The New York Knicks were able to get by in the final 49 games of the season with a miserable starting lineup. While finishing with 51 wins on the season, good enough to take the No. 3 seed into the NBA playoffs, their starting lineup wasn’t nearly as effective as their record showed.
That’s starting to become a serious problem against a team the NBA hasn’t given enough credit to. The Indiana Pacers stunned the Knicks in Game 1 and stole Game 2 to go back to Indianapolis with a 2-0 lead, the same start they had against the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers last series.
Tom Thibodeau can’t continue to trot the same five guys out there to start the game and expect different results, it’s the very definition of insanity. So he needs to truly evaluate some major changes if the Knicks don’t want to spoil the perfect chance to get back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999.
Why Tom Thibodeau’s complacency is costing the New York Knicks a shot at an NBA championship
Thibodeau has gotten outcoached pretty much throughout this entire postseason. His inept changes almost cost him a first-round series and if it weren’t for Boston’s own coaching deficiencies, could have cost the Knicks last series, too. In the Knicks’ third playoff series this season, it’s finally catching up to him.
He refuses to change a lineup that’s proven it’s underperforming. I get he wants to go the offensive route and keep Miles McBride and Mitchell Robinson on the bench, but that’s obviously not working.
Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby are elite perimeter defenders, but the Pacers are able to get the mismatches they want to get a good shot. According to an SNY story, when Bridges and Robinson got in the game, they helped halt the Pacers hot hand and alleviated the pressure.
Just look back to Game 1. Aaron Nesmith scored 11 straight points, including three straight 3-pointers to get the Pacers from a nine-point deficit with less than a minute left in the game, to a one-point deficit with 12 seconds left.
The Knicks’ starters were on the court at that time. That’s the type of damage that lineup is causing and that should be the wake-up call for Thibs to finally make the necessary changes to the rotation. It doesn’t have to be a drastic change and really doesn’t have to be a permanent one.
But he owes this team the awareness to try something different. What he’s doing isn’t working and truthfully really hasn’t. The Knicks were just getting by and now, they’re two losses away from yet another Finals-less season.