Flash back to last year. Tom Thibodeau, with the Knicks trailing 0-2 in the conference finals, suddenly inserted Landry Shamet and Delon Wright into the rotation. 

Neither had any sort of meaningful role during the regular season. The decision reeked of desperation. 

Now come back to this year. One of the big ideas in hiring Mike Brown was that he’d better develop and utilize his bench. He was given upgraded options to pull it off, too. 

And it’s one thing you can certainly say Brown accomplished heading into the postseason.