Leading the team to achieve the best record in nearly 25 years, but was cut off when they lost. The management is really bad

There are only the Pacers and the Thunder who have reached the finals so far this season. The Pacers have reached the finals in 2000, while the Thunders have entered the finals in 2012. In addition to the Pacers and the Thunder, there are still other teams this season who have achieved results that exceed expectations. For example, the Knicks who reached the Eastern Conference Finals, the last time they stood on this stage was dated back to 2000, and it is worth mentioning that they lost to the Pacers in that round of the series.

In order to return to the peak, the Knicks can be said to be quite active in the trading market over the years. In their starting lineup, except for Brunson who signed with free agents, the remaining four players were all traded by them. For the sake of trading, Hart, Anunobi, Bridges, and Towns, the Knicks have also paid a lot of bargaining chips. Putting aside Randall and Barrett and other players who helped the team enter the playoffs, they also sent away 7 of them in the first round alone. From this, it can be seen that the management is eager to succeed immediately.

However, considering that Bridges and Towns have just joined the team this season, the Knicks wastes a lot of time in chemistry training, so the regular season teams only achieved a record of 51 wins and 31 losses, and they only won one more game compared to last season. In addition, since the Knicks are a typical "bullying the weak and afraid of the strong", facing some championship-level teams, they lost more games, such as four times against the defending champion Celtics, they have never won a single game. Therefore, at the beginning of the playoffs, the outside world was not optimistic about how big the storm they could cause this year.

However, when the playoffs officially kicked off, the Knicks actually brought many surprises to the fans. Needless to say, eliminating the Pistons 4-2 in the first round was expected. In the second round against the Celtics, the Knicks faced a real test. On the one hand, the team failed to break through the pressure of the second round for many years, and on the other hand, they were completely beaten up against the Celtics in the regular season, so before the start of the game, almost everyone thought that the Knicks would probably stop there. After the

G1 started, the Celtics once took a 20-point lead in the third quarter, but then the Knicks staged a shocking reversal. Brunson's explosion helped the team drag the game into overtime, and then they defeated their opponents in the way they were best at winning the first start. G2 is still at home, and they are at most 20+ in this game, but the Knicks broke out again in the final quarter. Bridges, who did not score a single point in the first three quarters, scored 14 points in the final quarter. In addition, he showed his value on the defensive end in both games. G1 finally intercepted Brown and G2 finally intercepted Tatum, and two key defenses directly killed the game.

However, at this time, there were still many Celtic fans "stubborn". These people said that the Celtics still did not give their all, and they were famous for "home bugs and away dragons" in the regular season. Especially after the Celtics won a game back in G3, Celtic fans began to shout loudly that the Celtics would directly end the series with a score of 4-2. As a result, after the G4, the Knicks touched them a basin of cold water. In G4, the Celtics had a steady advantage, but the Knicks started a counterattack since the third quarter. As Tatum's feel fluctuated, they also successfully overtook the score.

In the end, Tatum fought a torn Achilles tendon, which completely made the game and even the entire series lose their suspense. Later, the Knicks steadily accepted the G4 victory and rewritten the big score to 3-1. In the end, the Knicks G6 successfully ended the series at home. In this game, the team scored 6 players in double digits and 4 players scored 20+, so the team also defeated their opponents 119-81 and won the ticket to the Eastern Conference Finals.

And the Knicks can defeat the Celtics in this round of series mainly rely on their defense. Mitchell Robinson has caused too much trouble to the opponent. When Brown and Tatum can't touch him, his rebounds and defense on the court can dominate the game. Celtics head coach Mazula naturally saw Mitchell Robinson's influence, so he was forced to deliberately foul on the latter. In fact, this move did play a certain role. Robinson's free throw shooting percentage after playing the first four games of this round of the series was only 30.4%.

However, Thibodeau is not a good person. In this case, he not only still firmly trusts Robinson, but his substitutions often reduce the negative impact of the latter on the offensive end. Speaking of Thibodeau, the rise of this Knicks also has a lot to do with him. When he became the Knicks coach in 2020, the team had just achieved a bad record of 21 wins and 45 losses, and at that time they had not made it to the playoffs for seven consecutive years.

In contrast, after Thibodeau took over, the Knicks made it to the playoffs four times in the next five seasons, and reached the Eastern Conference Finals again after 25 years this season. Such a record is impossible without Thibodeau's credit. Although the outside world joked about Thibodeau's "five donkey tactics", in fact, the connection between this team is indeed visible to the naked eye. In addition to the five starters, McBride and Robinson, who are substitutes, are both of whom are seriously biased in playing styles. The best players among the remaining players are Penn, Achouva, and Shamet, who still cannot play in other championship teams..

As a matter of course, Thibodeau's offense and defensive coaching philosophy is indeed not advanced among coaches today, and it is understandable to improve his limit. But the problem lies in the solution. The Knicks should not treat their meritorious coaches like this. This exposed their rush to win the championship and then could not think of other solutions, but they could only take advantage of the coach. This idea is not conducive to the team finding the next suitable head coach in the next time. When they saw Thibodeau just led the team to the Eastern Conference Finals, they turned around and became a scapegoat for losing. This inevitably made others worried that they would end up being swept out after they got here.

And changing coaches does not mean that it can really work. The Knicks' current lineup problem is on the surface. In addition to the inability to connect, the first release of Rensen and Towns is also a big problem. These two people have no chemical reaction after playing in a season, especially the defensive end is seriously unfit, which will undoubtedly greatly affect the upper limit of this team. In addition, the team's forward lineup depth is also too poor. The two best forwards in the team are all starting, so Thibodeau has to fill their playing time.

In summary, the Knicks' current lineup looks good, but in fact there are quite a lot of complaints. If they want to become a real championship team, they still have too many things to improve. In comparison, changing coaches is the simplest, rough and most rude move that can highlight the management's urgent and stupidity.