2021-22 Knicks Season Preview: Tom Thibodeau
After a Coach of the Year campaign in 2020-21, Tom Thibodeau is back for his second season as Knicks head coach after effectively restoring the team’s culture and guiding them to a No. 4 seed in the East a year ago. With an improved roster, higher expectations, and injury-prone players to manage, can Thibs rise to the occasion and take the team even higher?
The New York Knicks came into last season with expectations at an all-time low and not much to look forward to. Another season’s hopes were yet again tied to the randomness of bouncing ping pong balls and relying on the development of underwhelming lottery picks to change the course of what was an unequivocally dysfunctional franchise.
Tom Thibodeau was brought in to win games of course, but more importantly to help set a culture and shift the narrative that had been inundating the franchise. Thibodeau brought stability to an organization that has had very little, if any, of it since the turn of the century. He’s been almost exactly advertised to this point: plays his guys a ton of minutes, deploys elite defensive principles, and can be a bit reluctant to experiment.
The results are hard to argue with, though. Thibodeau walked away as a Coach of the Year Award winner after the Knicks had their most successful season in almost a decade, exceeding any reasonable person’s expectation by nabbing home-court advantage in the playoffs with a limited roster.
Thibodeau now enters his second year at the helm with more talent and an established identity. So what can we expect?
Defensive principles
Much is made of Thibodeau as a defensive coach, but what exactly does that mean? How did he construct a top defense in the NBA last season? Well, here are some of the basics of his defensive system.
Drop defense
The Knicks almost exclusively deployed a drop defense in pick-and-roll coverage last season, and with the same big men returning, we can expect the same. The advantage of a drop defense is that it keeps the big in a good position to protect the rim near the basket. It forces opposing ball handlers to live off pull-up jumpers and floaters as the Knicks’ guards would fight over the screen and funnel the ball handler towards the paint. Here’s an example of Nerlens Noel playing it perfectly in last year’s playoffs.
Help at the nail
The Knicks would shrink the court by forcing ballhandlers driving towards the paint to see multiple defenders. It forces turnovers and can help cover for poor perimeter defense. It also provides an extra layer of help and keeps off-ball defenders engaged, leading to fewer lapses off the ball. Here’s Bullock helping at the “nail” — a colloquial basketball term for the area around the free throw line, a key decision-making part of the court on defense — nearly forcing a turnover but blowing up a defensive possession.
Switching on the perimeter
This one isn’t as set in stone as the previous two, but depending on the matchup, Thibs felt comfortable switching 1-4. With Kemba and Fournier in the fold now, it’ll be interesting to see if he will be more strict in keeping more favorable matchups. The advantage of switching on the perimeter is that it can disrupt the flow of an offense and can bait the offense into playing isolation basketball, as shown here.
Offensive principles
Thibodeau has never been regarded as an elite offensive coach, but he is known for riding his stars on that end. Here’s what a Thibodeau offense may look like this year.
Randle as the engine
Julius Randle was tasked with creating looks with a packed paint, little shooting around him, and defenses tailor made to stop him last season. With the improved roster this season, it’ll be very intriguing to see just how he adjusts. The Knicks relied upon a lot of Randle isolations, but this roster is much better equipped to take that load off his shoulders. Randle will still be the focus of the offense, but he will be in a dramatically better basketball situation.
Generating corner threes
The Knicks were seventh in corner threes attempted last season and third in 3-point percentage from the same location. It was a point of emphasis to not only generate 3-point looks, but to generate good 3-point looks. There is no better 3-point shot than the corner three, as it’s the most efficient shot in the sport other than a dunk/layup. With more offensive weapons at his disposal, we should expect Thibodeau to continue to try to generate corner threes.
Slowing the game down
The Knicks were dead last in pace last season. They played a slow and oftentimes ugly brand of basketball, but it was calculated. The advantage to playing slow is that it limits the number of possessions in a game and teams are forced to play in the half court, which was especially beneficial considering the Knicks were the fourth-best team in defensive rating. The Knicks have more weapons offensively, making them much more equipped to play faster… but how much faster, is the question? Guys like RJ Barrett and Obi Toppin would benefit from easy buckets in transition.
Spain pick-and-rolls
The Spain pick-and-roll is a play that is essentially a pick-and-roll that incorporates a third offensive player. The third offensive player will screen the big man’s defender as he’s rolling and then pop out to the top of the key. It was a play Thibodeau frequently went to, especially out of timeouts last year. The Knicks have also run it a ton during the preseason. Here’s a good example from last season:
Rotation, lineups, intangibles
Rotation
Thibodeau will be tasked with coaching the best and deepest Knick roster in a decade. There is pretty clearly a set-in-stone 10-man rotation with Taj Gibson and the rookies ready for spot minutes should anyone get hurt. With the aforementioned depth available to him, will he lesson the minutes load of his main guys like Randle and Barrett? His coaching history suggests that is unlikely. With Kemba and Rose’s injury history, it’s likely he will manage their minutes in an effort to keep them fresh. For the most part, the minute distribution will look something similar to this:
PG: Walker - 27, Rose - 21
SG: Fournier - 29, IQ - 19
SF: Barrett - 34, Burks - 14
PF: Randle - 36, Obi - 12
C: Mitch- 28, Noel - 20
Lineups
Barring injuries, he will have the flexibility of mixing and matching lineups as he sees fit. While Thibodeau has never been known as a coach who experiments much, there are a lot of different ways he could stagger lineups. Will the starting lineup be the closing lineup? Will we see Kemba and Rose play together? Does he decide to try a Toppin/Randle front court? Will RJ get more minutes with the bench unit? There are numerous questions that the Knicks’ newfound depth has created. What Thibodeau decides will be fascinating.
Intangibles
Beyond the Xs and Os, every Thibodeau-coached team plays every game at full throttle, giving maximum effort at all times. That’s simply part of the intangibles he brings as a coach. He’s a demanding coach that by all accounts expects the same amount of effort intensity from all his guys, top to bottom.
For a long time, the head coaching job for the New York Knicks was a merry-go-round with coaches rotating in and out, all carrying aspirations of turning around a floundering marquee franchise, but instead departing after (mostly) unsuccessful tenures. Thibodeau has bucked that trend in just one season, helping to instill a feeling of normalcy and stability that has been largely unfamiliar to the Knick organization.
There are a few different ways the season could go, and they are heavily dependent on injuries. The only guarantee is that we will see Thibodeau call more angry timeouts.
