The New York Knicks and head coach Tom Thibodeau receive a lot of criticism for how the players’ minutes are dispersed. The common theme is that Thibodeau runs his plays into the ground, which causes fatigue and injuries late in the year.
Knicks legend Carmelo Anthony speaks on minutes debate
Mikal Bridges made public comments suggesting that the bench needs to be utilized more, and said that playing a significant amount of minutes consistently is “not fun on the body.” Those comments stirred up some controversy and were a surprise to many given that he hasn’t missed a game in his NBA career.
Knicks legend Carmelo Anthony weighed in on the issue on his podcast “7 PM in Brooklyn.”
“Mikal Bridges is tired,” Anthony said. “This guy ain’t missing games since high school. Jalen Brunson ain’t say he’s tired but injuries will tell you that he’s fatigued, that you dealing with something. We just don’t have opportunities to take time away from the game to cater to these.”
The Knicks will hope to not have their players fatigued in the postseason
Bridges is third in the NBA in minutes per game with 37.6 per night, just behind his teammate Josh Hart for the second spot. OG Anunoby ranks sixth in minutes per game with 36.6. Thibodeau had said that he wants to play his wings more because most teams’ best players are wings, so he wants one of Bridges or Anunoby out there at all times.
Playing close to 40 minutes per game during the regular season is certainly not ideal, as fatigue can settle in during the playoffs. However, the team has games to win and their bench has provided very little as a group all season long, making the starters more dependent.
It will be interesting to see what the minutes distribution looks like during the playoffs, where the rotations tend to get shorter. The hope is that they are not too fatigued as they wish to make a deep playoff run this year.