Another disappointing loss Knicks fans. While this team is going to make the playoffs, and in my personal opinion has a great chance to make some noise in the playoffs, there are still some very infuriating aspects of this team that I just don’t understand. Julius Randle had the game of his life tonight, putting up 57 points tonight, FIFTY-SEVEN! (51 in three quarters by the way.)
He helped lead our team back from being down 17 to take the lead in the fourth late, just to lose in upsetting fashion. Side Note (if you were not rooting for Randle to break Carmelo’s record you are a loser. That would have been fucking awesome.) So, what is the reason the Knicks lost tonight? The answer is very simple, COACHING! This is the question that I want answered; WHY DOES THIBS NOT PLAY HIS BEST PLAYERS DOWN THE STRETCH?
RJ BARRETT SHOULD BE CLOSING OUT GAMES FOR THE KNICKS
There is no reason our 3rd best player should be on the bench during the last minutes of the 4th quarter, especially when it is close. I don’t care how much you all love Quickley, Hart, Mcbride, or Grimes, none of them should be playing late over RJ. I love the addition of Hart, and he has helped this team trend in the right direction, but in my opinion, you should play your best players down the stretch, and it should be Quick/Hart/Grimes that split the time amongst each other, not RJ sitting for them. People on the “Twitter” claimed he couldn’t play since he was getting cooked defensively. NEWSFLASH to everyone, The Timberwolves put up 140 points, that would mean the entire team got cooked. At least Jalen Brunson owned up to it.
Now I am not excusing RJ’s bad defensive play, but when you look at the advanced stats and +/- there is no reason he should’ve been sitting. Out of our starting 5 he had the second best +/- at a -2, the only person better was Mitch with a +/- of 0.
So clearly everyone got cooked. RJ also played less minutes than Mitch, Hart, and Quickley, which is just unacceptable. Not to mention Josh Hart had a worse +/- (-3) and Quickley was barely better (-1.) So why should they be playing more minutes than RJ?
The answer is they shouldn’t. Every time Thibs doesn’t play RJ down the stretch it hurts up, every time. The casuals could not handle that on the “Twitter” and resulted to giving bad opinions when I showed up to defend our savior. Peep the WHOLE thread;
MITCH SHOULD BE PLAYING OVER HARTENSTEIN AS WELL
Mitch is a better player than Hartenstein, and he should be closing out games as well. If you know ball, you know Mitch is better, not to mention he matches up against Rudy better, and is a better defender, rebounder, and can stretch the floor more for Brunson. I could show advanced stats, if need be, but I don’t need to. That’s simply the eyeball test, and if you know ball then you will agree he should be out there for alley-oop daggers just like the previous game.
DO BETTER THIBS
While the team is playing much better than people anticipated, and losses do happen, some are very preventable. And when our players are leaving it all on the floor, it then comes down to a coach to lead them to victory in the battle. Thibs’ questionable decisions at times do not allow for that to happen. (Don’t even get me started on the play that was drawn up out of the time out late, when Quickley had to chuck a three since whatever was drawn up was doo-doo caca! It’s simple Thibs. Down the stretch, PLAY YOUR BEST PLAYERS! Play RJ! Play Mitch! Split the Hart/Quickley time late! Let Randle, and Brunson cook with that five and we will steam role teams! Most importantly, PLAY RJ BARRETT THIBS! I know you’ll see this…
