{"id":131732,"date":"2020-12-12T09:00:02","date_gmt":"2020-12-12T06:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/tom-thibodeau-already-looks-like-a-big-knicks-upgrade\/"},"modified":"2020-12-12T09:00:02","modified_gmt":"2020-12-12T06:00:02","slug":"tom-thibodeau-already-looks-like-a-big-knicks-upgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/tom-thibodeau-already-looks-like-a-big-knicks-upgrade\/","title":{"rendered":"#Tom Thibodeau already looks like a big Knicks upgrade"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Tom Thibodeau already looks like a big Knicks upgrade<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Tom Thibodeau was back on the sidelines for the first time in nearly two years \u2014 even if it was preseason and against one of the league\u2019s dregs, the Pistons.<\/p>\n

But it didn\u2019t feel the same to Thibodeau at an empty Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s like riding a bike,\u2019\u2019 Thibodeau said after his Knicks held off a late Pistons charge to win their preseason opener 90-84. \u201cYou\u2019re in an NBA arena with no fans. It was strange, but it was great. Just to be out there in a game<\/a> situation was great, but I think it also is a reminder like of how serious the COVID thing is when you\u2019re looking out and you don\u2019t see any fans.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

All the safety protocols didn\u2019t stop Thibodeau from removing his mask once so his rant at a referee could be heard more clearly.<\/p>\n

Thibodeau will soon get used to lack of crowds as the Knicks continue a four-game preseason schedule with another tilt in Detroit on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Perhaps we will learn more then about these Knicks, who have been discarded as starless afterthoughts in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

Yet on Friday, the Knicks showed how much coaching can really matter. They played a spirited brand of defense that hasn\u2019t been seen from the Knicks since \u2026 well, since Thibodeau was an assistant coach with Jeff Van Gundy in the late 1990s.<\/p>\n

The opponent was only the woebegone Pistons, but it was a refreshing change watching the Knicks rebound well, guard the 3-point line and disrupt passes on the way to forcing 22 turnovers.<\/p>\n

\"Knicks\"
Tom Thibodeau<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yes, the biggest upgrade to the franchise this offseason, after a quiet free agency, is probably the coach.<\/p>\n

There still were bright signs, even if Thibodeau kept his rotation to just nine men with rookie guard Immanuel Quickley, the Knicks\u2019 other first-round pick, surprisingly not even getting off the pine.<\/p>\n

Rookie lottery pick Obi Toppin, the Knicks\u2019 second-most important addition, put forth a solid first half with nine of his 11 points, scoring in all ways, including a transition dunk that showed his conditioning, grace and speed.<\/p>\n

Toppin, coming off the bench, seemed comfortable, even if he forced some passes in the second half, when the Pistons, who passed him up in the draft, put more focus on shutting him down.<\/p>\n

A great sign was fellow power forward Julius Randle taking Toppin under his wing and lecturing him on two occasions, once after he bought a pump fake from Blake Griffin at the 3-point line. They play the same position and they didn\u2019t share the floor once.<\/p>\n

\u201cJules, he told me as soon as I came to the timeout he was like, \u2018That\u2019s what he does every time,\u2019 \u2019\u2019 Toppin said. \u201cI knew for the next time I was guarding him not to jump on that pump fake.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

As for the other young guns, 2018 lottery pick, Kevin Knox, also off the bench, wasn\u2019t making his open shots often enough, but he looked good in transition and moving the ball. Knox was 2-for-6 \u2014 0-for-3 from 3-point range.<\/p>\n

In fact, 2019 lottery pick, RJ Barrett and Knox combined to go 0-for-7 from outside the 3-point strip<\/a>e. No, it doesn\u2019t look like Leon Rose has turned these Knicks into a good 3-point shooting team \u2014 they went 4-for-22 in the preseason opener. Dennis Smith Jr. (four turnovers) was still sloppy and Frank Ntilikina was very fine on defense, but not really forcing the issue offensively, per usual.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Thibodeau is surely going to turn to Quickley on Sunday as he\u2019s already being hailed by the coach as one of the NBA\u2019s top marksman.<\/p>\n

With Thibodeau, a strong defensive center tag team of Nerlens Noel and Mitchell Robinson and a couple of late clutch shots from Randle, the Knicks looked like they should at least be competitive \u2014 and not blown out like as many times as they were under David Fizdale and even Mike Miller.<\/p>\n

Even if there are no fans to watch in person.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Tom Thibodeau already looks like a big Knicks upgrade” Tom Thibodeau was back on the sidelines for the first time in nearly two years \u2014 even if it was preseason and against one of the league\u2019s dregs, the Pistons. But it didn\u2019t feel the same to Thibodeau at an empty Little Caesars Arena in Detroit….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/12\/Knicks_Pistons_Basketball.1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[83539,82822,3674,82823,72932,77061,46765],"class_list":["post-131732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-12-12-20","tag-mitchell-robinson","tag-nba","tag-nerlens-noel","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-obi-toppin","tag-tom-thibodeau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}