New York Knicks: Lessons Tom Thibodeau hopefully learned

Not to overwork his players

Thibodeau is known to play his top athletes too many minutes, whether it’s his doing or the players asking for more time. However, the league is trending towards load management, and it would be best for Thibodeau to follow suit.

Sports science has concluded that injuries and body fatigue are more likely to occur when players don’t have adequate rest. Each athlete is different, so the number of minutes each ballplayer can handle will vary. Regardless of each player’s genetics, teams began leaning on the side of caution so that their prominent players are either available or fresh during the postseason run (although it looks like it didn’t help the LA Clippers that much this season).

Speaking of the Clippers, Kawhi Leonard has been the leader of load management. After experiencing his severe knee injury while on the San Antonio Spurs, the Toronto Raptors managed his minutes to prevent further harm and keep him rested for the playoffs – which seems to have contributed to their championship run.

However, load management has been a thing before Kawhi became to load management what Chris Paul is to State Farm. The San Antonio Spurs have been resting their top players from the days of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili (and maybe even before then). Head coach Greg Popovich made sure to give his top players rest whenever they had minor/nagging injuries to be ready for the playoffs.

We can even look at LeBron James and how he managed his minutes with his second stint on the Cleveland Cavaliers. And this hot topic of resting players during the regular season became prevalent during the 2017-18 season, when he, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love sat out a game against the Clippers. After the Cavaliers Big 3 sat out, there were heated debates around the league on whether it was necessary for players to play all 82 games (or close to it) or rest their bodies. But even after all the commotion, it’s clear that load management has won and will be around for the foreseeable future.

Given Thibodeau’s history of not following suit with this trend, with the Knicks it may be time to revisit his approach, regardless of the league’s mixed feelings towards load management. Thibodeau needs to think about closely overseeing his player’s minutes to prolong their careers and preserve them for the playoffs (…whenever the New York Knicks are in that conversation again).

Thibodeau is known for having his players run north of 35 minutes per game in his previous coaching stops with the Bulls and Timberwolves. Just look at Derrick Rose, Jimmy Butler, Luol Deng, Zach LaVine, Karl Anthony-Towns, and Andrew Wiggins. Of those players, most notably Rose, Butler, and LaVine, have suffered significant injuries.

Yes, LaVine wasn’t under Thibodeau when he tore his ACL. But it should be noted that LaVine’s injury occurred 24 games into the 2017-18 Bulls season, the following season after he averaged 37.2 minutes per game on the Timberwolves.

It isn’t reasonable to place complete blame on Thibodeau for any of these athletes’ misfortune because there are many factors to when an injury occurs. Yet, even while recognizing the multiple factors that lead up to an injury – and body fatigue being one of them – Thibodeau should still want to mitigate any aspect within his control that may lead to one of his players getting injured.

If Thibodeau wants to stay on the team’s good side, he will make sure to manage the number of practices and game time minutes everyone endures. We do have information indicating that he is moving towards this trend. As reported by Jon Krawczynski, while with Minnesota, Thibodeau reduced the number of practices the Timberwolves had.