I know there’s another thread, but he’s good enough to discuss again. The hope is we bring him back. And when either Hartenstein or Robinson (or both) are banged up, he’s invaluable. But when the entire roster is healthy. You have either Mitch or Ihart starting alongside Randle, Anunoby, DiVincenzo, and Brunson starting. The bench is the other center, Bogdanovic and Hart at the very minimum. Then likely Burks playing a backup guard too, although Deuce may replace Burks in certain matchups. So that’s the 9 right there. Thibs wont play 10. Most teams don’t go 10 unless the bench is weak and the backups aren’t playing a ton of minutes. But bogs and hart are going to play high level rotation minutes for as long as they are on the team. And fluctuation with their minutes will be marginal.
So with all of that being said, what is Achiuwas role ? Is there a scenario where maybe DiVincenzo becomes the de-factor backup PG alongside a bigger backup unit of Ihart or Mitch at center, Achiuwa, Bogs, Hart, and DDV? That would be a strong unit that would crush teams on the boards, and probably have enough scoring, although not a ton of spacing. In this scenario, Achiuwa would essentially see the non-Randle minutes at PF. This is sort of the rotation crunch the Knicks faced with all of the guards at the beginning of the year. And of course it’s a moot point this regular season because Knicks are so banged up. I’m talking more so next year because the Knicks will have to make a roster decision. Achiuwa is an amazing fail-safe, but is he happy with that type of limited role? Are the Knicks content going into the luxury tax/ apron for that luxury? This is becoming my biggest question going forward. And this is all assuming both Ihart and Mitch are back. That is always a possibility that the Knicks make a tough decision elsewhere. We will see what happens.
