Mikal Bridges wants Tom Thibodeau to consider playing Knicks’ starters fewer minutes

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The Tom Thibodeau Minutes Police has a new deputy: Mikal Bridges.

The Knicks’ Iron Man and owner of the NBA’s longest consecutive games streak said he asked the head coach to consider cutting back on the starters’ minutes, arguing the bench players deserve more time on the floor.

“Sometimes it’s not fun on the body,” Bridges said on Wednesday, via The New York Post’s Stefan Bondy.

“You’ll want that as a coach but also talked to him a little bit knowing that we’ve got a good enough team where our bench guys can come in and we don’t need to play 48, 47 [minutes],” he continued. “We’ve got a lot of good guys on this team that can take away minutes. Which helps the defense, helps the offense, helps tired bodies being out there and giving up all these points. It helps just keeping fresh bodies out there.”

Bridges, who has appeared in 538 straight games since he entered the league in 2018, is playing a career-high 37.8 minutes per night in his debut season with the Knicks after coming over in a trade this offseason that saw five draft picks head across the East River to the Nets.

On the season, the Knicks have three players in the Top 10 in the NBA in total minutes with Jalen Brunson (2,162; 10th) and Josh Hart (2,307; 2nd) behind Bridges (2,420; 1st). And when going by minutes per game, Hart matches Bridges for the top spot in the NBA in that category with OG Anunoby (18th most minutes overall) coming in sixth most at 36.6 per night. Brunson is the fourth New York starter in the Top 20 of that category at 35.4 minutes per game.

Before Wednesday’s game in Portland, the head coach said a conversation with Bridges did not take place and defended his minutes distribution.

“We never had a conversation about it,” Thibodeau said, via The Athletic’s James L. Edwards. “The facts are the facts. Jalen is 20th or 21st in average minutes. [Karl-Anthony Towns] is below that. Your wings play more. They’re matched up against primary players.”

Thibs continued that since wings like Bridges and Hart are matched up against the other team’s wings, often a team’s best players in the modern NBA, they will be called upon to play in the…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/mikal-bridges-asks-tom-thibodeau-233000521.html

Author : SNY

Publish date : 2025-03-12 23:30:00

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