Knicks Rumors: Mikal Bridges, Tom Thibodeau Had Productive Meeting After SF's Remarks

New York Knicks forward Mikal Bridges told reporters this week that he's asked head coach Tom Thibodeau to consider reducing the minutes played for the team's starters.

The pair have reportedly since discussed the situation. According to SNY's John Flanigan and Ian Begley, "Thibodeau asked to meet with Bridges before Wednesday's overtime win against the Portland Trail Blazers, looking to clear the air over the small forward's comments regarding starters' minutes, sources familiar with the situation told Begley. Sources described the meeting as 'productive.'"

Thibodeau is known for playing his starters more minutes than most head coaches in the regular season, a practice that critics of the approach believe ultimately wears his teams down later in the season and playoffs.

Bridges appeared to be backing up that criticism with his public comments this week.

"Sometimes it's not fun on the body," he told reporters. "But you want that as a coach, and 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 [minutes], 47. 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." 

The irony of the situation is that Bridges played 41 minutes in Wednesday's 114-113 overtime win over the Blazers, hitting the game-winning three.

This season, Bridges is averaging 37.8 minutes per game, while Josh Hart (37.9 MPG), OG Anunoby (36.7 MPG), Jalen Brunson (35.4 MPG) and Karl-Anthony Towns (35.1 MPG) are all in the same ballpark. Hart and Bridges are the top two players in minutes averaged per game across the entire NBA, while Anunoby ranks sixth.

Contrast them to the Boston Celtics starting five of Jayson Tatum (36.6 MPG), Jaylen Brown (35.4 MPG), Derrick White (33.8 MPG), Jrue Holiday (30.3 MPG) and Kristaps Porziņģis (28.9 MPG). Only Tatum cracks the NBA's top 10 in average minutes, at seventh.

A few minutes more or less per game may not seem like much, but playing two additional minutes per contest over the course of an 82-game season is 164 more minutes, or the equivalent of playing about 3.5 additional games. It adds up.

That is the argument Bridges is making, alongside the fact that the Knicks have solid role players on the bench who can be trusted to handle a larger workload.

"I think he's not arguing about it," Bridges said of Thibodeau falling into the pattern of playing starters huge minutes. "Sometimes I think he just gets in his ways and he gets locked in. He just wants to keep the guy out there. Sometimes you've got to tell him, like, Landry [Shamet], for example, or somebody, keep him out there, they're playing well."