Despite the discontent from Mikal Bridges regarding the preference of head coach Tom Thibodeau to play his starters regularly, it has not worked out as he would have hoped. The New York Knicks boss seemingly has no plans to give additional rest to his starting stars.
In an interview published on Wednesday, Bridges expressed concerns about his workload and that of his fellow Knicks starters, like team captain Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart.
The player entered Wednesday tied for minutes per game in the league with his teammate Hart (37.8 MPG). Other starters, such as Tyrese Maxey (37.7 MPG), Devin Booker (37.5 MPG), OG Anunoby (36.6 MPG), Brunson (35.4 MPG), and Karl-Anthony Towns (35.1 MPG), have all seen little rest on the court this season.
“Sometimes, it’s not fun on the body. But you want that as a coach, and I also talked to him a little bit knowing that we’ve got a good enough team where our bench guys can come in, and we don’t need to play 48 [minutes],” Bridges said in the interview.
However, in response, coach Thibodeau has defended his decision to not stop playing his first-choice group of players, despite the complaint from Bridges. Initially, he denied ever speaking about the matter, telling the press ahead of the game against the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday:
“Well, we’ve never had a conversation about it, but the facts are the facts.“
The two-time NBA coach of the year also added that Bridges’ minutes had gradually gone down, contrary to what fans may think. The Knicks (41-23) entered Wednesday positioned third in the East, however, they rank last in the NBA on bench scoring (21.5 points per game), a worrisome sign for a team looking to challenge for the league title. Meanwhile, Thibodeau opened up on his coaching decisions later in the press conference, in what looked like a subtle dig at Bridges after his complaint.
Tom Thibodeau Says Critics Don’t Understand His Coaching Style
Following the comments that trailed his media session ahead of that matchup, the veteran coach was quizzed further on the issue of not resting his starters. Tom Thibodeau then stated that people who are criticizing him do not pay much attention to the Knicks games.
“You guys follow the team. You should know what the matchups are and how it works. Oftentimes, you have people that look at it, who don’t understand.”
According to Thibodeau, lots of people who don’t agree with him simply do not understand his tactics at an in-depth level. He further illustrated how any team playing the LA Lakers and putting a player to guard LeBron James will have that player on the court throughout the game.
“If LeBron James is on the floor for 40 minutes, the guy who’s guarding him will be too“, he said while adding that he won’t gamble with the team’s chances by bringing on players from the bench to play in high-stakes matchups. Nonetheless, the Knicks will be able to compete better if their most influential stars stay healthy and are not worn out from playing too many games.
