As Jalen Brunson went down with an ankle injury late in Tuesday's Knicks win over the Grizzlies, discussion about Tom Thibodeau's coaching style came front and center once again.
Many fans take issue with the head coach leaving in his stars late in games that seem to be well in hand, as Julius Randle went down with a separated shoulder as the Knicks led the Heat by 17 with 4:27 to go last month. This time, Brunson checked back into the game with eight minutes to go and New York up by 20, and suffered the injury with just over five minutes to go and the lead cut to 10.
C-Mac doesn't want to hear the arguments against Thibodeau, as he says nobody complains about load management until there is an injury.
"This team has just been hit with the injury bug on an insane level," C-Mac said. "I understand what Thibs is doing. You want to win these games…that game gets to 10, you want to make sure you secure that victory.
"We all hate it, except when someone gets hurt. Then all of a sudden, 'Thibs, You have to have some load management skills here, you gotta get Brunson off the floor, he can't play 45 minutes a day.'"
But the Brunson injury does highlight to C-Mac that New York needs to make a trade and bring in another scorer so that Brunson doesn't need to be on the floor at all times to generate offense.
"They need someone, so if a 27-point lead becomes a 12 or 10-point lead, you don't have to go to Jalen Brunson," C-Mac said. "There has to be a time when you feel comfortable with Brunson off the court. The Knicks have to go out there. It doesn't have to be [Dejounte] Murray. It doesn't have to be a superstar."
