Tom Thibodeau had started his New York adventure perfectly. Recovering an almost unchanged group in the summer of 2020, he had put in place his defensive leg, moving the Knicks from 23rd to 4th place in the field.
What to find the playoffs, in the Top 4 of the East, by breaking the teeth on the Hawks of Trae Young.
The problem is that for the second consecutive season, “Thibs” is groping in search of a better balance attack / defense. In 2020/21, New York certainly had the 4th defense, but also the 22nd attack. The franchise knew it needed to improve in this area, hence the summer hires of Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier.
The result at the start of the 2021/22 season was disastrous. Until mid-December, New York had barely progressed in attack (19th) and especially greatly regressed in defense (23rd). The banishment of Kemba Walker and the adjustments of Tom Thibodeau settled the defense on the second part of the season (6th) but not the attack (24th).
The challenge was therefore the same for this 2022/23 season: maintaining defensive stability while improving offensively. This was still the goal of recruiting Jalen Brunson, and it is still not conclusive.
A shovel of trial and error
Because if the attack has progressed a little (17th), the defense has again regressed (24th), like this humiliating home defense against the Thunder of a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander that New York had missed at the Draft 2018, preferring to bet two front rows on a Kevin Knox who has since packed his bags. Games at such advanced times are generally difficult to judge, but Tom Thibodeau could only rail against the defense of his men.
“Our defense was the problem” logically reacted the coach. “We need to fix that. It’s hard to win if we don’t do better defensively. If we just try to score more than the opponent, it won’t work. Our margin of error is small. »
The coach therefore also gropes in the middle of the match, faced with the defensive limits of Jalen Brunson, less glaring than those of Kemba Walker but which must also be compensated for, especially on an evening when his first outside defender, RJ Barrett, took a foul after a foul against to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
” It’s time [de s’asseoir] when you make too many mistakes. It falls on me because I was defending on Shai, and I was hampered by the fouls. It’s not good. I have to do a better job not to make a mistake”, confirmed the Canadian, who hardly played the second half. Like Jalen Brunson, who understood. “I also wouldn’t have been played, given the way I was playing defensively. »
Tom Thibodeau explains that faced with the disaster, and the accumulated delay, he simply “wanted for life” off the bench. “A Little Spark” which did not save the evening.
It remains to be seen whether this season he can save the balance sought between his attack and his defense. For that, he will need more than just the return of Mitchell Robinson. No doubt a transfer to recover a solid “3&D”, capable of stabilizing the major five by taking care of the best opposing outside striker every evening in order to release and let RJ Barrett breathe, given that this is not the profile of ‘Evan Fournier and that Quentin Grimes does not seem ready to take on this role for the moment. A new Reggie Bullock in a way…
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Julius Randle | 12 | 33.4 | 45.6 | 31.9 | 75.3 | 2.5 | 6.5 | 9.0 | 3.4 | 3.1 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 3.7 | 20.5 |
| Rj Barrett | 12 | 35.1 | 43.9 | 31.4 | 78.0 | 1.0 | 4.8 | 5.8 | 3.1 | 2.3 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 2.0 | 20.2 |
| Jalen Brunson | 12 | 33.5 | 48.9 | 30.6 | 85.2 | 0.4 | 3.3 | 3.8 | 6.8 | 1.7 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 2.4 | 19.8 |
| Obi Toppin | 12 | 18.0 | 46.5 | 38.5 | 100.0 | 0.9 | 3.2 | 4.1 | 1.2 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.9 | 10.1 |
| Immanuel Quickley | 12 | 21.2 | 34.8 | 28.3 | 78.9 | 0.7 | 4.6 | 5.3 | 3.1 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 0.1 | 1.7 | 7.5 |
| Evan Fournier | 12 | 20.0 | 36.5 | 35.2 | 81.8 | 0.2 | 2.1 | 2.3 | 1.7 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 2.3 | 7.5 |
| Isaiah Hartenstein | 12 | 25.2 | 54.9 | 16.7 | 80.0 | 3.6 | 4.8 | 8.4 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 1.3 | 3.0 | 7.3 |
| Cam Reddish | 12 | 20.4 | 40.8 | 32.4 | 81.8 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 1.8 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 6.8 |
| Mitchell Robinson | 8 | 21.8 | 69.7 | 0.0 | 42.9 | 3.5 | 2.9 | 6.4 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 2.3 | 3.6 | 6.5 |
| Derrick Rose | 12 | 13.0 | 37.3 | 34.4 | 100.0 | 0.3 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 2.0 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 6.2 |
| Svi Mykhailiuk | 3 | 2.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 3.0 |
| Quentin Grimes | 4 | 8.0 | 42.9 | 33.3 | 100.0 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 2.5 |
| jericho sims | 7 | 8.9 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 2.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 1.9 | 2.1 |
| Ryan Arcidiacono | 3 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 |
| Trevor Keels | 1 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Miles Mcbride | 4 | 2.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 |
