Brian Windhorst thinks the Knicks are after A GIANT FISH & Thibs’ coaching style | Get Up

Brian Windhorst thinks the Knicks are after A GIANT FISH & Thibs’ coaching style | Get Up

Eastern Conference semifinals game seven yesterday at the Garden went to the Pacers in an historic performance they shot the lights out almost literally they shot the season out for the Knicks Jaylen Brunson whose brilliant playoff run came to an end we believe on that play with a fractured left hand it’s still not 100% certain that that’s where he broke the hand doesn’t really matter in the end Pacers wind up winning at 130 to 109 so they go on they’ll play Boston beginning tomorrow night we will have all of the Eastern Conference Finals games right here on ESPN so we’ll get to that let’s talk about the Knicks injuries I mentioned before we went to a break the Knicks Hallmark this entire season was their depth half the guys who have become folk Heroes weren’t even starters for the Knicks when this season began but a series of injuries just one after another it almost would have been funny if it wasn’t so sad to watch them continue to drop the reality is that sort of thing has tended to follow their coach Tom thibo around it happened in Chicago in Minnesota there were issues people believe with um how hard he worked them and all that kind of stuff and now we have these injuries if you take each one of them individually you can debate just how much of a factor the coach is in all of that it’s a complicated question that doesn’t have an easy answer but Monica I’ll start with you you’re with this team every single day how much of the Nick’s injury woses are fair to place at the feet of their head coach I think Grinny you set it up but I think people need to really understand they were down four rotation players Josh Hart did not start until the month of February is when Julius Rand goes down at the end of January and ogon and Obi is in and out to me you have to play and if you go by the minutes during the course of the regular season there were guys that played more minutes than Jaylen Brunson and Josh Hart I think they were in like the 1012 range or whatever so not a ton in the league in the leag not in the on the team yeah there were guys that played more minutes now granted they still were one of the higher usage guys um in the league but you have to play tibs literally squeezed everything he could out of this roster despite injuries they win 50 games they clinch a two seed and they have a chance to go on and possibly beat the Pacers if not for two more injuries even if this team have remained healthy the way they started this series you give them a better chance because that means they would have had OG and anobi and then plus you have to look at some of these injuries vnon bonovich steps on Nicholas baton foot versus Philly Oobi has an awkward slide on the Baseline that’s his hamstring if you want to say the abdominal strain for Josh Hart that might be the one that I’ll give you in terms of the minutes that he’s had to play but you didn’t have a choice at four consistently he had to play what do you think jayell I I think all these are true like I think that is the reality but I think we also live in a world where perception is reality and I think it’s it’s hard CU I really wish that tibs would have been able to dispel that this year but still regardless of whether all those details are true when you still look at the entire body of work it’s still easy for fans to come away at the assessment by saying look all guys break down like I’m not saying that is a true depiction of what’s happening but the perception around that is something that tibs is not able to get away from it’s problematic you’re a th% right and that’s where we come in it’s our job to educate people is it fair or is it not fair that’s the question I’m asking legs there are Nick fans out there who are all it it’s tibs it’s tibs it’s tibs it’s tibs that’s the reason that we watched Our Heroes fall you know one after another after another is that fair it’s not fair in this case absolutely not did you see that can we put that graphic back up again to the players those five players injured players these aren’t just dudes filling out the roster these are significant players heavy rotational players if you add those five players to well forget Brunson because that hand came at the end of the game which they were losing in the season was any look at the other four guys on that list are you kidding me first of all bogdanovich imagine banovich in a series like this at 6’1 with his shot making and his defense how much difference would it make so if you add those four guys to the mix we’re not even talking about this with tips nobody is playing 42 45 47 minutes if you’ve got those guys they’re playing normal minutes maybe maybe you know Josh hardt a little bit more Bruns a little bit more in a given night these guys aren’t playing minutes that are being questioned if those guys are available there are no Knicks without the T without tibs that part this team is their coach and they love him and maybe there were other teams in the past they didn’t love him there’s no way forward with this team without Tom thibo coaching this way and not only that they’re going to give him an eight figure a year extension this off season because they have to because he’s his style has made it happen we can argue about whether I always do that I just struggle yeah it’s not 100 million it’s not 100 million at least I mean that’s going right for coaches go look at the Lakers right now they’re searching high and low they’re trying to invent candidates you get a coach like Tom Tibido coaches like this you absolutely reward him so so for that I 100% agree we’re not having a conversation of whether he is whether or he’s an excellent coach he’s an excellent coach I don’t even think we’re having a question of whether or not he is a huge part of the reason they got where they got I think that’s definitive as well what we’re having a conversation about is exactly what the question is on the screen because it it keeps happening everywhere we goes this happens the reason it’s important is because the Knicks need another a star player thank you grny this is what to say this to legus point earlier about carile you look at this roster if this roster were not to change it needs to be sustainable because you only have one guy well if julus randle’s healthy you have two guys that then can draw a double team which is a fundamental principle when it comes to tips right but with this group you had to hang your hat on the defensive end you had to play your stars big moments now if they grab whoever the big fish is in this offseason and they’ve got more Firepower offensively does tibs have