Tom Thibodeau lacking answers as superstars Knicks missed on still haunt them
Knicks fans were booing their basketball team on an embarrassing NFL Sunday at the Garden, where a rebuilding opponent with a losing record scored 145 points. Spell it out — one hundred and forty-five points — against a franchise that was once defined by blood-and-guts defense, and against a Bill Belichick disciple who made his name on the more violent side of the ball.
Tom Thibodeau, the Belichick guy, couldn’t come up with anything to slow down the wondrous Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the less-wondrous Oklahoma City Thunder, and he needs to take the hit for that. His Knicks didn’t play hard against a Brooklyn team in complete chaos on Wednesday, and they didn’t play hard in a home game they really needed to win four days later. Friday’s victory over Detroit sure doesn’t ease the pain, not with the upcoming five-game trip out west threatening to flip this season upside down.
But as much as Thibodeau and team president Leon Rose have to answer for the 6-7 results and the roster that produced them, it should be noted that the seeds of most Knicks meltdowns are sown in the mistakes of prior regimes. This mid-November Sunday in 2022 actually started going south on the night of June 21, 2018, when the Knicks had a choice of young Kentucky wings to take with the ninth pick of the draft, and chose Kevin Knox instead of Gilgeous-Alexander.
Knicks president Steve Mills praised Knox’s desire to be great and called him “perfect for today’s NBA.” That same player has started all of four games in his last three-plus seasons, and is now busy averaging 1.8 points per game off Detroit’s bench.
Meanwhile, shortly after Thunder coach Mark Daigneault went on and on Sunday about Gilgeous-Alexander’s desire to be great, SGA honored that assessment by blitzing the Knicks for 37 points and eight assists in a 145-135 victory that advanced his burgeoning superstardom. The great ones always show up in the Garden, from Jordan to Kobe to LeBron, even if they never sign up to play in the Garden 41 nights a year.
With Donovan Mitchell off the board, the 24-year-old Gilgeous-Alexander is advertised as the next potential target for a star-starved Knicks franchise to chase with its truckload of first-round picks. Good luck with that. At 6-foot-6, with nearly a 7-foot wingspan, SGA has new-school skills and old-school values. He’s a thinking man’s player in the first year of a five-year deal who averages 31 points a pop, and the Thunder would be positively nuts to trade him.
His virtuoso performance inspired the sellout Garden crowd to wish, on cue, that the home team suited up somebody just like him. The Knicks’ willingness to allow a sub-.500 opponent to shoot 62.5 percent from the field and to sink 17 of 31 3-pointers inspired the fans to start booing late in the third quarter, before another SGA surge left the building quieter than a morgue at midnight.
Somehow, some way, the Knicks kicked away this game after setting a franchise record with 48 points in the first quarter.
“But our defense was the problem,” Thibodeau said. “We have to fix that. It’s hard to win if we don’t make a better effort to defend. … If we’re relying on trying to outscore people, that’s not going to work. Our margin for error is small.”
The Knicks’ margin for error is small because they don’t have a legitimate franchise player who can bail them out. They have to win on effort and execution, because they cannot win on talent. And if the Knicks make a habit out of playing soft against the likes of the Thunder, they’re going to force their coach to do desperate things.
Like benching Jalen Brunson, the big free-agent signing, for the final 16 minutes and change. Like benching RJ Barrett, the supposed franchise face, for the final 22 minutes.
“We just got behind by so much,” Thibodeau said, “that we were just looking for life.”
Again, for the second time in three games against losing teams, the Knicks showed no signs of life. Now it’s on to Utah, Denver, Golden State, Phoenix and Oklahoma City. Evan Fournier called Utah-Denver “probably the toughest back-to-back in the league.”
This Knicks season could spiral out of control quickly, before they see the Garden floor again after Thanksgiving. A 1-4 trip, with a few blowouts tossed in for good measure, could create a feeling of unease around Thibodeau, who couldn’t connect with last season’s group either. Thibs can’t afford a second straight off-year after his magical work in Year 1.
Then again, what Gilgeous-Alexander just did is exactly why Thibodeau badly wanted Rose to complete the summertime trade for Mitchell, who, in keeping with today’s theme, was bypassed in the 2017 draft by Knicks president Phil Jackson in favor of current Mavericks backup Frank Ntilikina.
Different times, different circumstances and different people making different decisions. But always the same results. The Knicks watched yet another great player wreck their house party Sunday, and the season already feels like it is teetering on the brink.