won the minutes that it played with at least one reserve in the game with 13 points. The Knicks lost the game by three points because the starter minus-16 went. Before game 2, Thibodeau said that “everything is always on the table” when it comes to changes in the line -up.

He continued to stay with the same group for game 2. It played the first seven minutes and 18 seconds game 1 and was exceeded with eight points. The lineups with at least one non-starter built a three-point half-time lead. Thibodeau returned to the starters at the beginning of the third quarter and gave them seven minutes and 42 seconds. This three-point half-time lead became a two-point deficit.

Thibodeau finally seemed to learn his lesson from there and adhered to lists with at least one reserve of the rest of the path. The damage was done. In two games, the kinks won the minutes that they played on the floor with 21 points without their starting line -up. They are 2-0 back in the series because Thibodeau refused to make a change.

When Mikal Bridges was asked about game 2 about the fights, he said that he had the feeling that “maybe we just play too soft at the beginning of the halves.” This is an understatement. This installation cannot stop nosebleed. The 117.6 defensive evaluation in the playoffs would take 26th place in the regular season in the NBA.

This is part of what is so confused. Thibodeau is a defensive trainer. The two reserves New York based on the entire post -season, Miles McBride and Mitchell Robinson, have played great defensive in this off -season. Indiana's offensive works partly because everyone can handle the ball. A strong Help Defender creates hard, does not produce as much pressure on the ball as McBride. He also guarded less to the extent and blocked the color for cities and Brunson. Hard is an incredibly important player for New York as a whole and in this series. In this post -season, however, it became painfully obvious that it is not best played with the other starters of New York. Its energy is only more powerful from the bank.

If McBride does not join the starting line -up, Robinson should probably. Apart from the fact that the main advantage of New York offers the necessary rim protection in this series. The Pacers took 28th place in the back -up rate during the season. When Robinson was on the floor in this series, the Knicks move in 58.8% of the available rebounds. That falls to 50.5%when he is sitting. In this series, the Pacers were the better team in many ways. If the Knicks cannot press the advantages you have, you cannot win four out of five games to save the series.

By breaking off the bank Thibodeau Robinson, she limits how many effective minutes he can play. Robinson played 29 minutes in game 2, most of it that he played in the off -season. But because these minutes came from the bank, they basically all had to come one after the other. Robinson entered 5:19 in the first half in game 1 and went 1:42 in the second quarter. That is 16 consecutive minutes of playing time for someone who only debuted this season at the end of February and is not used to this type of minutes. He is not conditioned to play so many minutes in a row.

Sure enough, he was wearing. New York won the Robinson minutes in the first half at 13, but lost it in the second seven. If Robinson started, Thibodeau could at least rest him between these long stations.

This doesn't even have to be a question of players who have to get much more or less minutes. It is the orientation that is so important. All five Knicks starters are of crucial importance for various reasons. As a group, they just don't work as well as another combination alongside Robinson or McBride. But even if Thibodeau finds units that work, he doesn't stay with you. The Knicks lost the nine minutes that Brunson rested in game 2 with nine points. In game 1, the Brunson-free installation of cities, Anunoby, Hart, Robinson and McBride exceeded the Pacers with 11 points. Nevertheless, Thibodeau did not even use it in game 2 for reasons that remain unclear.

In most cases, the evaluation of coaches is so openly unfair. Much of what you do is invisible, and this can disproportionately blow out the visible components of your job. A single installation decision in a single game rarely justifies this degree of exam. However, this is not just a single decision in a single game. At this point, months of data are shouted that New York's start five does not work. It was the only dominant act of her off -season. The fans asked him to change, and if he had it, the Knicks may be two victories from the final.

Instead, they are two losses before excretion with three street games in this series that are still before them. Knowing which players should be used on the pitch is a simple level of coaching quality as in this sport. Nothing else is important if you use the wrong players. And in this regard, Thibodeau trains the Knicks from this series almost empirically.