With Knicks players’ backing, Tom Thibodeau deserves contract extension

Tom Thibodeau just finished the fourth season of the five-year deal he signed with the Knicks in 2020.

He’s taken the franchise to the postseason in three of those four seasons. He ranks fifth all-time in overall wins and postseason wins. The past four seasons have been the Knicks’ best four-year stretch in the past 25 years.

So it seems like a foregone conclusion that Thibodeau and the Knicks will agree to a contract extension this offseason.

“That’s something that my agent will take care of (but) the Knicks have been great to me,” Thibodeau said after New York’s Game 7 loss to Indiana on Sunday. “This is where I want to be.”

One of the criteria used to assess Thibodeau this season was his relationship with the front office. There was a divide between Thibodeau and the front office in Chicago. But that hasn’t been the case in New York this season. Over the course of this year, Thibodeau was seen as having a good working relationship with the front office.

The results on the court speak for themselves. We can debate whether Thibodeau’s allotment of playing time led to injuries. But that theory doesn’t hold weight in the Knick locker room.

There, Thibodeau seems to have strong support.

“I think Thibs has the same mindset we do as a team. Thibs is the reason why we have that mindset,” Jalen Bruson said on Sunday. “Thibs is the reason why night in and night out, we fight to the best of our abilities, even though things may not be in our favor, result-wise. He makes sure that we have that mindset night in and night out.

“So I think he’s evolved by just (pause), he sees everything that everyone says. I think when it comes to us, we don’t really care what the people on the outside think of us. We don’t care what people say, positive or negative. We go forward with what we believe is the best course of action inside this building inside the organization and so on.

“I think the way that he has evolved is that his players in that locker room have his back no matter what.”

Brunson’s support of Thibodeau is significant. When your best players buy in to the head coach’s style and vision, good…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/knicks-players-backing-tom-thibodeau-034500710.html

Author : SNY

Publish date : 2024-05-20 03:45:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.