the ability to adapt I believe so in this era he’s talking to guys con star may not necessarily want to come here if he’s going to play that many minutes that is a challenge by the way coming off Minnesota and coming off Chicago you do hear a lot of Rumblings from higher-end players like I don’t know if that style is sustainable for somebody high in age or in productivity because that’s the young guys starting to take over okay well both give me give me the player that you think would wouldn’t mind playing those type of minutes throughout the course of the season I mean of course he’s not available but a guy like ant who just put out the three-time MVP but ant’s ant’s doing that in Minnesota though so now we’re going to take ant off a chance to get not realistic I’m talking about mindset I understand like we’re talking about one guy who’s actually the face of becoming the face of the league for Minnesota look following what people are saying on social media is and I by that I just mean people any anyone with an account is generally a dangerous practice right because anyone can say anything they want but if you’re following the end of that it’s a 20-point game game six Friday night knowing they have a 40-hour turnaround it is a 20-point game in the fourth quarter and he’s got all his guys out there and that’s what people are complaining went home after the game they put their Nicks NightLight in the wall they turn their Nicks they turn their they got New York Nick sheets on their bed come on these people aren’t rational if you love a team fans are not are they wrong in this situation they are wrong those he have they wouldn’t have been in that game s yesterday without fair fair when a star player says I want to get out of my situation and they’re going to go and say I want to be playing for play for the Lakers I want to play for the Clippers I want to play for the heat do I want to play for the Knicks I do think get a consideration as they’re looking to get that giant fish that’s what they’re looking they’re not looking to add another 20 point score they want to wait for the big giant fish you can come up with the names I’m not going to have them attached to me will that I’ll have them attached to you will some names will that player think that tibs is an I’ll just say some names okay I’m just going to say some names can we get it okay I’ll say name and if you say nothing I’ll assume that I already know one y sounded a this what they teach you at at Northwestern exactly right the whole league is watching obviously what’s happens with an with Giannis and certainly the Knicks are one of them and the question is whether it’s Giannis or another player like him is tibs a plus or a minus if Giannis called up Jaylen Brunson and asked what it was like to play for tibs Jaylen Brunson would give the biggest glowing answer you’d ever hear but it really that that’s the one thing to me the Knicks are going to be tibs the question is for the Knicks to be still playing into June is tibs an asset or a detriment when it comes to bring us start that’s an open question look well the complicated thing about this to me is that we live in a world and Monica you say this a lot and I like when you say this is sometimes both things are true or all things are true we don’t live in that world we live in a world where everything’s got to be either A or B the reality is in this case it’s somewhere in the middle it’s sort of B sharp right I mean the the reality is they would never be where they are without him the players love him swear by him he took a bunch of like young Scrappy hungry guys and turned them turned turned them into this team that became a two- seed and if they were healthy they would still be playing right now and I’d give them a puncher’s chance against the Celtics but they’re not healthy and his teams generally tend not to be and that can either just be a coincidence and a lot of bad luck or there can be a cause and effect relation one of the things I will say why we got to give him a little bit of benefit of the doubt in this situation the guys that we mentioned that didn’t play this this could have been the deepest team Tom Tibido ever coached in his entire career so go back and look at go back look at the rosters and the depth charts of the Bulls teams and the Minnesota timber teams they didn’t look like this if those four guys are healthy so let’s let’s let’s see if tibs could have adjusted to having that wealth of depth where he’s looking at at a game and he’s seen a guy that just played as hard as he could for eight straight minutes he’s got another option on the bench instead of making that guy play four more minutes and get to the quarter break that’s what he was forced to do in this situation because guys weren’t playing thank you leg I just I listening to you guys the course of the game wasn’t there a debate around the course of the Season around whether he a n man rotation that was that was a legitimate thing I understand I’m not I’m just once again like Wendy I’m just playing devil’s advocate here to it’s reasonable like it’s reasonable because it follows I’m not saying it’s a true depiction of what occurred it is reasonable it it it is reasonable but if ever there was an opportunity to really look at what has happened with this team it is this season that’s all I’m saying it’s reasonable right and if you really want to go reasonable those folks with the night lights and the lamps they knew that during the course of the regular season when he dabbled in the nmare rotation the ninth guy wasn’t as productive as you need to be as a rotation guy that comes in late in terms of a short amount of time to make an impact and so listen they got they were still standing in a game seven because of their depth despite all of the injes way one hell of a game is that Leon Rose he had three four really great the last games was like the seconder playoff I forgot when they brought him off the bench I was like wait a minute they have him again like he didn’t even play L but these guys know how difficult it is to get in a rotation when you get five minutes go this jump sit down it wasn’t it wasn’t falling very when a when a guy stands up to check in the game and you see like moths fly away yeah it’s kind of surprising wow thought on behalf of the people with the lamps right and the sheets don’t forget the sheets I slept as a child in New York Knicks number 10 footy pajamas wal Frasier 100% true story as a child okay as a girlriend [Music]

On Get Up, Jay Williams, Tim Legler, Brian Windhorst and Monica McNutt join Mike Greenberg to discuss:

0:00 Jalen Brunson leaves the Game 7 loss with a fractured hand
1:00 Knicks’ injuries
5:30 Concerns for stars?

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