Drafting four players in the 2024 NBA Draft was integral to the creation of the new-look Knicks. The team had four standout starters plus Josh Hart, Mitchell Robinson, Deuce McBride, and Precious Achiuwa as their complements. In Pacôme Dadiet, Tyler Kolek, Kevin McCullar Jr., and Ariel Hukporti, the Knicks had a solution to their needs for both cost-controlled depth and young talent to develop.
Standing at 44-26 with 12 games to go, New York has to begin preparing for a playoff run. Head coach Tom Thibodeau is the center of an inundant amount of discourse regarding players’ workloads. Despite the strong record, fans and analysts’ criticisms of Thibodeau this year only compare to the 2021-22 season, when it was reported that the coach believed the team would fire him.
This year, the second seed is out of reach for the Knicks; the Boston Celtics are eight games ahead in the standings. The Indiana Pacers are 2.5 games behind New York, who has lost six of its last ten. Complaints about how the front office filled out the roster are futile, as are complaints about who the coach of the team is. The back-to-back losses to the San Antonio Spurs and Charlotte Hornets presented a tough reality.
The situation at hand is two-fold. The Knicks are a talented team currently struggling with their depth. Thibodeau can make a simple change for the rest of the regular season that doesn’t sacrifice New York’s chance to win or players’ bodies.
Dipping into depth could help Knicks’ postseason chances
New York is 2-3 in their last five games. In four of the five, every Knick starter played 30 minutes or more. But the team’s recent win against the Washington Wizards showed how the team could manage the rest of the season without Jalen Brunson.
All five starters played at least 30 minutes, but neither OG Anunoby nor Cameron Payne played more than 31. Kolek played and, despite making just one of his four shots, impacted the game positively. In 18 minutes, he accumulated eight assists without turning the ball over.
Landry Shamet played 15 minutes, a tenable workload for both parties that did not come with a binding commitment to include him in the playoff rotation. Achiuwa had four points, five rebounds, and two assists in his 12 minutes of play – energetic production for an energy big. And both MarJon Beauchamp and Anton Watson got three minutes of burn, combining for four points, two rebounds, a steal, and two fouls in their minutes.
The win came against a tanking team that could have kept it close by not restraining Marcus Smart’s playing time. But the blueprint is there for Thibodeau to continue to involve the depth that is available to him. Playing a short rotation is always a possibility, but to what extent are the benefits of doing so worth it?
The truth is usually in the middle, where Knick fans temporarily abandon dreams of the team’s four rookies moving the needle. And where Thibodeau leans on his depth to eat some innings
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