Clean Bill of Health?

We got a mixed bag of injury updates. Plus, Kris Pursiainen sits us on the therapist's couch for a piece about Tom Thibodeau.

Good morning! The Knicks are back tonight with a home date against the Bulls. Tip off is at 7:30 pm. No halftime zoom tonight or tomorrow, but I’ll be back on Sunday. For Chicago, Patrick Williams is out. As for the Knicks…

News & Notes

🏀 Nothing like some good injury news on the last day of the All-Star break, right!

That sounds totally and unambiguously positive. What could possibly go wrong?

Well then.

Let’s take this one at a time, starting with the man who has missed just two games in his Knicks’ tenure, one of which was for personal reasons. Josh Hart is not the sort to sit out games, so for him to be missing one with Patellofemoral Syndrome (runner’s knee) isn’t a great sign. My naive hope is that New York is being cautious on the first night of back to back with another big game coming up shortly thereafter, but that’s never been their style. We’ll know if it could be a lingering issue if he misses the Cleveland game tomorrow, but this internet diagnosis is encouraging:

If nothing else, Hart’s underwhelming on/off numbers will be put to the test tonight.

For OG, if he misses this game after an additional week off, my concern level surrounding his recent injury would only rise from a 2/10 to a 4/10 simply because he was a full participant in practice. Still, another missed game would be less than ideal.

I’m least concerned by Mitch even though he’s listed as out. He’s been away from live game action for a long time, so I imagine there’s an additional conditioning step required for him that may not be there for Anunoby.

Assuming OG plays, it’ll be interesting to see whether Thibs sticks with Precious and goes with a jumbo starting five or whether Deuce gets the nod. If OG is out, the question becomes whether we see an ninth man off the bench after Cam Payne, Landry Shamet and Ariel Hukporti. Notably, Pacome Dadiet remains out as well, so Tyler Kolek or Delon Wright would be the one to get the call.

(If you’re thinking that Hart’s absence is a bit of gamesmanship against a bad team to see how Wright looks as a member of the rotation, more power to you.)

🏀 There was an errant report that the Knicks signed the recently released Chris Duarte. The Knicks cannot legally sign anyone until March 1 because they cannot go over the second apron. Duarte is a Sam Rose client and has been mentioned in the past as a player of interest in New York. The Knicks have an open roster spot.

Because I Said So

by Kris Pursiainen

Most have experienced the sting of a heated argument or the joy from a proud moment with those who guided them through their youth. Some have experienced both sides of the complicated dynamic between children and their parental figures.

As an only child, I’ve fought countless battles against my parents. Whether the crux of an argument was me wanting a longer leash and more freedom, feeling like I deserved those things, or built-up frustration from a perceived lack of trust, they were all emotional. As someone diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as a 20-month-old, it’s hard to say my parents’ trepidation was not justified. It is impossible to say it was ill-intentioned.

This train of thought was evoked not just by several years of therapy, but also by a desire to understand why fans discuss their favorite teams’ head coaches in such a polarized and emotional manner. Part of it is surely the beauty of sports and the storytelling around them. But another part of it is the indelible impression that our foundational relationships with our parental figures leave on our future relationships.

Whether those other relationships are romantic, professional, or parasocial (and hopefully, not an amalgamation of any of those) is irrelevant. Our life and what we have experienced throughout it will be felt by the other person in any relationship, whether they’re privy to the source of those emotions or not.

As I matured (we’ll use that term loosely – thanks), I found the hesitation from my parents to give my proverbial leash some slack to be more systematic than based in reason. I knew I had not shown my parents that I could have a sleepover with my buddies and responsibly attend to my blood sugar. But I also knew that I had never been given a chance.

As a coach, you won’t find a more stubborn parent than Tom Thibodeau. He is quite set in his ways. But his teams are disciplined. And when he takes the time to learn and adjust, he is one of the more adaptable coaches I’ve covered in any sport.

Thibodeau understands the NBA landscape and runs out a group every night with the league’s second-highest offensive rating and 18th-best defensive rating. Sure, part of that is due to his personnel. But fans who fairly lament Thibodeau’s role in Immanuel Quickley being traded have to know that the team did not strip Thibodeau of his influence on the roster from then on. His public praises of Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns were loud co-signs on a potential reunion.

My therapist taught me early on in our sessions that if I’m expecting my parents to change how they process information and react to it after 60+ years of doing it their way, I’m a fool. I’ve written, for this very publication, about the extent to which Immanuel Quickley challenged Thibodeau’s philosophies with his mere existence on the shot caller’s roster. It took time for the coach to adjust. It took time for Quickley to round out his game to an extent that invited more of Thibodeau’s trust.

Knick fans likely watch their coach more than any other. That includes everything about that coach they can access, whether it’s his good grades at the end of the semester or just how messy his room can get throughout it.

I lived with both of my parents every single day of my childhood. I strongly believed my friends’ parents were significantly cooler. They allowed their admittedly non-diabetic children to have more freedom than I was given.

I’ve learned over time that my perception of many of my friends’ parents was similar to using only someone’s Instagram feed to determine who they are. They work hard to present a version of themselves that you’ll like (no pun intended.)

