Bending and Breakingby Kris Pursiainen
Stubbornness has accompanied Tom Thibodeau throughout his career. It has always been a part of his technique.
His exit from Chicago came after years of considerable success arguably due to his unwillingness to compromise during his many disagreements with the front office.
In Minnesota, he was his own front office. Thibodeau may have learned there that having someone around to bend his convictions might be as necessary as it was annoying.
Tom Thibodeau’s idiosyncrasies are loveable. He doesn’t spend any time trying to endear himself to his team’s fanbase. His dry humor, hard work, and the frozen pizzas that accompany him as he watches each 48-minute product get the job done.
He may have learned to be that way from Bill Musselman, his first mentor. We may never know where Musselman picked it up himself.
But Tom Thibodeau ultimately sees basketball like math: there is a correct way to approach it. There is a way to do things that is best. It takes painstaking work to achieve the meticulousness of a Thibodeau team.
Every month, every game, every fourth quarter: Thibodeau’s teams will bend. Starters in, down 11 with two minutes to go, trying to reduce the deficit to single digits. Playing 48 minutes of Thibodeau basketball.
They'll bend. But they won’t break.
Immanuel Quickley’s tenure in New York is a compelling example of Thibodeau’s limits.
Thibodeau is the last coach one would expect to be armed with arguably the best analytical department in the NBA, MLB, NFL, or NHL. That’s why it’s perfect for him. His obsession with details and a veteran eye for talent paired with an abundance of data.
Thibodeau has bent in this regard. The analytics have become a huge part of his program during his tenure with the Knicks. The team has targeted proficient pull-up shooters throughout Leon Rose’s entire tenure. Thibodeau uses simple-yet-statistical goals to drive his players to play his way every night.
In some ways, Quickley’s tenure as a Knick is a testament to Thibodeau’s newfound flexibility; he excelled from behind the Knicks’ newly installed 4-point-line at their Tarrytown practice facility. Thibodeau knew it was a good shot, so it became one he allowed Quickley to take in games. He knew Quickley could make them. Thibodeau accepted new data: that the four-point shot was a viable option for Quickley.
The thing about bending is that eventually you spring back.
Seven games into the 2022-23 season, Thibodeau’s first substitution of the game changed from Immanuel Quickley to Derrick Rose. When asked if the opponent, the Atlanta Hawks, or any other factors played into the decision, Thibodeau said no. It was just something they thought would be beneficial.
Derrick Rose was removed entirely from the Knicks rotation on December 4th; Immanuel Quickley finished top-3 in the Sixth Man of the Year race in that same season.
Over October and November, Quickley averaged 22.4 minutes per game. Over the next two months, he averaged 31.5. It seemed that Thibodeau had recognized Quickley’s value and was translating it to time on the court.
On February 5, 2022, the Knicks lost in overtime to the Los Angeles Lakers. Quickley played five minutes of that game’s 53. Games like these were not uncommon.
After the All-Star break, Quickley averaged 32.2 minutes per game but still did not start games for the Knicks. Despite going to Quickley numerous times to close games, the guard never seemed to be in legitimate consideration for a larger role on Thibodeau’s team.
Quickley’s minutes and role on the team seemed to have a ceiling on them.
This all goes back to how Quickley became a Knick in the first place - and what Thibodeau thought of him at the time.
Tom Thibodeau was a huge proponent of drafting both Quentin Grimes and Miles McBride. Both are still Knicks. McBride signed a three-year, 13-million-dollar extension in the wake of the trade and both are benefitting nightly from the additional opportunity.
Coming out of Kentucky, Immanuel Quickley was a small guard that didn’t profile as the defensive bulldog that someone like McBride did. He was William Wesley’s consolation prize after the team’s efforts to move up in the first round and snag Tyrese Maxey with their second selection fell short. Quickley was a 2-guard from Kentucky who had to be locked out of the gym by assistants for wanting to practice more than they deemed healthy.
He was perfect for Thibodeau and perfect for Wesley. That made him perfect for Rose and the Knicks: a young shooter and defender who could contribute early and potentially grow into more later.
