The Brilliance of Tom Thibodeau and the Legendary 9-Man Rotation

This is about to be a disgusting article. I’m literally about to sit here and praise Tom Thibodeau.

The New York Giants are on a 2-game win streak holding the Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta Hawks to under 90 points which is unheard of in the modern NBA. Still, Tom Thibodeau, the defensive specialist has finally shown his true colors and it’s all thanks to that 9-man rotation.

The massive difference in the last two Knicks wins compared to previous games is Thibs removing Derrick Rose and Cam Reddish from the rotation and letting Deuce McBride go out there with the second unit.

Deuce McBride is a 22-year-old 3-and-D guy with untapped potential and Derrick Rose is a washed 34-year-old who doesn’t know what consent means.

It’s strange that coaches don’t discover this phenomenon until the playoffs begin but if the like, 10th man on your bench isn’t that good then he can keep his ass seated courtside all game.

In the 2014-15 season when Thibs was the coach of the Bulls, Jimmy Butler led the NBA in minutes per game and of course he did. Who else should have been getting minutes? Doug McDermott? Play your best guys the most minutes they physically can because it keeps those minutes away from guys who aren’t as good. It’s so brilliant.

The obvious problem is that over the course of an 82-game season, you’d be putting a lot of minutes on your starters who will break down before the postseason begins. All of Thibs’s previous teams looked exhausted during the playoffs.

But this Knicks team is one of the youngest in the NBA and lacks top-tier talent so who cares about how tired they’ll be in the playoffs when it’s a long shot for them to even make it that far?

Derrick Rose is shooting 40% from the field and has never been good at defense. Cam Reddish’s game is pretty sloppy and he is entirely focused on getting his own buckets first and foremost. It made zero sense for the Knicks to trade for him and he’ll most likely be off the team by New Year’s.

If Rose and Reddish (and Evan Fournier) are doing weird shit on the court then keep them off the court.

Now, you can point out that Cleveland shot 8-for-35 from 3 and Atlanta shot 6-for-36 from 3 and that was a bigger factor than anything the Knicks did. I’m choosing to believe that it’s all the result of Tom Thibodeau and his expert defensive strategy of letting opposing teams chuck up wide-open 3’s all night and hope they miss.

As I’m writing this, It’s being reported Obi Toppin will be out for a few weeks with a knee injury. Does…does that mean we’re getting the forbidden 8-man rotation??!? Knicks are winning their next game by 60. I’m going to pass out if they go down to only playing 7 guys.