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The Knicks' Lineup Magic Has Officially Run Out

Tom Thibodeau might be back on the hot seat after the New York Knicks' latest heartbreaking defeat.

Geoff Magliocchetti

One could argue that the nameless monarch from the tale of Humpty Dumpty did more to put the titular character back together again than the New York Knicks did to stop Luka Dončić on Tuesday night ... at least the former reportedly used all his horses and all his men. 

Perhaps the one positive Knicks fans can glean from Dončić's showcase was the fact that it took one of the most unique and dominant triple-doubles (60 points, 21 rebounds, 10 assists) in NBA history ... and also overtime ... for his Dallas Mavericks to fend off a Knicks group missing two of its star attractions. That, however, also hints that the Knicks played well enough to steal a victory from a surging interconference opponent on the road. 

Behind every historic performance is a victim, and the Knicks were forced into the role. The 2022-23 New Yorkers are now footnotes in both Dallas and NBA epics: Dončić's 60-point outing is the best in team history (breaking a Dirk Nowitzki record as the fellow international Maverick watched from a luxury suite) as well as the highest scoring haul in any triple-double (joining fellow Texas basketball rep James Harden).

One could argue that Dončić was aided by the extra period but that was a five-minute stretch that he created: after Dallas sliced the lead to three, Dončić turned an intentionally missed free throw into an equalizer, doing so right in front of injured former teammate Jalen Brunson. 

Lost in the post-Christmas carnage was several Knicks setting their own brands of history. Granted, none of them usurped a name like Nowitzki and most of the records set were those of the personal variety. But with the team trying to end a three-game losing streak and maintain its placement among the Eastern Conference's six automatic playoff teams, it was inspiring to see names like Quentin Grimes (33 points) and Immanuel Quickley (15 assists, the first Knick to have 11 in a single half since Stephon Marbury) rise to the occasion. 

Leave it to the Knicks, however, to serve as basketball's living, breathing case of Murphy's Law. Several New Yorkers set a more polarizing career-best on Tuesday ... the category in question being minutes. 

Quickley played a whole game and then some at 51. Grimes had his best scoring night in 48. Julius Randle (45) has had slightly busier nights but Miles McBride, he of 46 minutes after being called upon to take an injured RJ Barrett's minutes, has not. 

There are working holidays, and then there's what the Knicks' roster had to go through on Tuesday. It's perhaps the most damning effort yet for the Tom Thibodeau era. 

Granted, pointing the finger at Thibodeau feels like a bit of a cop-out after a closer look at the box score: it isn't Thibodeau, after all, who went 7-of-15 from the foul line over the last 10:06 of game time. Thibodeau wasn't the one who left the shooting Dončić uncovered after his fateful freebie. But Thibodeau's quest to find the perfect nine-man rotation ... which seemed to be on a solid pace as little as a week ago, as the Knicks were in the midst of what became an eight-game winning streak ... may prove to be his undoing.

Thibodeau has fully embraced the idea of working with a small lineup this season, fully pledging his faith to the nine. Such a strategy has forced several New York veterans into extreme rollercoaster campaigns: Evan Fournier, the Knicks' starting shooting guard on opening night, hasn't touched hardwood in over a month. He has been succeeded by Grimes, a de facto 12th man while he worked off a preseason ankle injury over the opening stanzas of this campaign. Cam Reddish was a starter shortly after Veterans Day, worked off an injury by Thanksgiving, but hasn't played since the second Advent candle was lit. 

All the while, there have been several lineup staples who have held permanent roles in Thibodeau's favor ... a faith that he may come to regret thanks not to performance but to thanks to exhaustion. It's admirable, for example, that Brunson worked through nagging injuries and several early locker room visits to appear in every game this season, especially in the so-called load management era. But perhaps a night off might've done him, and the Knicks, some good in hindsight. 

On a night when Brunson was in street clothes and Barrett was forced to leave after a mere 96 seconds, Thibodeau's devotion to his current set was particularly glaring. Granted, there are some signs of, for lack of a better term, evolution: it likely comes with Obi Toppin injured, but it's inspiring to see Thibodeau mix-and-match Jericho Sims with Mitchell Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstein. But to watch Thibodeau force an eight-man rotation through both overtime and a historic individual effort was almost uncomfortable. 

Say what you will about Thibodeau, he finds a plan he likes and sticks to it. But the faith was perhaps a bit too strong on Tuesday, more or less fiddling while the Knicks burned on the court at American Airlines Center. 

His devotion to his current crop ... save for Derrick Rose getting temporarily yanked out of exile ... forced the Knicks into lengthy, exhausting stretches. Could a defender like Reddish not at least have gotten in Dončić's way? Could an experienced veteran like Rose (whose 12 minutes was his most since the last meeting with Dallas on Dec. 3 at Madison Square Garden) have given a youngster like McBride (whose previous season-best in minutes was 27 on Dec. 7 against Atlanta) a bit of a rest? 

Alas, the NBA doesn't afford answers to such queries. This is the bed that Thibodeau has more or less made for himself. It has pushed the Knicks into a somewhat desirable spot ... even with Tuesday's collapse, New York (18-17) still holds the No. 6 seed in the premature playoff picture ... but a game like Tuesday suggests that the team will be hard-pressed to keep that position rolling, especially if Brunson's injury is anything lasting. 

When assessing Thibodeau's performance, one must consider the idea that he could very well be under some sort of front office mandate to keep the exiled like Fournier, Reddish, and Rose on the bench so as to keep them safe for a trade. The Knicks haven't hidden their desires to become buyers at the deadline this winter, but such a desirable responsibility comes with the quest of forming distance between themselves and the Play-In Tournament. That separation isn't going to come if they're posting literally historic losses. 

Time will tell if Thibodeau starts to open things up in his lineup a little bit after Dončić almost single-handedly exposed nearly every flaw they have in a post-Brunson world. It's highly unlikely the team will make any in-season coaching changes barring a drastic fall from grace: let's be honest, the team is actually exceeding the commonly accepted expectations of Play-In Tournament glory, where hosting a game amongst the quartet of mediocrity would've been seen as progress for a team that endured a 35-win embarrassment last season.

Thibodeau has confirmed his devotion to the nine-man rotation and hasn't shown any signs of backing away from it. The Knicks' long-suffering, if not loyal, fanbase can only watch and wait to see if it'll becoming his salvation or his final Manhattan stand.  

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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Geoff Magliocchetti
GEOFF MAGLIOCCHETTI

Editor-In-Chief at All Knicks

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