Mikal Bridges tells Tom Thibodeau to play Knicks starters fewer minutes: report

Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News on Mar 12, 2025

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NEW YORK — Mikal Bridges has a wild solution designed to prevent the Knicks from overworking their starters.

Play the bench more minutes — and he’s relayed the message to the head coach.

Bridges told reporters in Portland, Ore., ahead of tipoff against the Trail Blazers on Wednesday he asked Tom Thibodeau to reduce the Knicks starters’ minutes, citing a bench he believes can help the team win games if trusted with a greater workload.

Bridges, who has never missed an NBA or collegiate game in his basketball career and currently leads the league in minutes played this season, said keeping the starters’ bodies fresh can help late-game defense.

“Sometimes it’s not fun on the body. You’ll want that as a coach but also talked to him a little bit knowing that we’ve got a good enough team where our bench guys can come in and we don’t need to play 48 [minutes], 47,” he said, according to The Post. “We’ve got a lot of good guys on this team that can take away minutes. Which helps the defense, helps the offense, helps tired bodies being out there and giving up all these points. It helps just keeping fresh bodies out there.”

Thibodeau has a reputation for wearing his best players down by playing them heavy regular-season minutes. Former Knicks forward Channing Frye levied that claim in an appearance on NBA TV, where he blamed the Knicks coach for the team’s injuries.

Jalen Brunson is the only Knicks player on the injury report entering Wednesday’s matchup against the Trail Blazers.

Bridges said Thibodeau received his message.

“I think he’s not arguing about it. Sometimes I think he just gets in his ways and he gets locked in. He just wants to keep the guy out there,” he told reporters. “Sometimes you’ve got to tell him, like Landry (Shamet), for example or somebody, keep him out there, they’re playing well.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, the Knicks lead the NBA in minutes played by starters — and it’s not close.

Bridges (2,419.8) and Josh Hart (2,307) led the league as the only players to log more than 2,300 minutes this season. Jalen Brunson still ranked 10th in minutes despite missing the last two games with a sprained right ankle. OG Anunoby also ranked 18th in minutes, and when Karl-Anthony Towns logs three minutes against the Trail Blazers, all five Knicks starters will have logged 2,000 or more minutes this season.

“I think it’s something you never really get used to,” Bridges said of his workload. “Your body is going to feel how it is every year. But I’ve been a part of it for a while, knowing how to take care of my body through those situations and just trying to do as much as I can.”

Yet the new meta among legitimate NBA contenders has become balanced minutes distribution courtesy of quality bench depth.

Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland and Evan Mobley lead the East’s No. 1-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers in minutes, for example, yet none of the trio averages more than Mitchell’s 31.3 minutes per game this season.

In Oklahoma City, All-Stars Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jaylen Williams log heavier workloads, but they are just two of 12 players averaging 14 or more minutes per game at head coach Mark Daigneault’s disposal.

And the reigning champion Boston Celtics play Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Derrick White heavy minutes, but Joe Mazzulla leans on Payton Pritchard, Al Horford, Luke Kornet, Sam Hauser and Neemias Queta off the bench.

All five have appeared in at least 50 games for Boston this season.

Yet the Knicks’ bench runs four players deep: Miles McBride, now starting for the injured Brunson; Mitchell Robinson, still gathering himself after 10 months out recovering from ankle surgery; Cameron Payne and Landry Shamet. Precious Achiuwa has seen a reduced role after Robinson’s return to action.

The Knicks rank dead-last in bench scoring by a 4.2-point margin, the widest discrepancy of any two teams. Coincidentally, the Knicks also rank last in bench minutes per game, also by the widest margin between any two teams.

Yet on Monday in Sacramento, Shamet scored 13 points in 24 minutes, and Robinson was a whopping plus-26 in 16 minutes. Both helped open up a blowout victory over the Kings.

Bridges is not the first player to suggest the Knicks’ bench play more minutes, though he is the first to approach Thibodeau on the subject.

After the Knicks hung 143 points in a Jan. 28 rout of the Memphis Grizzlies, All-Star center Towns said if the starters did their jobs and built big leads, the bench would reap the benefits with more minutes to show they belong on the floor.

“These guys work so hard in this locker room, and they get a chance to show their skills in front of their fans, in front of the most famous arena in the world and having the chance to show the work they put in every day and the professionalism that they show to us every single day,” Towns said. “I just think more about that if we do our job, we give our teammates a chance to show what they can do and produce for their families.”