I view things like this: Thibs is doing his best to give guys like IQ more touches, opportunity, and responsibility and by keeping him in that lead role off the bench and then meshing him with the SL guys later, and he accomplishes that.

IQ gets to play with the SL to finish games if he is excelling. He gets the best of both worlds so why change that? It's hard to flip flop from bench to SL and why put that extra layer on IQ?

martin wrote:The one thing I do keep reading - and Thibs reiterated it last night - was that he likes keeping the second unit together because of the way they play so well together.

I view things like this: Thibs is doing his best to give guys like IQ more touches, opportunity, and responsibility and by keeping him in that lead role off the bench and then meshing him with the SL guys later, and he accomplishes that.

IQ gets to play with the SL to finish games if he is excelling. He gets the best of both worlds so why change that? It's hard to flip flop from bench to SL and why put that extra layer on IQ?

Agree. We all saw how Burks is a different player as a starter. Grimes couldn’t find the rim. McBride looked like a second rounder when he started. Rose even said he loves coming off the bench and he’s a former mvp. But starting puts a lot of mental pressure on you. Off the bench u can just let your game dictate your play. U have more freedom to just play and not worry about if Randle or RJ or EF are getting their touches. That’s the role of a veteran PG. IQ right now is better as a free flowing type player.

Thibs is old school. When something isn’t broken, why mess with it. He loves the chemistry in that second unit, just like we all do. Thibs goal is to fix the SL without messing with the young bench players like IQ. I like how thibs is playing IQ with the starters. It’s giving the analytics guys more data to chew on come next season or during the playoffs if we get in. Or if we trade Kemba.

But he already moved Kemba back into rotation and Kemba can only play 1 position. Right now starting Kemba or Burks who are vets and they don’t take it personal when they start or come off the bench. At least that’s the case with Burks. Sometimes young players can’t handle that promotion and demotion. Vets can.

Thibs is determined to fix the starting unit first, before dismantling the second unit. IQ is the engine in that second unit. What thibs is doing is playing iq with starters without messing with the chemistry in the second unit. Best of both worlds as Martin said.

TLover wrote:Well we need to do something because we start games atrociously and can’t keep coming back from large deficits. Why not try it and YES give Grimes & McBride the opportunity to be that spark off the bench.

We need to start McBride at pg until Kemba is back

Burks starting at pg is killing our season

martin wrote:

blkexec wrote:I didn’t watch most of the 2nd half. But I thought IQ looked good in the 1st half.

I thought IQ looked good as a scorer. He has a long way to go as a PG but I'd welcome some other feedback

I can see IQ as a starter for this team. We don’t run a traditional offense, plus we have other players like pt forward Randle and playmaking RJ to consume some of those point guard duties. I think IQ and EF is a better combination than Burks. And Burks is better off the bench. But when Rose or Kemba comes back, they will jump ahead of IQ. When thibs took IQ out for RJ, it’s like the team changed with Burks running the point. RJ was off and Burks looked like a bench player. Burks is better coming off the bench. But IQ and EF will open up the offense and allow RJ and Randle to kill while Mitch is the cleanup man. I can see this working.

http://www.ultimateknicks.com/outerlink.asp?id=146666275

HoustonSprewell84 wrote:

Philc1 wrote:

TLover wrote:Well we need to do something because we start games atrociously and can’t keep coming back from large deficits. Why not try it and YES give Grimes & McBride the opportunity to be that spark off the bench.

We need to start McBride at pg until Kemba is back

Burks starting at pg is killing our season

McBride was worse than Burkes when he started, we need to make a trade

McBride has barely played. Burks has basically been the starting pg since 11/27 except for a 5 game stretch when Kemba was allowed to play. Enough