From hell to heaven to hell, this series of dramatic plots is really played out on Knicks guard Walker. After entering 2022, Walker has never played a game for the team again.
Remember, Walker also won his 8th career best of the week on December 28, 2021. At that time, he averaged 25 points, 9 rebounds and 8.3 assists per game, leading the Knicks to a record of 2 wins and 1 loss. As a result, just after winning the award, he was once again refrigerated by the paranoid Thibodeau.
Thibodeau has his own tactical preferences, walker also has his own style of playing, but the NBA is a commercial league, coaches and players must be based on winning, can not win what so-called philosophy, tactics, discipline is a blank piece of paper.
Although Thibodeau entered the Knicks strongly last season and led the team to the playoffs after a 9-year absence, this season, the Knicks seem to be starting to get into a quagmire again, and there is still a sense of deep trouble.
Now, Thibodeau's stubborn side, combined with a narrow mind, makes the Knicks the unlucky ghost. The endless nightmares of Big Apple fans seem to be about to start looping again.
In order to be able to play for his hometown team, Walker also made a buyout with the team after being traded to the Thunder in the summer of 2021. Subsequently, he did not hesitate to reduce his self-price and switched to the Knicks with a 2-year, 18 million contract that was far below the market price.
As a result, after playing more than 10 games, he became a scapegoat for the team's poor performance like Anthony in the Rockets, and was inexplicably refrigerated. If it were not for the shortage of manpower in the team, at one time even the 8-man list could not be put together, it is estimated that Thibodeau would not have thought of him.
In just 27.3 minutes of playing time, Walker can finish with 13.6 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists, shooting 40.3% from three-point range. Walker can certainly play a game, the key is how the coach should use it? How can you use him to the best?
To use Walker, it is certainly not to use his defense, rebounds, etc., but to make the best use of things and show his advantages. He can organize, he has breakthroughs, he has outside lines, these are all the strengths of Walker.
Although Walker has played the worst performance of his career this season, it is undeniable that as long as walker is given enough ball, he is still an All-Star guard who averages 20+5 per game. But Thibodeau didn't want to use it, and thought that Walker was not easy to use, of course, he could not use it.
But this premise is that Thibodeau himself must have the ability to win, rather than being hit by a rebuilt fish belly team like the Thunder not long ago. However, Thibodeau did not have this skill, which was really incomprehensible.
Now that we're talking about Walker, let's take a look at Walker's three-month personal data and team record this season. In October 2021, Walker averaged 15 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game, shooting 57.9 percent from three-point range, and the Knicks had a 5-1 record.
In November 2021, Walker averaged 10 points, 2.3 rebounds and 3 assists per game, shooting as little as 29.6% from three-point range, and the Knicks had only 5 wins and 7 losses. By six games in December 2021, Walker had been refrigerated by Thibodeau for nearly three weeks.
It wasn't until the Knicks eventually ran out of manpower that Walker competed. In these 6 games, he averaged 19.3 points, 6.5 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game, shooting 38.5% from three-point range, and the Knicks had 4 wins and 2 losses.
After the Knicks' victory over the Pistons on December 30, 2021, Walker once again froze, and Thibodeau claimed that Walker was on the daily watch list because of knee pain. As for the truth or falsity of this sentence, fans should already know.
Currently, the Knicks are 10th in the East with a record of 19 wins and 20 losses. You know, last season the Knicks had 41 wins and 31 losses, the fourth best record in the East. At the same time, their defensive efficiency is also amazing.
But this season, the Knicks' efficiency at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends has fallen off a cliff. Although injuries and isolation of the main players have a certain impact on the team, they are not the main reasons.
Thibodeau is a qualified manager, and iron-blooded defense is his signature. Last season, the Knicks were successfully transformed by him, with good defense and high offensive efficiency. In the end, the Knicks also played a salted fish turning counterattack record and entered the playoffs.
However, Thibodeau's coaching style was paranoid and his personal preference for players was too heavy, which seriously damaged the Knicks. Or as mentioned before, if you play like this and stick to this strategy, you have to be able to win and shut up all the people who are watching the good drama.
On a rebuilding team like the Thunder not long ago, the Knicks scored just 80 points in the entire game, shooting as little as 19 percent from three-point range and having only 12 assists, which really doesn't look like what a team that wants to hit the playoffs should show.
New York fans look sad, management looks even more helpless and helpless, and the Knicks' endless nightmare seems to be about to begin again. The so-called high-level data, the most important thing is not what personal defensive efficiency, offensive efficiency, ball share, usage rate.
Walker is an all-Star point guard above the standard, he is not a ball bully, and he is not a selfish player who ignores the team. No high-level data can show his ability and value.
If he had chosen to stay with the Thunder as a rebuilding team, would Walker's situation have been very different from what he is now? This is a difficult question to answer, after all, the Thunder also need to train new people. But referring to paul before, I believe that Walker's stay with the Thunder will not be too bad.
At least it will never be reduced to a toy in the hands of Thibodeau that comes and goes as it is now. If you don't say two words, you will be put on the battlefield, and if you don't fight, you will be directly refrigerated. In the face of this situation, which player will feel better in his heart?
Thibodeau's actions toward Walker are actually dislikes of him in his heart, which is due to his narrow paranoid personality and has no positive significance to the Knicks. In addition, this is also a great harm to Thibodeau's coaching ability and reputation.
Coaching and managing the team, the most important thing is to be able to win, tap the maximum potential of the players, lead the team to play the greatest characteristics, and fully stimulate the talent and momentum of every point of the team.
But Thibodeau's operations this season proved that he did not fully let the team's players cash in on their talents. At present, the Knicks can rely on only Barrett and Randall, two "pseudo-stars" whose ceiling is not too high.
According to the current situation, it can be expected that in the following season, Walker is expected to continue to suffer such unfair treatment, and it is even likely that he will be swept out of the team directly like the original melon, becoming a scapegoat for the team's poor performance.
Unsurprisingly, the Knicks have struggled to improve this season, and it will only get worse. As a 31-year-old former All-Star in the middle of the day, Walker's first name is going to be ruined in the Madison Garden of his heart, which is really regrettable!