The big change Knicks' Tom Thibodeau made vs. 76ers
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Tuesday’s 2024 Emirates NBA Cup action included a win for the New York Knicks over the Philadelphia 76ers, 111-99. Each New York starter played 34 minutes or more, with Deuce McBride leading players off of the bench with almost 26 minutes. Cameron Payne warmed up for the Knicks with the intention of returning from his strained left hamstring and did just that, playing nine minutes.
But the Knicks’ rotation didn’t stop there on Tuesday night. Head coach Tom Thibodeau continued what he started in New York’s game on Friday, November 8 against the Milwaukee Bucks. By playing Westchester, NY native Matt Ryan for six minutes of the statement win, Thibodeau broke the seal on deploying the team’s depth pieces to help supplant missing minutes from injured rotational players.
Two days later, on Sunday, the Knicks lost a road game to a Pacers team that made 21 of their 46 attempted threes. The Knicks took only 25 3-point shots and made seven. Ryan, a known sharpshooter, totaled zero minutes as a DNP – Coach’s Decision for the night. Thibodeau is known to hate “trading buckets” and, based on his comments to reporters postgame on Tuesday, decided that Indiana’s high-octane offense was too much for Ryan to help slow down, especially given how little experience he had with the team.
"I almost [subbed Ryan in] last game," Thibodeau said of Ryan. "But he just got here and because we had six of seven on the road, there hasn't been a lot of practice time. It's going to take him a little bit of time for him to get up to speed. But he's smart and he'll pick it up quickly.”
Matt Ryan is back home in the Knicks’ time of need
But even with Tuesday night’s game against Philadelphia being the first Cup Night of the 2024-25 NBA season, Thibodeau went back to Ryan. Ryan played almost ten minutes against the 76ers, taking three shots and making neither of the two that came from behind the arc. None of the shots Ryan took were bad decisions or poor-quality attempts, and his 45.1% accuracy rate from 3-point land last season makes me confident he’ll find his level as he continues to play.
— All Things NBA: From A to Z (@AllThingsNBAtoZ) November 13, 2024
Ryan’s first shot attempt of the night came as the result of a nice play by Deuce McBride, who caught a pass from Karl-Anthony Towns as he was cutting to the rim and quickly redirected it to Cam Payne in the left corner. Payne set himself up nicely for a hockey assist by correctly making the easiest pass he could to OG Anunoby, to his right. Anunoby swung it one final time to Ryan who, despite a nice rotation and closeout effort from Jeff Dowtin Jr., got his shot off quite cleanly. Ryan’s height (listed as 6’6″) serves as great positional size and helps him get shots off over defenders – even when they do their best.
Ryan’s fate once rotational players like Mitchell Robinson and Precious Achiuwa return from injury to the Knicks’ lineup remains to be seen. But the Knicks clearly, as evidenced by Thibodeau’s willingness to play him against top Eastern Conference opponents, need his help for now.
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