Tom Thibodeau is the NBA’s reigning coach of the year. If he wanted to, he could have a most unique set of bookends on his mantel because he could use that one on the left and the one he won in 2011 with the Chicago Bulls. You don’t win two of those trophies in a lottery. Thibodeau doesn’t have to defend his coaching acumen to anyone.
But it also means that if the Knicks are ever going to emerge from the malaise that has infected them for most of the past couple of weeks, it is going to have to fall on Thibodeau to figure out a way to snap them out of it. The Knicks were given a relatively user-friendly schedule to open the season, with a real chance to jump out to a hot start.
Instead, they are 8-7 after 15 games. They have lost five games at Madison Square Garden. The Orlando Magic are in the midst of a profound rebuild and have only four wins so far to their name — half have come at the Garden, or one fewer than the Knicks have there.
We knew the Eastern Conference was improved. We knew that the Knicks could actually play better than they were last year and it might not translate to a .569 winning percentage, which is what they played at last year, or to a dizzyingly high seed like the 4 slot they earned last year. Only the Knicks haven’t played better, despite having what should be a better roster.
Which is where Thibodeau comes in. Assuming Leon Rose doesn’t have am imminent blockbuster transaction hidden up his sleeve, this is the puzzle he has to work with, he just needs to make the pieces fit better. And that, right now, is what he gets paid the big bucks for.
We get paid the big bucks to help him.
So here are three things he ought to consider:
1. Switch Alex Burks and Evan Fournier
As the losses have mounted, the cries to shake up the starting lineup have become louder and louder. But change for the sake of change seems to make little sense, and the fact is the one thing that has kept the Knicks above water in this funk has been the play of the second unit.
Still, Fournier has seemed tentative in his first few weeks as a Knick, and Burks has heated up of late, hitting 40 percent of his 3s (Fournier is at 35.1 percent). This doesn’t have to be permanent. But for now it might not be a bad idea to add a more potent weapon into the starting mix, and Burks is simply playing better, on both ends of the floor, than Fournier.
Sure, the timing is perfect for this because Obi Toppin is coming off one of the best games of his young career in the loss to the Magic Wednesday, 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting, including his first two 3-pointers in 26 days and 13 games. And Thibodeau has shown a reluctance to play Toppin and Julius Randle together for whatever reason, which means that Toppin is averaging just 15.1 minutes per game.
But one of the common threads to many of these underwhelming Knicks performances is that fact that younger, athletic teams tend to have their way with the Knicks. For all of the flaws and dents that might still be in Toppin’s game, he is the best athlete on the team, and his instincts have gotten much better.
And Toppin also seems to play better the more time he spends on the floor. There are still games when Toppin looks a little lost, and on those nights you he can go back to limiting his spots. But it makes no sense to keep Toppin’s talents in a box.
3. More thinking outside the box
Thibodeau showed he is willing to bend a little Monday in the comeback win against the Pacers when the second unit played so well. He showed hints of that against Orlando, too (though he brought Randle back at the end and it was an ill-fated maneuver). Good.
Do it more. Play Toppin and Randle together. Play Derrick Rose and Kemba Walker together. And though this will go against all of Thibodeau’s natural inclinations, play rookie Quentin Grimes once in a while. The Knicks mostly lack energy and athleticism. Those are things Grimes brings in surplus.
