'It's not fun on the body': Mikal Bridges Urges Thibodeau to Ease Up on the Minutes!

New York Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau is notorious for going with a very short bench and running his starters into the ground. For Mikal Bridges, it's been a big adjustment for him in his first year with the Knicks.

And he's speaking out against the exhausting minutes, which currently sit at a tick under 38 minutes a night. He says he talked to Thibs about it.

"Sometimes it's not fun on the body," Bridges told Stefan Bondy in the New York Post. "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."

Josh Hart is leading the entire NBA, with Bridges second in average minutes per game, both at 37.8 minutes. OG Anunoby is the third Knicks player in the top 6, at 36.6 minutes a night.

Karl-Anthony Towns is at 35.1, the third most among centers in the league, while Jalen Brunson is 7th among point guards at 35.4 minutes.

Bridges told the media that Thibodeau was 'receptive' to his pleas. “I think he’s not arguing about it," Bridges said. "Sometimes I think he just gets in his ways and he gets locked in."

As for his head coach, Thibs doesn't really sound so receptive:

Thibs on Bridges’ comments to us about minutes earlier this morning: “We never had a conversation about it. The facts are the facts. Jalen is 20th or 21st in average minutes. KAT is below that. Your wings play more. They’re matched up against primary players.”
— James L. Edwards III (@JLEdwardsIII) March 13, 2025

“We never had a conversation about it. The facts are the facts. Jalen is 20th or 21st in average minutes. KAT is below that. Your wings play more. They’re matched up against primary players.”

As Bondy writes, "Thibodeau’s minutes distribution has long been a hot-button issue, as he’s been accused of overworking players to the detriment of their health."

Bridges, meanwhile, doesn't really seem to have a problem staying on the floor, as he has never missed a game in his NBA career. He's played in 538 of the available 538 games over the course of his seven seasons. Over his career, he's averaged 33.3 minutes per contest.

Going into play Wednesday night, New York has a solid lock on the 3rd seed in the Eastern Conference, at 41-23, with a full five-game lead on the 4th place Milwaukee Bucks, and a full five games back of the Boston Celtics for the 2nd seed. Maybe taking the foot off the gas just a bit down the stretch could help the starters come playoff time.