The Knicks finished the season winning 12 of their final 19 games, and they had the fifth-best net rating in the NBA during that span.
If you go back to the start of the second half of the season (Feb. 25), New York ranked 12th in net rating (+3.4).
In the first half of the season, the Knicks ranked 21st in net rating (-2.0). They went 25-34 in that span.
There are hundreds of factors behind the results. Some are publicly known. Others are not.
One factor that’s publicly available? Playing time.
In the second half of the season, Obi Toppin averaged 23 minutes per game. (His minutes increased to 38 per game in the final five games of the season as Julius Randle sat with a quad injury). Toppin averaged 15 minutes per game in the first half of the season.
Immanuel Quickley averaged 21 minutes per game in the first half of the year and 27.5 minutes per game after the All-Star break.
Would the Knicks have finished with a better record if players like Toppin and Quickley played more often earlier in the year? That’s impossible to know.
Should the Knicks have prioritized playing younger players over veterans once they were out of playoff contention? That depends on your point of view on player development.
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau was asked on Sunday if the Knicks’ success late in the season led him to wonder what might have happened if the young players played a bigger role earlier in the year.
“It’s hard to say. What you factor in right from the start, early on, the commitment from the summer (of the young players), then the fall,” Thibodeau said. “You saw how competitive they were. The three things you look at the most is the talent/skill, but the toughness and basketball IQ and the competitiveness.
“Those types of young guys always improve and get better. The whole challenge is make sure they’re ready when opportunity comes. It’s a long season. People think it’s cliché but it’s not. Over the course of the season, everyone will get an opportunity. And so when you get the opportunity you got to step in there and get the job done.”
Did Toppin show enough during the late season stretch to earn an increased role next season?
Based on Thibodeau’s answer to that question, it seems as if he did.
“When a player goes in and plays well, he’s gonna play more. It’s really that simple,” Thibodeau said Sunday night. “And you don’t know when the opportunity comes. The challenge for us as coaches is we have to make sure when the opportunity comes that those players are ready. So we put a lot of extra time in with those guys.
“Last year, I had no idea Quickley was gonna play. Quickley earned that. He went in, he played well, he played more. Obi played well in stretches. He was playing behind Julius. And he made a major step this year and the better he plays, the more he’s gonna play. But he’s earned his way. If you put the work in, when your opportunity comes, you’ll take advantage of it, and he has. We’re all proud of him.”
If Toppin plays more minutes next season, the Knicks will either play Toppin and Randle more often, play Randle less often, or move Randle.
At the end of the season, both Thibodeau and team president Leon Rose talked about Randle’s prodigious talent.
“He didn’t shoot the three as well as he did a year ago, but he’s still (averaging) 20 (points), 10 (rebounds) and five (assists). That’s talent. That’s a lot of talent.
“And I think we had our ups and downs this year and when you’re that type of player, he’s gonna get criticism. I’m gonna get criticism. That goes with the turf here. So, you deal with it; come back; use it as motivation. I know one thing: Julius will be in the gym all summer.”
Thibodeau added that Randle played his best when the Knicks were playing fast.
“There was a lot of moving parts to the season. We had new players, it was hard to develop chemistry right off the bat. But Julius is at his best when he’s running the floor, playing fast or attacking the rim,” Thibodeau said Sunday. “When he did that, he had a number of big games doing that. And I think he’d be the first to tell you that. When he does that and we spray the ball and it moves fast, we’re good. I’m hopeful that we’ve learned, like I said, from the All-Star break on, I think we’ve played really good basketball and I think the numbers have (borne) that out.”
To the outside observer, Randle seemed to move slower on some possessions over the course of the season – on both ends of the court. It led to external criticism about Randle’s overall effort.
Thibodeau was asked on Sunday if he thought there were times during the season that Randle wasn’t giving 100 percent effort.
“The thing is, oftentimes what you guys see is the tip of the iceberg,” Thibodeau said. “We might be in a stretch where, the second half of the season, our schedule was tough, I’ve never seen a schedule like we had. Travel and everything else.
“A guy's not gonna not try. If it looks that way, it’s probably he’s fatigued or something’s ailing him. For the most part, look, I can’t complain about the effort of our players. I’m in there every day with him in practice and I see how they practice, I see how they prepare. Now sometimes we fall short; but I see the commitment that’s made by everyone.”
