{"id":141324,"date":"2025-05-24T13:20:45","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T17:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=141324"},"modified":"2025-05-24T13:20:45","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T17:20:45","slug":"knicks-backup-point-guard-wright-payne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/05\/24\/knicks-backup-point-guard-wright-payne\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Tom Thibodeau Change Who Backs Up Brunson?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Game 1 of the opening round, Cameron Payne<\/a> went off, particularly in the fourth quarter. Eleven of his 14 points came in the final stanza as he shot 4-5 from the field and 2-3 from three-point range. The team was a +17 in his 10 minutes that quarter. That fourth quarter was pivotal in a game that the New York Knicks won by 11. Unfortunately for Payne and New York, he has done very little since then. The Knicks are now down 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals to the Indiana Pacers. Is it time for head coach Tom Thibodeau to make a switch for the Knicks at the backup point guard position for the rest of the series?<\/p>\n

Should Tom Thibodeau Change Who Backs Up Brunson?<\/h2>\n

Cameron Payne Has Been Receiving The Knicks Backup Point Guard Minutes<\/h3>\n

In the offseason, the Knicks signed the 30-year-old Payne to a one-year, minimum salary deal. Now in his 10th season, Payne provided excellent value for his price point over the course of the season. He averaged just shy of seven points and three assists on the year. Payne was a mainstay in Thibodeau\u2019s rotation throughout the season. The 6-foot-3 guard has remained in the rotation during the playoffs, albeit with his minutes being cut in half compared to the regular season.<\/p>\n

\"\"
May 21, 2025; New York, New York, USA; New York Knicks guard Cameron Payne (1) reacts after a three point shot against the Indiana Pacers in the second quarter during game one of the eastern conference finals for the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Admittedly, it\u2019s not easy to make much of an impact when you are receiving limited minutes. The problem is that Payne has done next to nothing in most postseason contests since that Game 1 against Detroit.<\/p>\n

After scoring 14 points in the Knicks first postseason game this year, Payne has totaled just 16 points over the next 13. After posting a +23 in that Game 1, he has been a -30 since. While he\u2019s played just 6.6 minutes per game over the last 13, he is shooting an atrocious 7-30 from the field and 2-16 from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n

In Friday\u2019s Game 2 loss to Indiana, Payne started the fourth quarter. Thibodeau tried to get star point guard Jalen Brunson<\/a> a short breather. The game was tied entering the fourth. The Knicks were outscored 13-4 in the three minutes that Payne was on the court.<\/p>\n

Delon Wright Was Solid When Called To Start<\/h3>\n

If Thibodeau decided to take Payne out of the rotation, he could go with Miles McBride<\/a> as the backup point guard. The problem is it wouldn\u2019t be a wise decision. Shortening the rotation even more playing against a deep Indiana team isn\u2019t a recipe for success. Thibodeau could replace Payne<\/a> with a bigger player in the rotation such as Precious Achiuwa<\/a>. Or, maybe he should give another 10-year veteran point guard a chance to play.<\/p>\n

Delon Wright<\/a> was acquired by New York at the trade deadline from the Milwaukee Bucks. He was out of Milwaukee\u2019s rotation at the time of the deal, and that was also the case when he first joined the Knicks. He was finally given a chance to play when Brunson, Payne, and McBride were all out due to injury.<\/p>\n

From late March to early April, the 33-year-old Wright started five straight games where the Knicks went 4-1. Playing 32 minutes per game over that time, he averaged 9.6 points, 3.0 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 1.8 steals. Wright had an assist-to-turnover ratio of three. He shot 12-20 from inside of the arc and 7-18 from beyond it.<\/p>\n

During the playoffs, Wright has played a grand total of 3:32 over two outings. Standing at 6-foot-5, he also is a better defender than Payne. While Payne occasionally goes on a heater on offense that we don\u2019t see from Wright, we also haven\u2019t seen anything close to resembling a heater from Payne in weeks.<\/p>\n

The fact is changes need to be made for the Knicks to have a chance to overcome a 2-0 deficit in the Eastern Conference Finals<\/a>. While this would be a minor change, it\u2019s also one that could see the team play better in the Brunson-less minutes.<\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Game 1 of the opening round, Cameron Payne went off, particularly in the fourth quarter. Eleven of his 14 points came in the final stanza as he shot 4-5 from the field and 2-3 from three-point range. The team was a +17 in his 10 minutes that quarter. That fourth quarter was pivotal in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5060,"featured_media":141348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,12,3],"tags":[50041,380,661],"class_list":["post-141324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-knicks","category-news","tag-2025-nba-playoffs","tag-cameron-payne","tag-delon-wright"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141324"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141351,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141324\/revisions\/141351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}