Knicks Notes: Tom Thibodeau talks roster improvement, health heading into season

The Knicks head into the 2024-25 season with sky-high hopes following a playoff run to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals last season and an offseason that included a pair of blockbuster trades.

But as head coach Tom Thibodeau spoke from the team practice facility during Monday’s media day, he preached the importance of not skipping steps and taking things one day at a time as the Knicks look to build a championship team.

Here are the takeaways…

On the overall roster improvement

While Thibodeau said he would not comment on anything related to the Karl-Anthony Towns trade, given that the team has yet to officially announce the move (Towns is at the team facility on Monday) he did speak in general about the overall improvement of the roster, which has also added former Nets star Mikal Bridges.

“When you finish a season, you take a deep dive into your team and then you analyze what you think the strengths and weaknesses of the club are, and then you plan accordingly going forward all summer,” Thibodeau said. “The first step is the draft, and then you have free agency, and then you have trades. You’re never content. You always want to try to improve, so when opportunities present themselves and you feel like it can improve the team, you want to try to take advantage of that. And I think that Leon [Rose] and his staff have done a good job. They stockpiled draft capital and they waited for the right opportunities. There’s always risk involved, but I thought it was a well-thought-out plan.”

On Jalen Brunson and Mitchell Robinson

Thibodeau shared good news on Brunson, saying the point guard is fully cleared after breaking his left hand in Game 7 against Indiana. Brunson had surgery shortly after, and is good to go for training camp.

As for Robinson, who is recovering from a stress fracture in his ankle, things are a bit murkier.

“There’s no real timeframe for it, other than we want to make sure he’s completely healthy before we move forward,” Thibodeau said. “So, as we get more information down the road — but we’re going to be patient and take our time with it.

“When he’s ready to go, he’s ready to go. He’s doing well, I can tell you that, from what he’s doing right now. So, again, we’re just going to go step by step with that.”

On the starting lineup

Thibodeau was asked if OG Anunoby and Josh Hart are lined up to start at the forward spots this season, but the head coach said he needs to see more before making any concrete plans.

“I have some ideas, but I’m saying that before we take a look at everything,” he explained. “I want to see how things unfold in camp first before I make a commitment to it, but I have some general ideas.”

On taking things one day at a time

“You don’t want to skip over anything, any steps,” Thibodeau said — a message that he reinforced multiple times on Monday. “So, you start with your individual fundamentals and then you go to your team fundamentals, you install your systems, you get everyone to understand style of play and the system, and then how you play off each other and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of all your teammates.

“You’re making a huge mistake if you’re skipping over any of those steps. No matter what happened last year, you start at a zero base the next season. So, you have to build the foundation first. It’s step by step, it’s a long grind, and you prepare for that.”

On his message to the fans, given their expectations

“I don’t think it changes for us. We know we have to go step by step and we’re not just going to get to the end of the season,” Thibodeau said. “So we know we have to put everything we have into it, focus in on our daily improvement, and then if we’re doing the right thing, the results will take care of themselves. For our fans, we love our fans. We have the best support in the league, we have the best arena in the league, best city in the league. We know how important the team is to them, so we wan t to give them something that we can be proud of.”