Thibodeau was never truly “in,” though, dooming what seemed like a perfect fit from the start.
Sources familiar with the situation informed me during Quickley’s tenure in New York that, at first, the 25th overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft was not supposed to have played during his rookie season. Adding to that, the team having an extra guard in Austin Rivers makes a lot more sense when you realize that he was never an extra.
Quickley wasn’t supposed to play as a rookie.
When pressed for more, sources wouldn’t confirm anything besides that it was Thibodeau’s wish for Quickley to be sent to Westchester for his first season, just as the Knicks would later do with McBride. Veterans would play and Quickley would develop, getting reps that Thibodeau couldn’t afford him on NBA hardwood.
Immanuel Quickley didn’t play a single minute in the first preseason game of 2020, because Tom Thibodeau treats preseason as a dress rehearsal for the regular season.
Austin Rivers was ruled out for the team’s second preseason game, which led way for Thibodeau to mention pregame that he would try to play Immanuel Quickley.
Quickley saw the floor for nine minutes that night. Two points, two rebounds, and one assist were all it took for the Knicks to want to find out more about how good of an NBA player Immanuel Quickley could be.
25 minutes in the next game against Cleveland. Nine points, seven assists, and one million steals. He had taken the hearts of every Knick fan with him into the tunnels.
It may have been decided right then. Maybe it was after his 22-point performance in the preseason finale. But if the Knicks wanted to honestly say they were playing their best guys, Immanuel Quickley could not be playing home games in Westchester. Austin Rivers was unceremoniously traded away well ahead of the deadline.
Quickley always came off the bench, because that was the role he was best in as a rookie. He was compared to Lou Williams and other short, skilled, scoring guards who didn’t bring defense to the table (love you, Lou). He was settled into a shoebox. Regardless of the extent to which he had outgrown it, it would always contain him.
Immanuel Quickley grew impressively as a player, in every regard from providing a high-quality defensive floor to having a triple-double in the NBA despite never having one in college. Quickley told reporters after that game he was never a good enough passer to have a triple-double. Not anymore.
Quickley being best off of the bench was a narrative that remained true, until it didn’t. Good players should play a lot. Thibodeau bent but never broke. Quickley almost always excelled as a starter. He certainly always excelled regardless of who else was on the court with him. Statistics and impact metrics galore show this.
These were metrics that Thibodeau himself claimed were of great importance to him, such as net rating. It didn’t matter. It never did. It wasn’t going to happen. He wouldn’t break.
Ultimately, Thibodeau never truly trusted Brunson and Quickley as the team’s backcourt duo in crunch time. He turned to it several times to win games but would not start them together. New York’s front office had to make a decision of some kind.
The 2023-24 Knicks are 21-15 through their first 36 games and no longer employ Immanuel Quickley or RJ Barrett. They do employ a British All-Defensive Wing. No, not Luol Deng.
Tom Thibodeau is a great basketball coach in part because he bends but never breaks. He’s helping lead the Knicks to heights they haven’t sniffed in decades.
The thing is that Immanuel Quickley is a great basketball player, but he was never going to succeed under Tom Thibodeau.
It doesn’t mean he won’t succeed elsewhere. It means that for members of the Knick faithful, going from a perennial lock to win 25 games or fewer to a perennial playoff team comes at a cost. The hybrid approach of acquiring players the analytics and pro scouting departments approve of that fit into Thibodeau’s scheme has gotten the team far.
Two things can be true:
The Knicks will continue to go far. Immanuel Quickley, from far away, will continue to get better.
A third thing can also be true: the Knicks will likely regret trading Quickley one day - but it doesn’t matter. They’re chasing champagne problems: being good enough where fans’ greatest worry is if the team will be eliminated in the Conference Finals or the NBA Finals, not which members of the team before it was a contender are still around.
Quickley will be great. The Knicks will be great. Fans of each one can take solace in both.
Kris Pursiainen is a senior at Fordham University covering basketball at every level. He also hosts the “All Things NBA” podcast. You can (and should) follow him on Twitter here.
1/8/2024 4:47 PM