Kemba Walker is showing Tom Thibodeau that accountability is a two-way street

Tom Thibodeau held Kemba Walker accountable earlier this season, benching him 20 games into the season. Could Thibs need his own accountability check, though, with how he treats certain players on the roster vs. others?

The cracks, for Tom Thibodeau and his New York Knicks, are everywhere. Cracks of apparent incompatibility between the best players on the team. Cracks in the certainty of the sacrosanct value of theoretical rim protection. Cracks of inconsistency that have dogged almost everyone on the roster. And all these cracks have been widened by the global fissure of a virus that continues to decimate indiscriminately: a roster, a league, a society. 

It’s not been an easy season — for anyone.

But of the cracks that are within Thibodeau’s control, one is threatening to engulf all others, and it’s one of his own making. The reigning Coach of the Year held Kemba Walker accountable, the franchise’s ballyhooed Bronx-born savior, after 20 games of the season, demoting him from starting point guard to nightly cheerleading duty. Kemba had the worst on/off numbers on the team, and some of the worst in the league. He had struggled defensively for a team whose defense had fallen off several cliffs since last season. 

The decision to make a change was justifiable, even if the decision to make such an extreme change raised eyebrows in the moment. Familial press conference quips of “He’s playing!” were a distant memory.

After 10 games in the doghouse, COVID protocols and a depleted point guard rotation gave Kemba another chance, and he’s been electric since his return. In his three games back he’s averaging 31 points, eight boards, and five assists per game. Unquestionably, he’s been a different player, and by his own admission, is playing with renewed aggression in his second go as a starter.

The change paints Thibodeau as either a genius or a fool, depending on how generous an interpretation you assign both process and result. But the change also puts pressure on the principle that Tom Thibodeau supposedly lives by: accountability. 

Whichever conspiracy of cracks has got him to this point, Thibs is in danger of turning himself into a hypocrite, because Julius Randle is ticking all the same boxes that Kemba ticked 20 games in.

The Knicks are -22.3 points per 100 possessions worse with Randle on the floor than off it this season, per Cleaning The Glass. This is the worst mark on the Knicks roster, almost 10 points worse than Evan Fournier’s -13.5. It’s in the first percentile of differentials in the league. Given that Randle has played the fourth-most minutes in the NBA, his struggles, on both ends of the floor, dwarf all other Knick issues.

Of course, Julius deserves some rope as the team’s best approximation of a star, and isn’t far removed from a campaign as impressive as this season has been depressing. Thibs is not giving his star man DNPs, but he has to do something — Randle’s performances, and his own recent precedent, demands it.

A press conference call-out. A quicker hook. A symbolic end-of-game benching.

Something.

Accountability is a two-way street, and after Kemba has handled the repercussions of his early-season play with the professionalism and production befitting of an All-Star, Tom Thibodeau has to come up with his own response, one befitting of a coach whose reputation is built on an almost dogmatic deference to his coaching principles.

It’s easy to hold a sophomore Obi Toppin accountable when he misses a rotation that leads to an offensive rebound. It’s easy to hold Immanuel Quickley accountable when he takes a tough shot with too much time on the clock. It’s easy to hold Elfrid Pay— wait, actually, never mind.

What it’s hard to do, for any coach in the league, is hold your best player accountable. It gets harder the longer you don’t do it, and in its absence, bad habits can fester. Julius Randle has let bad habits seep into his game this season: his half court off-ball defense, his transition defense, and his appetite for shots the defense wants him to take are all on opponents’ scouting reports. He’s not suddenly morphed into a bad player, but all season he has let — and been allowed to let — effort and decision making be the infuriatingly correctable driving forces of his bad play.

The question for Thibodeau is whether he’ll continue to be a passenger in Randle’s funk, focusing on lesser cracks as the season drifts aimlessly draft-ward. It’s time for Thibs to put his money where his mantra is. He held Kemba accountable, and a grinning Kemba has answered, with an emphatic offensive eruption that doubles up as its own call for accountability. 

Your turn, Coach.