The New York Knicks Head coach Tom Thibodeau would have liked to have the same problem in last season’s Eastern Conference semifinals that he might have in 2024-25. Injuries have ravaged his team, leaving Thibodeau with few players on the bench he could trust in a high-stakes game.
A healthy 2024-25 Knicks team will certainly be a deep team. They could have one of the the best benches In the league, as any Knicks fan knows from last season, health is far from guaranteed. How might Thibodeau distribute minutes for the upcoming season, assuming everyone is available?
This is simply an estimate of how the 240 minutes of play might be split for a full-strength Knicks team. Different matchups might result in different rotations.
How might minutes be distributed for the Knicks in 2024-25?
Starting lineup
Anunoby is a player who has played between 34 and 36 minutes each of the last three seasons. He is also a valuable player (as evidenced by the Knicks’ record with him) in programming (last season) with an injury history. It might be wise, with such a deep team, to see that minutes total go down a bit.
Randle and Brunson both played 35.4 minutes per game last season, so similar playing time could be in store for the two All-Stars. Bridges actually led the league in total minutes in 2021-22 and 2022-23. He has yet to miss a single game in his career, and the 33 minutes projected here isn’t much less than the 34.8 and 35.7 minutes he averaged over those two seasons.
Rotating reserves
Thibodeau has often opted for a nine-man rotation when the team’s health has allowed it. The head coach has always liked to have a traditional center on the court for all 48 minutes. While Achiuwa isn’t necessarily his go-to big man, he’s the backup center, and Thibodeau was comfortable using him in that position last season.
How could that change? If Thibodeau allows Randle to play maybe six minutes per game at the five, that would open up a bit more playing time for Hart and DiVincenzo. Hart (33.4 minutes) and DiVincenzo (29.1 minutes) have played a lot more in 2023-24 than projected here, but that number of minutes would surely increase if a rotation player is forced to miss time.
The next two in line in case of injury
The Knicks actually saw Payne in the playoffs last season. He was a member of the The Philadelphia 76ers and shot 8-18 from three-point range against New York in their season opener. If Robinson gets hurt, which has happened numerous times, Thibodeau could decide to insert Sims into the starting lineup in place of Achiuwa. While he is limited offensively, Sims is a bigger player than Achiuwa. Sims hasn’t been a consistent rotation player over the past two seasons, but he has made 27 starts.
