Under coach Tom Thibodeau, the Knicks are still standing

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Facing a 3-1 series deficit against the Indiana Pacers, and his team down six, Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell went to the free-throw line for three shots.

The first one missed. Mitchell walked back toward the opposite basket to quickly gather himself. He then stepped to the line for free throw No. 2. This one, too, missed, barely grazing the front of the rim. The camera focused in on the Cleveland star. His back hunched. His exhaustion noticeable. His hands on his knees and face down, as if the building’s cooling system was inside the hardwood. Mitchell then tried for the third time to salvage something from this possession. This time, he overcompensated and the free-throw attempt went long. Three missed free throws, with the season on the line, from a clutch player who has only ever converted on 80 percent of his free-throw attempts or more throughout his long career. The Cavaliers were playing two-on-one, with exhaustion stepping in to help Indiana prevail.

The scene, even with time left, basically felt like the end of the Cavaliers’ season. The scene, also, worked as the perfect advertisement for New York Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau.

All season long, and for most of his decade-plus head coaching career, the national narrative centered around Thibodeau is that he plays his starters too many minutes.

He’s going to run them into the ground.

They’re all going to get hurt.

He’s sabotaging their goals for regular-season success. 

It was all said and echoed from coast-to-coast, including within the city in which he coaches.

Yet, there are four teams remaining in the NBA playoffs. The Knicks are one of them. They’ve only played their best basketball late in games, as evident in two, second-half 20-point comebacks against the Boston Celtics in the second round. Their most complete performance of the postseason came in a series-closing Game 6, 12 playoff games deep at that point. Cleveland proudly strutted the fact all season that its starters don’t play big minutes. No one in the starting unit averaged 32 minutes per game during the regular season. On the other end of the spectrum, no coach played his starters more than Thibodeau. New York is as healthy as a team can be at this stage. The Cavaliers were battered, bruised and exhausted. Of the four teams left, two teams didn’t play their starters big minutes during the regular season (Indiana and Oklahoma City) and two teams did (New York and Minnesota).

Thibodeau stuck to beliefs. He’s also adjusted on the fly in these playoffs. The combination has the Knicks still standing with Thibodeau leading the way on the sideline.

“You do what you think gives your team the best chance to win,” Thibodeau said. “I always say that you do run your own race. What does your experience teach you? The players that you’ve had, the people you’ve been around, the coaches that you’ve been with, the sports-science people that you talk to, the doctors that you talk to … all of that factors into it.”

There’s been a lot of talk during the postseason run about the Knicks’ mental fortitude. It’s physical toughness. The greatness of Jalen Brunson. All of those things are true. However, New York isn’t in this position without its basketball-lifer of a coach.

The national perception of Thibodeau is that he doesn’t experiment enough.

That he keeps things the same and hopes for the best.

“It’s his way or the highway,” some might say.

These playoffs, though, have shown us that’s not exactly true.

For starters, part of New York’s success against Boston was due to its game plan to switch more than it ever did during the regular season. Thibodeau put trust in the likes of Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns — the starting lineup’s most limited defenders — to compete with pride on that end, and both delivered.

During the regular season, there were 34 games in which Towns never switched in pick-and-roll coverage, per Second Spectrum. Furthermore, in the rare instances that he did switch, he never switched more than four times in a game during the regular season. In five of the six games against Boston, Towns switched five-plus times in pick-and-roll coverage, including 13 times in Game 1 and 14 times in Game 4. Towns’ ability to stay in front of the likes of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown paid off huge for the Knicks, as the Boston stars often settled for tough, contested jumpers over the big man instead of beating him off the dribble.

Part of the decision to allow Towns to switch more in the postseason than regular season was trust. Towns appears to favor switching over playing in a drop. Also, Towns had some success with that coverage in last year’s postseason as a member of the Timberwolves, and that may have played a part in the Knicks coaching staff having faith in Towns to execute it for them.

(Brad Penner / Imagn Image)

As for Brunson, he switched just 26.8 percent of the time while defending the back ends of pick-and-rolls during the regular season, per Second Spectrum. During the series against the Celtics, Brunson switched on 43.1 percent of Boston’s pick-and-rolls that he was defending. There were moments where Brunson, like Towns, forced Boston’s stars into tough jump shots that left the reigning champions to go cold late in games.

On the other side of the floor, Thibodeau leaned into Mikal Bridges as the offense’s initiator when Brunson sat down. Per Second Spectrum, Bridges averaged 9.2 pick-and-rolls per 100 possessions during the regular season. Against Boston, Bridges ran 13.2 pick-and-rolls per 100 possessions. In the first-round series against the Pistons, Bridges ran 11.8 pick-and-rolls per 100 possessions. This paid off most for the Knicks in the fourth quarter of Game 4, when Bridges scored 10 of his 23 points in the final frame.

Whether it was holding onto these tactics for the postseason or recognizing it was the best course of action to take in the moment, Thibodeau got the best out of his players and it helped propel the franchise to its first Eastern Conference finals in 25 years.

“Once you have a label, it’s hard to shed that label,” Josh Hart said of misconceptions about Thibodeau. “I think this whole … these two series, he’s shown that he’s willing to adapt. He’s shown that he’s willing to change. He’s shown that he’s willing to do different things than he’s used to. Obviously, that’s a willingness on his end, but also a trust and belief in his players.

“Everyone gives him a label and they just run with that label for the last 10, 15 years. I think the last two series showed his ability to adapt and change when necessary.”

Most people know by now that Thibodeau skipped having a family life in order to focus on coaching. He loves and respects coaching so much that he’s never even been ejected, despite his curmudgeon demeanor on the sideline. This is what he was born to do, or at the very least this is how he wants his time on Earth to be remembered.

This level of dedication is appreciated by most players who play for him and by those who have gone against him.

“I’m happy for Thibs,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said after the series. “He’s been coaching for a long time. To me, that’s the biggest thing. You pay your dues, you put forth everything … that guy’s a lifer, man. He’s everything a coach is all about and he deserved it.”

If things keep going in the Knicks’ favor, not only could the franchise end a 50-plus year championship drought, but Thibodeau, a man who has put everything toward his profession, could get that elusive title as a head coach.

At this point, getting rid of the Knicks will be just as difficult as getting rid of Thibodeau. That’s not a coincidence.

“There are a lot of misconceptions about everyone,” Brunson said, “and that’s fine.”

(Top photo of Thibodeau: Luke Hales / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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