{"id":240727,"date":"2021-05-03T03:48:03","date_gmt":"2021-05-03T00:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/tom-thibodeau-set-the-tone-for-incredible-knicks-miracle\/"},"modified":"2021-05-03T03:48:03","modified_gmt":"2021-05-03T00:48:03","slug":"tom-thibodeau-set-the-tone-for-incredible-knicks-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/tom-thibodeau-set-the-tone-for-incredible-knicks-miracle\/","title":{"rendered":"#Tom Thibodeau set the tone for incredible Knicks miracle"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Tom Thibodeau set the tone for incredible Knicks miracle<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

Five months and a day later, you have to give Tom Thibodeau this:<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t paying anyone lip service.<\/p>\n

In the moment, the opening of Knicks training camp Dec. 1 seemed swaddled in same-old, same-old. The roster had barely been touched despite a whole new administration. Expectations were rock-bottom. Twenty-two wins seemed like a smart play across the 72-game<\/a> season to follow.<\/p>\n

Thibodeau? He came with a wonderful reputation. But he wasn\u2019t going to play any of the 3,456 minutes (plus overtimes) that would occupy the season. How much could he realistically do? Would he join the tank-train?<\/p>\n

He made clear right away: he would not.<\/p>\n

He made clear right away: this was a new way of doing business.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing will be given to anyone,\u201d Thibodeau said on a Zoom interview after the Knicks\u2019 first batch of sanctioned individual workouts Dec. 1. \u201cYou\u2019re going to have to earn your minutes. Those decisions on rotation will be based on performance and what gives the team the best chance of winning.<\/p>\n

\u201cA player is not going to get minutes just to get minutes. You have to impact winning, you have to put the team first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Easy to laud, that, and exactly what Knicks fans wanted to hear and what Knicks players likely wanted to hear. But was it legit? Was it even smart? You can talk about how much tanking has been proven to be a losing prop bet in the NBA. It\u2019s still an option. Still tempting. And from the jump, Thibodeau didn\u2019t want to hear about it at all.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThere\u2019s obviously different roads you can go down,\u201d he said in December. \u201cAnd I think if you study it, how teams are built \u2014 and I went through this in Minnesota \u2014 the draft is critical, free agency is critical, player development is critical and trade opportunities are critical.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when you look back at Philadelphia and what they went through with a lot of losing, they were able to get [Joel] Embiid and [Ben] Simmons. But when they added veterans, that\u2019s when they took off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five months and a day later, Thibodeau was talking in front of another Zoom camera, this time inside Houston\u2019s Toyota Center, maybe 90 minutes before the Knicks would kick off this highly consequential six-game western road trip<\/a> against the Rockets. As he talked, the Knicks were 35-28 and in fourth place in the Eastern playoff seedings.<\/p>\n

They had already clinched a spot in the postseason if not necessarily the playoffs, secure that they will at the very least be a part of the NBA\u2019s new play-in rounds.<\/p>\n