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Maybe Tom Thibodeau doesn’t like Rice High School. Maybe the former student-athlete from New Britain, Conn., got rejected from UConn.
It looks like 10 Knicks will have to contract COVID-19 for the Knicks coach to put Kemba Walker in a game.
A 112-97 blowout loss to the Bucks on Sunday marked the seventh straight DNP-CD for Walker.
A handful of NBA scouts milled in the Garden press box. If they wanted to check out Walker, who can be traded Dec. 15, they were denied like a Giannis Antetokounmpo rejection.
Under no circumstances is Thibodeau willing to test the minus-122 Walker posted at the 20-game mark.
Croatian prospect Luka Samanic looks higher on the depth chart than Walker — and he’s a two-way player stationed this season in the G-League. Maybe it’s time to send Walker to the Westchester Knicks to stay in shape as the front office looks to trade him.
Walker has missed eight straight games, including the one he took for “rest’’ in Atlanta on the night Derrick Rose was out with a sprained ankle.
A conspiracy theorist would suggest Thibodeau was so troubled by Walker choosing to sit out for “load management’’ when Rose was injured, he pulled the plug on a player he felt was too defensively deficient for his program.
“When you think about the hype, it’s a catastrophe,’’ one NBA agent said about Walker’s situation.
With RJ Barrett and Obi Toppin out because of COVID-19 protocols and Alec Burks’ significant other having a baby Sunday, Thibodeau arranged an eight-man rotation that featured Kevin Knox, Mitchell Robinson and Immanuel Quickley as the three reserves.
Derrick Rose started at point guard for Burks and Quentin Grimes at small forward for Barrett. Kemba was a Garden spectator again like when he was as a Bronx kid dreaming about wearing this jersey.
Asked how he arrived at this decision, Thibodeau said, “The previous two games the groups that played well in those two games and how the game flowed and the size of their guards. I thought that would give us the best chance to win.’’
It didn’t. Thibodeau indicated he doesn’t see how Walker can fit into a game if he’s not starting. It seems to always go back to size, not his exceptional skill that made him a four-time All-Star.
“Basically a coach’s decision, yeah,’’ Thibodeau said.
On a football Sunday against the defending champs, the Knicks fell behind by a touchdown, 7-0, just past noon, and never really got back into it despite the rookie Grimes’ record-setting 3-point effort.
The Garden filled with scattered boos during parts of the matinee. But the arena fell dead silent at the final buzzer.
There was a light dusting of a “We want Kemba’’ chant in the final minutes but the quiet smacked of indifference in a season gone bad before Christmas.
This Kemba-free matinee gives further clues about Thibodeau’s opinion of what the Knicks front office did in making Walker one of their two centerpiece free-agent signings. Evan Fournier was the other big signing, and he had another forgettable 2-for-8, six-point afternoon.
Last season, Knicks president Leon Rose spent the entire season refusing to talk to the media. He got away with it because the Knicks were such a fun-loving story.
Now Rose needs to break his silence that dates nearly three months.
Just for a refresher, Rose entered the draft with two first-round picks (four overall) and free agency with a league-high amount of cap space after the team posted a 41-31 record last season.
Sunday, the Knicks dropped to 12-15, in 12th place, lottery position and host the mighty Warriors on Tuesday likely without Toppin and Barrett. Rose’s mantra of “continuity and flexibility’’ isn’t working.
The lone shred of hope is Rose may have a keeper in Grimes, whom Thibodeau always liked as a two-player because he defends and — as he showed particularly during a wild third quarter Sunday — can shoot the 3.
But despite Grimes’ 27 points and Knicks rookie-record seven 3-pointers, this was an awful afternoon — replete with ex-Knick Bobby Portis flexing and laughing his way to 19 points.
Portis felt he never felt he got enough playing time in his lone season here and moved on to a championship team.
Grimes’ points were still was a drop in the bucket against these Bucks who are almost healthy. Khris Middleton was the player in COVID-19 protocol in the first two meetings vs. the Knicks.
That includes the Nov. 5 meeting in Milwaukee when Thibodeau ran up the score after Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer surrendered by removing Giannis Antetokounmpo. This time, Middletown had a team-high 24 points.
All things went right for the Knicks in their renaissance season of 2020-21, including COVID-19 having a marginal effect.
Last season, Burks and Derrick Rose contracted COVID-19 separately and the Knicks managed to navigate smoothly past their respective 10-day absences. At no point did the Knicks have two players gone with the coronavirus.
“Sometimes you can take every precaution and it still happens,’’ Thibodeau said. “It’s a reminder for all of us — you just can’t let your guard down.”
And this season is reminder to all of us that sometimes everything can go right in a fluky season marred by a pandemic. Sometimes the stars align properly, the chemistry is perfect and you can never get it back the next year.
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