The New York Knicks are currently one of the top contenders in the Eastern Conference. With a 41-23 record, they hold the No. 3 seed in the conference at this point in the season.
Entering the season with a new-look roster that included the major offseason additions of Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns, the Knicks had nothing but an NBA Finals run on their minds.
As the final stretch run of the season begins, Bridges has spoken out about a request that he has made to head coach Tom Thibodeau.
Bridges believes that New York should back off of the starters playing so many minutes to let the bench play more.
As shared by Stefan Bondy of the New York Post, Bridges opened up his request to Thibodeau.
"Sometimes it's not fun on the body," Bridges said. "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 continued on, going into more detail about how less minutes on the starters could help the Knicks as a whole.
"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."
How did Thibodeau respond to Bridges' request? The 28-year-old forward revealed those details as well.
"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," Bridges said. "Sometimes you've got to tell him, like Landry (Shamet), for example or somebody, keep him out there, they're playing well."
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This story was originally published March 12, 2025 at 4:54 PM.