Mikal Bridges says he asked Tom Thibodeau to give the Knicks starters more rest and give the bench a heavier workload. Thibodeau told reporters that such a conversation never happened.
Regardless of the argument over the existence of the discussion, the topic itself poured an accelerant on a fire that has been burning for years around Madison Square Garden, as fans and analysts have kept the debate going over Thibodeau’s expectations of his starters, how many minutes they play, and whether or not it has an impact on player injuries.
The hours leading up to tipoff on Wednesday night was filled with discourse surrounding Thibodeau’s coaching style, Bridges’ performance as a Knick so far after being acquired for a haul of first-round picks, and whether his alleged comments to the head coach were warranted.
That discourse was silenced by the biggest moment of Bridges’ Knicks career, a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer to give New York a thrilling overtime victory over Portland.
The buzz surrounding the Bridges/Thibodeau disagreement didn’t seem to affect Bridges at all, as he erupted for 15 points in the first half before leading the offense down the stretch and eventually sinking a quick triple to win the game, inbounding the ball to Josh Hart before taking it right back and drilling a quick shot from the top of the key after the Trail Blazers had just taken the lead and seemingly buried the Knicks.
Bridges, logging 41 minutes in the overtime effort after his comments about the starters’ workload, seemed to respond to his own apparent message to Thibodeau. Despite telling reporters that he asked his head coach to give him more of a rest, the NBA’s Iron Man logged over 40 minutes for the third time in the last four games and didn’t shy away from contact, a criticism he has heard in his debut season with the Knicks. Bridges took six free throws for the second time in the last three games, a number he hadn’t reached since Dec. 27 against the Magic.
The effort showed that, while his comments regarding the starters’ workload were centered around more rest, Bridges is fine doing what Thibodeau asks of him, and much of the drama surrounding Wednesday’s pregame revelations are mainly overblown.
Bridges notoriously plays every game and averages 37.8 minutes per game, so if anyone had the credentials to approach Thibodeau about putting more faith in the team’s bench, it was Bridges. This message was coming from a player who has a proven track record of logging a heavy workload, so his apparent comments to Thibodeau were likely more of a request to give the bench players more of a look and keep the starters fresh, which is a fair argument given the discrepancy in minutes for the Knicks starters compared to the likes of the Celtics, Cavaliers, and Thunder.
Thibodeau emphatically defended the workload he puts on his players, and whether he changes things up remains to be seen. But the one way to quiet the debate around the topic is to win, and in that regard, there was no better candidate to seal a big victory than Bridges himself.