Tom Thibodeau devising minutes plan with Knicks' back-to-back looming
Josh Hart of the Knicks scores during a preseason game at Madison Square Garden against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Oct. 14, 2023. Credit: Errol Anderson
With the Knicks' final two preseason games approaching as a back-to-back set, Tom Thibodeau was asked his plan to handle the regular rotation players and he insisted that he didn’t know yet.
But if there is one thing that you can be sure of in the uncertain days leading up to the regular season next week it is that Thibodeau absolutely knows what he’s going to do.
“Haven’t decided yet,” Thibodeau said after Saturday’s game at Madison Square Garden. “I’m leaning one way but I’m not going to say.”
Thibodeau has dropped hints that the nine players expected to be in the rotation would play in three of the four exhibition games. The Knicks will play Tuesday night in Boston and Wednesday in Washington. The Knicks then have a week to ready themselves for the regular-season opener at Madison Square Garden against the Celtics on Oct. 25.
“Just go step by step,” Thibodeau said. “And again, we value practice. What are you doing in practice? And then we move to the next phase and knowing that, OK, there will be steps in directions to that, so go to the next step and then see how it feels after that.”
Only Josh Hart has sat out a game among the regulars so far, and Thibodeau would not commit to whether he would sit the starters as a group so that they could get time as a complete group in the other game. If he does do that, then the most logical tack might be to sit them against Boston with the Knicks already having played the Celtics once in preseason and set to open the regular season against them, thus avoiding showing one more live scouting opportunity to Boston.
Jalen Brunson has been eased into the season so far, starting the first two preseason games and playing less than six minutes in the opener and 16 on Saturday. Josh Hart sat out the first game and then played eight minutes against Minnesota. RJ Barrett has played 20.6 minutes per game in the first two games despite having played in the FIBA World Cup for Team Canada. But if they are only playing three games Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson and Quentin Grimes would expect a day off — as would likely second-team but big-minute contributors Immanuel Quickley, Isaiah Hartenstein and Donte DiVincenzo. Quickley has played more minutes than anyone on the team so far with Robinson, Grimes and DiVincenzo next.
Oddly, Evan Fournier and Jericho Sims, who figure to be left out of the nine-man rotation, are the only other players to record at least 20 minutes per game so far. Fournier, who trails only Barrett and Quickley in scoring in the preseason, is likely being showcased as the team continues to try to find a taker for his expiring contract. And Sims took the place of Hart in the opening exhibition game and has gotten minutes at power forward and center.
The Knicks also are trying to find minutes for the players battling for the three open roster spots and all have played so far except Duane Washington Jr. and Ryan Arcidiacono, who has been nursing an injury.
“All those guys, man. They work their [butts] off,” Julius Randle said. “They get here early, stay late. Weight room. Whatever Thibs is asking them to do, One hundred percent effort. Thibs might be mad at us and he’s cursing them out. That’s just how it goes. Whoever gets that spot, it’s a huge blessing to them. But those dudes continuously got better and it’s going to take them a long way, wherever they’re at."
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
