More so than any NBA coach, Tom Thibodeau gets blamed for injuries and judged for trying too hard.
Winning, it seems, is weirdly secondary, as fans and media obsess over the minutes played column rather than the final score.
A small part of it is understandable. His garbage-time strategy feels excessive (we’ll get into that later). There’s also a worry that the Knicks are built more for the regular season and will flame out in a seven-game playoff series, as a few of Thibodeau’s teams in Chicago did. No team wants to peak in January.
But the playoff concerns are a talent problem, not a coaching problem.