As time passed, I was eventually permitted to stay over at friends’ houses. I realized that their parents also yelled at them for things that didn’t seem worthy of a big reaction. My friends also had chores that I had determined were the execution of a conspiracy between my parents to cruelly and unusually torture me.

Every fanbase in sports, not just in the NBA, has issues with their head coach that are based in empirical evidence. But how often do fans stop themselves and ask if their levels of frustration with their head coach are proportional to how much more they watch their team than any other?

It’s important to note that fans’ eyes are not lying to them. They are indeed noticing quirks within Thibodeau’s routine, rotations, and reasoning that can be fairly presented as flaws.

Thibodeau’s style of coaching, and bits with media members such as the infamous “Minutes Police” being out to get him, are lovable. But so is your older cousin that gives you aggressive Dutch-rubs every Thanksgiving, even though he’s 34 years old and his employment status is still unknown.

The point is: whether the reactions to these quirks in a vacuum are reasonable or not is irrelevant. They are a mosiac of emotions all founded in passion.

This dynamic and its complex emotional layers make discourse about responsibility and freedom between parents and their children more likely to result in a dog and pony show than a peaceful resolution. And, apparently, render peaceful discourse nearly impossible between the highly-polarized sides of Thibodeau-centric debates.

Parents will tell their children things like, “you always prove that I was right to worry about you,” and expect them to understand the lack of trust. Children of any age volley claims such as, “you never care to hear my side of the story,” right back with precision.

The catch is that one day, the child will grow up and be accused of the same crime by their children. And when the third generation child expresses their frustrations, we can assume what some of the lines they’ll hear in response will be.

Thibodeau’s utilization of Precious Achiuwa and Deuce McBride has caused great distress amongst Knick fans. Fans have noticed the impact that Karl-Anthony Towns’ shooting has had on players like Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart. And they’re curious as to why McBride doesn’t get the nod over Achiuwa when a starter is hurt.

Would fans who can’t stand Thibodeau’s reliance on a traditional rim-protector understand where the coach is coming from if they lost a job because of defensive disorganization?

Would Thibodeau better understand why fans seem almost blindly insistent on having more shooting on the floor if he just gave it a chance, or two, after the bigger lineup helped lead to a home-court shellacking by the Celtics?

Could the Knicks have won Game 3 against the Indiana Pacers if they didn’t play Achiuwa at power forward alongside Isaiah Hartenstein or Jericho Sims as much as they did?

Would they have advanced to the second round without Achiuwa’s voracious defense on Joel Embiid?

There is no factual answer to these questions. But Knick fans were left pondering them for an entire offseason. They sat with the knowledge that the man with the power to enact the change they want to see didn’t see a need for any of it. With as much of the NBA’s star equity as the Knicks have, fans are simply desperate to know that their team has the best chance to win.

When a parent tells you that you aren’t yet ready to do something, whether because of a lack of age, experience, or maturity, a child’s inclination is immediately to prove them wrong. Some fans defend Thibodeau’s decisions because they feel it’s the right one. Some defend them out of deference to Thibodeau. Some challenge them as a form of resistance to his stubbornness. Some present evidence and data that subverts the assumptions integral to Thibodeau’s philosophies.

Would those fans be so confident that the starters need to come out earlier in games if they had been in the building for Tracy McGrady’s 13-point, 35-second miracle? Would Thibodeau have what his own players jokingly describe as “trauma” if he wasn’t coaching the Rockets that day? Thibodeau made his stance clear early in the 2023-24 season.

“I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen 13 points in 35 seconds,” Thibodeau told Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. “So people will say, ‘He needs to get the starters out of there.’ Yeah? Well I know what experience tells me.”

That sounds a ton like my mother defying reason and logic because of her own anecdotal experience. I have learned to give these battles up and “yes, mom” my way through them.

Thibodeau is going to continue to treat the outcry over playing time like it’s coming from people who are not doctors and do not have access to information such as medical records or the extent to which the players are physically taxed on practice days. Fans will continue to complain, maybe not even over the minutes themselves, about the stubbornness with which the issue is publicly approached.

I asked Thibodeau after a loss to the Bucks if, at any point throughout the game, he considered changing his defensive coverage that was consistently leaving Joe Ingles open. Ingles made five three-pointers at The Garden that day. Thibodeau’s answer was a firm “no.” That same stubbornness is what led to Thibodeau ignoring Isaac Okoro as a shooter in the playoff series against the Cavaliers. No matter how many threes Okoro hit in the first half of a game, Thibodeau bet that it’d level out by the second. And he was right.

There is no way for Knick fans and Tom Thibodeau to sit in a circle and pass around a basketball that enables its holder to share. Sometimes, for the sake of my own sanity, I tell my mom she’s right and go on believing what I already did.

Knick fans don’t have to accept every decision of Thibodeau’s just because he has helped guide the franchise to its best years in my lifetime. But they can find some solace, even if only momentarily, in being the first to extend some trust.

Maybe, one day, the favor will be returned.

Kris Pursiainen covers the NBA for Clutch Points, is a host and board operator for WFAN and an archives logger for CBS Sports. He covered the Knicks while at Fordham University, where he also did play by play for women’s basketball. Most importantly, he has shepherded Knicks Film School’s draft coverage for years.

🏀

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”