Tom Thibodeau relying heavily on Knicks’ dynamic starting-five that’s among NBA’s best
NY Post
It should come as no surprise by now that the Knicks lead the NBA in minutes played by their dynamic starting five by a considerable margin.
As some would say, why not?
They clearly now are at or near the top among all regular starting units in the league, with all brought to New York by team president Leon Rose over the past three years.
Some fans understandably view this as a legitimate concern about the team’s underutilized bench depth with more than half the season remaining as the calendar flips to 2025 and teams start to prepare for the playoffs.
Still, the sizzling Knicks and coach Tom Thibodeau see it as an absolute strength that their starters have been alternately sharing the scoring load and playing at high levels of efficiency while synergizing on the court together.
Carrying an eight-game winning streak into Wednesday’s home game against the sinking Jazz, the Knicks finished December with a 12-2 mark — yes, albeit mostly against a soft scheduling patch — to improve to 23-10 overall.
Nothing changes for Jonathan Quick in the wake of Igor Shesterkin going on IR with an upper-body injury sustained in the third period in Florida on Monday, when Sam Bennett crashed into the Rangers franchise goaltender after a hit from Ryan Lindgren.
David Stearns has steadily dropped breadcrumbs to his player procurement strategy.
TORONTO — The Raptors were on the longest losing skid in the NBA.
Mike Vrabel has his eyes set on one job.
TORONTO — D’Angelo Russell has come full circle, traded from the Lakers to the Nets for a second time. But this time not as a hotshot prospect but a mature leader.
In a season already full of catastrophe, the greatest possible misfortune has befallen the Rangers at arguably the worst time.
Knicks and Rangers games on Optimum were set to go dark Wednesday as contract talks between the cable operator and MSG remained at an impasse ahead of a deadline before the ball drops.
The crazy reality created by this uncharacteristically bloated season is that the team seeded No. 5 in the NFC playoffs might just be the second-best team in the NFL.
Saquon Barkley would not be anywhere near approaching the NFL’s rushing record if the Giants re-signed him.
If the Rangers’ past year were to be compared to the typical cliché of a roller coaster, it would be the American phenom Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure.
I decided if I wrote about Rickey Henderson I would not use a statistic. We are assaulted with stats and metrics now, and while baseball is our most numbers-oriented sport, I do sense the analytics revolution has chilled too many fans and reporters from just talking about how certain players made you feel while watching them.