'We'll See!': Tom Thibodeau Hints at Knicks' Plans For Josh Hart
Tom Thibodeau's got a secret ... but everyone knows about it.
The New York Knicks are more than happy to let people know about it: the team is poised to gain Portland Trail Blazers swingman Josh Hart in a trade developed during Wednesday's final hours. Hart himself bid farewell to his Pacific Northwest teammates and took to social media to express his excitement at donning blue-and-orange. Besides, if Hart's not coming to New York, Heaven only help the poor soul that has to inform Jalen Brunson, his overjoyed collegiate teammate.
Alas, the deal hasn't been officially recognized by either side quite yet. That made the Knicks head coach's statements heading into a Friday night showdown against Philadelphia (7 p.m. ET, MSG) a tad awkward, especially considering it was the only move the Knicks made leading into the Thursday afternoon deadline.
"We’ll see,” Thibodeau coyly replied when asked where Hart could fit in, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. “Once the deal is official we’ll take a look at all the possibilities. Then we’ll do what we think is best for the team, what gives us the best chance to win. It won’t change from that standpoint.
"You always look at, here’s the personnel we have, what gives us the best chance to win, what makes the most sense? Then (we'll) continue to ask everyone to make sacrifices because that’s what a winning team does.”
It's easy to see where Hart fits in: though he's lost a bit of his scoring touch (averaging 9.5 points a game) he has maintained a sense of shooting efficiency, currently on pace to tie his career-best field goal percentage at 50.4. New York's reserves have struggled to earn points beyond Immanuel Quickley, ranking 26th in bench scoring entering the weekend.
Thibodeau feels like Hart's skillset makes him an ideal talent to play in the modern Association.
"I think we’ve always put a premium on the rebounding, we always say the defense, the rebounding, and low turnovers put you in a position to win. When you see teams taking 50 threes, and then those long rebounds, they’re important," he said. "They’re critical. How quick are you to the ball? Can you get from the elbow to the corner? All those things that are important.”
This being the Knicks, of course, nothing is so simple.
At first glance, swapping the exiled Cam Reddish and a pair of 12th men (Ryan Arcidiacono, Svi Mykhailiuk) for Hart feels like the definition of addition by subtraction. But the Knicks have primarily worked with a nine-man rotation throughout the season and Thibodeau didn't commit to automatically making it a group of 10.
"We always start internally and then we look externally, and any time we have a chance to improve the team, we have to take a good, hard look at it," Thibodeau said, per Zach Braziller of the New York Post.
The Knicks (30-26) have already played witness to what Hart can offer at Madison Square Garden: the 27-year-old posted a career-best 19 rebounds in Portland's victorious visit to Manhattan on Nov. 25.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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