You could say that Tom Thibodeau had been very stubborn throughout these 2024-25 NBA playoffs, as he wasn’t changing his starting lineup despite his team’s recent losses against the Pacers. However, he finally decided to mix things up during his squad’s latest game, which ended in their first win of the series.
Now the New York team is down 2-1 in their Eastern Conference Finals clashes against Indiana, after moving Josh Hart to the bench and replacing him with Mitchell Robinson. This two-bigs formation seemed to be the correct formula to dismantle their opponent’s strategy.
According to Josh himself, he proposed this idea to his coach. “It was something that I’ve had in the back of my mind, and I’ve always wanted to do. Down 0-2, especially with how [Robinson] played last game, that was something that we had to do. And obviously that’s a group decision that really boils down to Thibs and myself…
“It was never going to be a tough day for me because I had a hand in that decision. When I’m in a decision like that and kind of got the ball rolling on that, it was funny. Y’all [the media] are scrambling, trying to get answers, and I never really cared because it was kind of my decision. I was comfortable with it,” the player told the press.
Throughout the postseason, the NBA awards players with many different honors like the league’s Most Valuable Player or Defensive Player of the Year. However, not all accolades are as prestigious, but still have strong value amongst athletic competitors.
Knicks guard Josh Hart is one of these players who deserve recognition this campaign, as he’s been named the NBA’s Minutes Champion, after averaging 37.6 minutes per game this season. As we have become accustomed to by the New York star, he received the news with humor.
“Minutes champion?” the 30-year-old captioned his photo of the trophy on an Instagram story, as his coach Thibodeau has trusted him with the most playing time any other athlete has received this competition. “Guess I got my cardio in this year.”
