[Cactus Jack]

Thanks for the clarification CJ

I haven't followed the NBA in a few days, since the Knicks and Pacers last game. I had no clue anything like this had taken place lol

The Knicks' starting five played the most minutes of any combination of players in the league this season-- they played 940 total minutes in 48 different games. To put it in perspective, the 2nd place team played 741 total minutes (Minnesota in 55 games) and the 3rd place team played 491 (Detroit in 39 games).

During the playoffs, the Knicks starters played 335 minutes. Denver was 2nd in total minutes with 282 (in 14 games instead of the Knicks' 18). New York also had a lineup (starters with Robinson instead of Hart) that was 12th in total minutes, another lineup of the starters without Towns that was 16th overall, and another lineup in the top 25. Coming into tonight, OKC's starters played 174 total minutes in 16 games.


Injuries, trades, and line-up changes will create some statistical anomalies in total minutes numbers. Some good teams play their starters lots of minutes too-- Denver did & Indiana had two line-ups that were in the top 8 overall with four of the same players in both who combined for a total of 818 minutes.

Year after year though, Thibodeau is usually one of the worst offenders. He's just more of an old school coach who doesn't have a deep rotation and preaches defense. He coached Derrick Rose for five seasons in Chicago, and if you couldn't guess where I'm I'm going with that one, know that folks in the Windy City feel a certain way about him tearing his ACL when they were up 12 late in a playoff game. After that, he had a three year stop in Minnesota and clashed pretty hard with Jimmy Butler.

New York traded 5 first round picks (unprotected in '25, '27, '29, and '31; a separate top 4 protected in '25 & a pick swap in '28) as part of the package to get Mikal Bridges this offseason. You can look up the media reports about Bridges questioning the minutes load during March, but if everything else hadn't settled it, seeing Towns banged up late and losing to Indiana in the conference finals pretty much sealed his fate.

If you are a baseball fan, look at it as how Cubs fans feel about Dusty Baker's managing his pitchers. If you aren't a baseball fan, think of it as someone buying a Ferrari but not regularly changing the oil.