Anunoby, who had scored a playoff career-high 28 points at the time of the injury, has averaged 46 minutes per game for the short-handed Knicks in the four contests leading up to Game 2. His playing time marked the most minutes he’d ever played in a four-game window, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.

As much as I think Thibs is a great coach, and the team culture is amazing, this is on him. He’s risking players’ health, and it’s documented previously and now here. If I were Leon, I would let him know he must cut players’ minutes, before Hart, Divo, iHart and Brunson go down as well. This team is too good to risk its long term success on Thibs’ obsession.

Now, 3 of our top 9 players are out for the playoffs and another is out for at least a couple games and we are facing having to play at least one of those 6 players just to cobble together an 8 man rotation. It is both a failure on Leon to not sign better depth and on Thibs for not finding time in the regular season to sharpen and season our bench. It is on the coach to find time to play the 13th, 14th, or 15th man in the regular season so they are ready if you need them in the playoffs.

This scenario is exactly why I was so angry about our trade deadline. We traded a solid young player in Grimes (who would be the 5th best Knick right now) and a less solid young player in Flynn (who funny enough would probably be our 7th or 8th best player right now) for two not-very-good older players to help our depth and then didn’t utilize the waiver wire at all. One of those players wasn’t great and is now injured (not shocking considering he is 35) and the other one has completely played himself out of the rotation. And instead of trying to sign anyone else useful, we decided the best use of our bench was Jeffries, Brown Jr, Toppin, Washington Jr, and Diakite. The only player we signed at the waiver wire who could possibly play in this series, but probably won’t, is Milton. We could have easily signed three more players of Milton’s (or Burks’s or Bojan’s) caliber, possibly at other positions, and have a number of options to eat 5-10 minutes in a pinch. Instead, Burks, and maybe Milton, are our only options. One has been terrible, the other hasn’t played, and neither of them are forwards.

This is why you make your draft picks, this is why you don’t give away solid young players like Obi, Grimes, and even Flynn for nothing, and this is why you value and utilize the end of the bench in the regular season. That way when you have to go 10-11-12 deep in the playoffs you are not forced to either play your rotation 45 minutes a game or play players with zero experience.

“One veteran assistant coach, underscoring the ball-dominance issue, said you can almost sense a “sigh of relief” among Doncic’s teammates when he checks out of a game, “because it opens up a little more freedom” for others to make plays. “It’s a sense of, ‘Hey, now we get to play,’” the coach said. “It’s difficult to have any rhythm if you’re not touching the ball.” And when Doncic is off the floor, it’s a chance for those teammates to show “we don’t have to depend on him,”” reported Howard Beck of The Ringer.

That ‘woosh’ you just heard was a RPG zipping by Luka’s ear…..

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/mavericks-coach-says-players-don-t-want-to-play-with-luka-doncic/ar-BB1m7jRS?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=ada5de85757240eaa57dc80c1a05c9bf&ei=7

I feel like we’re linked so if they’re up 3-0 we will be, too

plus – i have gummies and chocolate too 🙂