Only 8 games in, and we have that kind of team...a hero or two a day, and when some guys have bad games, they're picked up by somebody else. We also have a lot of resilience so far, and what seems to be a lot of pride.

This is an f'n entertaining team so far...I don't know where the season is going to go, but so far, it has been fun.

HofstraBBall wrote:As I mentioned on another thread. The FO deserves a lot of credit for the moves they have made. They signed Rivers because they recognized he was more than just a role player. They kept Randle against some pressure by fans to deal him. They made moves to pick a kid they had conviction for in late first round despite most having him as a mid 2nd rounder. They resigned Payton, which I thought was a mistake. They signed Burks who seems like a great shooter. And lets not forget that they hired the coach I wanted for years.

knicks1248 wrote:tight tight rotation,(i love it) we essentially played 7 guys, with IQ logging just 6 minutes

This is really the worst attitude. Love the win but nah the short rotations got to go

I really want to win games guys playing high 30’s minutes. Kind of like how he played RJ tonight.

If I could fix one thing though, could we just get a little better at getting the ball in-bounds and past the half-court line? It feels like an adventure way too often.

wargames wrote:

martin wrote:

wargames wrote:

knicks1248 wrote:tight tight rotation,(i love it) we essentially played 7 guys, with IQ logging just 6 minutes

This is really the worst attitude. Love the win but nah the short rotations got to go

I really want to win games guys playing high 30’s minutes. Kind of like how he played RJ tonight.

Then pay attention to the injuries and who is left on the bench and let us know what GLeague talent you think should be playing over the guys who are winning games and earning their playing time

He had Quickley on the bench most the game and played Payton 42 minutes this game. So your injury excuse is not an excuse.

He could have put Knox out there more at the 4 as well, which meant he could play Randle less overall and put Randle at the 5 some more to give Mitch a bit of rest too.

You feel justified hyping these regular season wins until someone gets injured seriously eking them out. Also even when the team gets to the playoffs the playoff rotation players are so tired they underperform.

You can tell the fan base is starved for wins when they refuse to see the inherent flaw in winning like this. When guys come back I don’t want to hear excuses about the minutes either.

When players are playing well, you play them. And it’s yielded very good outcomes.

This is not a 30 year old vet team.

martin wrote:

wargames wrote:

martin wrote:

wargames wrote:

knicks1248 wrote:tight tight rotation,(i love it) we essentially played 7 guys, with IQ logging just 6 minutes

This is really the worst attitude. Love the win but nah the short rotations got to go

I really want to win games guys playing high 30’s minutes. Kind of like how he played RJ tonight.

Then pay attention to the injuries and who is left on the bench and let us know what GLeague talent you think should be playing over the guys who are winning games and earning their playing time

He had Quickley on the bench most the game and played Payton 42 minutes this game. So your injury excuse is not an excuse.

He could have put Knox out there more at the 4 as well, which meant he could play Randle less overall and put Randle at the 5 some more to give Mitch a bit of rest too.

You feel justified hyping these regular season wins until someone gets injured seriously eking them out. Also even when the team gets to the playoffs the playoff rotation players are so tired they underperform.

You can tell the fan base is starved for wins when they refuse to see the inherent flaw in winning like this. When guys come back I don’t want to hear excuses about the minutes either.

When players are playing well, you play them. And it’s yielded very good outcomes.

This is not a 30 year old vet team.

I get that but when these guys who are our “core” do become older they are more likely to break down because Thibs played them heavy minutes. Not to mention fatigue in the playoffs.

Plus today we saw three guys under 25 get major injuries, one of them a rookie. Injuries are not based on age.

Finally the Jazz ran a 9 man rotation too just like the Knicks did and distributed the minutes better with their stars playing 35 and 36 minutes. Thibs had 3 players over 40 minutes.

These “very good outcomes” is regular season wins too.... that means nothing. It feels important because we been bad, but load management is a thing contenders do for a reason.

3 random observations

1) we have beaten good teams but IMO just as importantly well-coached teams. SO that's promising! neither the opposing players nor the coaches have answers
2) we have won in second half meaning we have made adjustments to them and out-executed. that's confidence inspiring. guys will be motivated to play hard the full 4 knowing they can come back
3)regarding the minutes. It's obviously a concern. There is a legitimate reason why some teams do load mgmt. But it cannot be contested that Thibs approach re minutes reinforces his dictum that each player needs to earn their minutes. No one goes into a game with some pre-allocated guaranteed amount. Anyone who doesn't think that guys like Frank, DSJ, Obi etc aren't on notice of that is not being realistic. If they weren't before, they are now locked in and focused in team meetings and film and busting ass in practice -- or riding pine. that simple. there is some benefit to that. is that benefit worth the risk? that will be a big focus. I do expect the second unit to come in like a bunch of spider monkeys (to borrow a phrase from Taledega Nights), and i also expect that if a guy (looking at you DSJ) starts launching selfish 30' bombs "because he's feeling it" there will be a cold spot at the end of the bench to think about those decisions