The Knicks’ playoff reality that should silence the Tom Thibodeau minutes critics

Earlier this season, a former Tom Thibodeau player, whose anonymity I’ll maintain, expressed concern about the number of minutes for the Knicks starters.

“I’ve seen it before,” he said. “They’ll be injured by the time the playoffs start.”

The annual player’s poll from The Athletic, which was conducted throughout NBA locker rooms in the last few weeks but hasn’t yet been released, has Thibodeau as the three-time consecutive winner — or loser — of the category, “Coach I’d least like to play for.” The reason was easy to understand: workload.

Call it a Gen Z problem.