Mikal Bridges said that playing too many minutes for the New York Knicks this season is “sometimes not fun on the body” and that he has discussed the situation with Tom Thibodeau.
“I’m a starter and I’ll play a lot of minutes. Sometimes not fun on the body. But you want that as a coach, but also talk 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, 47 (minutes),” said Bridges on Wednesday.
Bridges added that he has spoken to Thibodeau about keeping him minutes down.
“Yeah, no, he’s not really, he’s not arguing about it. Sometimes I think he just gets in his ways and he gets locked in and he just wants to keep the guy out there,” added Bridges.
Thibodeau responded by saying that he’s never discussed the topic with Bridges.
“For one, we never had a conversation about it. The facts are the facts. When you look at our team, and the way it works, Jalen (Brunson) plays 35 minutes, and I think he’s 20th or 21st in average minutes played. (Karl-Anthony Towns), who is a primary scorer, plays less than Jalen. He’s like 25th in the league in average minutes. Your wings play more, right? They’re matched up with primary scorers,” explained Thibodeau.
Bridges and Josh Hart are averaging 37.8 minutes per game, tied for first in the league. OG Anunoby is in sixth place, averaging 36.6 minutes per game.
Bridges played 41 minutes in an overtime win over the Blazers on Wednesday night and hit the game-winning three.