Is the Knicks’ established “culture” teetering on the edge of being a poor one?
Dating back to the magical 2020-21 season, the Knicks have struggled under Tom Thibodeau to establish a culture built on accountability. Are they in danger of setting a dangerous precedent?
The word “culture” is thrown around in effectively every sports league across the very much round Earth. It makes sense that we’ve done this, as culture is the byproduct of how human beings interact with one another: establishing social norms, language, cuisine, music, and so much more. If nations, regions, and cities can establish a culture, why can’t a specific industry or a corporation do the same? All of these entities are collectively agreed upon “myths” we as humans established for millenia in order for us to survive (and destroy the planet). It’s quite translatable across any aspect of life.
As we are now roughly a quarter of the way through the third season of the Leon Rose and Tom Thibodeu Era of New York Knicks basketball, what would you say the “culture” is there? Members of the organization, the MSG broadcast, and really any other affiliated entity opine on the virtues of accountability, working hard in practice, playing engaged defense, and pushing the pace. Has anyone seen this? Sure, we can cite the 2020–21 season as an example; however, as more time separates us from The Bubble Playoffs and The Pandemic/Empty Arena Season, it appears that it was a different type of NBA basketball compared to the rest of the league’s history. How have the last 100 games been for the Knickerbockers?
The New York Knicks are in the process of solidifying a culture, but it’s not one to be excited about. Instead of holding themselves and one another accountable, Knicks players and staff — specifically three individuals we’ll get to — continue to repeat poor habits without any apparent resistance, while other players play as if they’re second guessing themselves, because one mistake can ultimately lead to a reduction in minutes and role. While some improvements have been made to address problems that arise, they do not address the problems that are affecting on-court performance to the degree needed to see change. Unfortunately, some of these issues cannot be solved in a logical way, putting Thibodeau in a “no-win” situation… but he also played a notable role in creating the situation.
We can trace this lack of accountability back to the 2020–21 season. The playoff appearance and Julius Randle’s All-NBA season did an excellent job of masking this issue, but the Knicks’ most fun season in a decade was where the problem seed was planted. Elfrid Payton continued to be the starting point guard all the way up until Game 2 of the Atlanta Hawks series despite being a net negative on both sides of the court. He was consistently outplayed by Immanuel Quickley, yet Quickley never received a larger role. It wasn’t until the Derrick Rose trade where Payton’s role was reduced, and even then, he was granted token starts for months after, tanking the Knicks’ offense and putting the team in a perpetual hole they had to dig out of.
The 2021–22 season is where things really began to spiral out of control and begin to cement the “culture,” or lack thereof. The front office took a swing on Kemba Walker and replaced Reggie Bullock with Evan Fournier. This made sense at the time given how the Atlanta Hawks series went. We all found out very quickly that Walker was cooked. He was benched after 20 games, and justifiably so. It was refreshing to see the coaching staff identify and address an issue promptly; however, the resolution of the problem left much to be desired. Instead of having Immanuel Quickley start at point guard, Tom Thibodeau started Alec Burks out of position. Fortunately for the starting lineup, they did end up with a neutral net rating, but it took away from what really made Burks a good role player as a wing.
While the point guard situation dominated a good amount of the media and fan discussions about the team, that was only the tip of the iceberg. What really caused the 2021–22 season to go off the rails was the performance of Randle. He wasn’t All-NBA Julius Randle in the slightest. Hell, he wasn’t even “Mike Miller-as-interim-coach Julius Randle.” He played that season with little to no effort on defense for effectively the entire season, maintained his usage rate while shooting almost six points worse in true shooting, and had a worse assist-to-turnover ratio. This drastic shift in effort, shot selection, and decision making was very much disappointing.
Randle would regularly be outplayed by this front office’s top-10 pick in Obi Toppin, but never saw a minutes reduction. Where was the accountability? Randle would consistently miss defensive rotations and have awful live-ball turnovers without any repercussions from Thibodeau, while younger players like Toppin, Quickley, and RJ Barrett were held accountable for their mistakes. What kind of message does that send to the roster? Once you get a long-term contract, you can just mail it in every night while still being able to play 30-plus minutes a night? No matter how well you play, you’re never going to be able to expand your role and minutes? That may not have been the conscious message, but it certainly came off that way. It was the Payton situation, but on a massive scale.
Now comes the 2022–23 season, and history is repeating itself. The Knicks 20 games into the season are hovering around a .500 win percentage with a negative net rating. A veteran player, Evan Fournier, has been benched due to ineffective play and a key player for the franchise who received a large contract extension is showing no effort on defense while being inefficient on offense. This time, the player is significantly more important to the future success of the franchise compared to Randle — RJ Barrett.
What we are witnessing right now this season is eerily parallel with last season, but this time the Knicks have two high-salary players completely mailing it in on defense in Randle and Barrett. Everything that Randle did last season is being replicated by Barrett. When you have fans justifiably arguing that Cam Reddish makes more sense in the starting lineup over a guy who’s supposed to be a face of the franchise, you’re not in great shape. Barrett has been wildly inefficient on offense, forcing shots at the rim to get foul calls rather than passing it out to a teammate on the perimeter, and getting back-cut what feels like multiple times every game. It’s the worst possible way to start a season when you just signed a big contract.
This leaves the Knicks in a precarious situation. They are on the brink of formally establishing a culture that lacks accountability (or maybe it’s solidified now, who knows). As much as we would love to have Thibodeau bench Barrett and Randle for low effort and inconsistent play, they are two of the highest paid players on the team. You really can’t bench them. Plus, Thibodeau did bench Barrett, and look how that has turned out. We are witnessing a team repeat the same exact disappointing season of only a year ago with what should be (on paper) a more talented team. These issues are reaching a point where no one can simply place blame on one individual. It’s not just RJ Barrett. It’s not just Julius Randle. It’s not just Tom Thibodeau. It’s not just Leon Rose.
If you want to address and correct this accountability-less culture the Knicks are very close to permanently establishing, there needs to be incremental and systematic changes. It’s up to the front office now to get things moving. If Thibodeau’s voice isn’t registering with the players anymore, then he needs to go. If Randle continues to show little interest in defense unless his shot is falling, he also needs to go. If Barrett continues to evolve into 6-foot-7 version of 2021–22 Julius Randle, then that’s going to set the franchise back a number of years. Because the front office gave Barrett the extension that broke the “Charlie Ward Curse,” they need to try to get Barrett on the right track and not emulate Randle. We can debate whether or not Barrett is going to be “good,” but that doesn’t change the current circumstance the Knicks are facing.
A new coach and a roster shakeup is absolutely needed at this point. Otherwise, history is going to repeat itself once again.
