Fantasy Sports

New York Knicks Fire Tom Thibodeau—What It Means For Jalen Brunson’s Fantasy Value

Alan Goldsher|
New York Knicks All-Star Jalen Brunson and former Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau
New York Knicks All-Star Jalen Brunson and former Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau | Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

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New York Knicks

Mere days after falling to the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals, the New York Knicks did the thing that NBA franchises do when they don’t know what to do:

They canned their coach.

In his 13 years as an NBA sideline general, now-former-Knick head man Tom Thibodeau had one fatal flaw: An utter inability to keep himself from playing his starters way too many minutes.

This season, for instance, New York’s starters averaged between 35 and 38 minutes per night, while the rest of the NBA's starters landed between 30 and 34.

Season after season, the problem with Thibs’ approach always manifested itself in just the way you’d expect: Come the tail end of the NBA Playoffs, his starting fives were cashed, a likely explanation as to why nary one of his teams reached the Finals.

But right now, Knicks fans don’t particularly care about the numbers. They just want their team to hire a dude who can take New York’s nice little roster to the Promised Land.

Fantasy players whose dynasty team is built around Jalen Brunson, however, care a whole bunch.

Time Is Money

Fantasy-wise, we won’t know what kind of hit Brunson’s counting stats will take under a new coach who will keep him on the floor for less than 35 minutes a night until, y’know, he plays for a new coach who will keep him on the floor for less than 35 minutes a night.

Another issue is that during his four years in a Dallas Mavericks uniform—when he was averaging a reasonable 24.7 minutes—Brunson was never The Guy (that honor went to Luka Doncic) so comparing his Dallas and New York stats won’t give us a ton of help.

Unless, of course, we turn to the per 36 metric, which’ll offer a bit of insight. So let’s pit Brunson’s 2024-25 per 36’s in New York against his 2021-22 digits in Dallas.

New York 2024-25 (per 36)

  • Points: 26.4
  • Assists: 7.4
  • Rebounds: 3.0
  • Steals: 0.9
  • FG%: 48.8%
  • FT%: 82.1%
  • 3PT%: 38.2%

Dallas 2021-22 (per 36)

  • Points: 18.4
  • Assists: 5.4
  • Rebounds: 4.4
  • Steals: 0.9
  • FG%: 50.2%
  • FT%: 84.0%
  • 3PT%: 37.3%

As noted, the caveat here is that in Dallas, Brunson was the second (or third) option, whereas in New York, he’s the Alpha Dog, all of which has to be considered even in a per 36 situation.

What the numbers do tell us is that when Brunson isn’t playing for Thibodeau, he’s at least somewhat less effective, at least statistcally. The fact that whoever replaces Thibs on the Knicks' bench will be far more judicious with Brunson’s—and his teammates’—minutes will further diminish the All-Star’s fantasy value.

This isn’t to say that Brunson won’t remain a stud—on the contrary, he’ll likely still be a top-ten fantasy point guard, as well he should. But next season, come the night of your fantasy draft, you might be better off eyeballing, say, Philly's Tyrese Maxey.

Unless, of course, the Sixers hire Tom Thibodeau.

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Alan Goldsher
ALAN GOLDSHER

Alan Goldsher has written about sports for Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Apple, Playboy, NFL.com, and NBA.com, and he’s the creator of the Chicago Sports Stuff Substack. He’s the bestselling author of 15 books, and the founder/CEO of Gold Note Records. Alan lives in Chicago, where he writes, makes music, and consumes and creates way too much Bears content. You can visit him at http://www.AlanGoldsher.com and http://x.com/AlanGoldsher.

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