If Josh Hart never again subs out of a game, he has only himself to blame.

Earlier this season, Hart dropped a bomb on his teammates. He didn’t “feel included” in the New York Knicks offense, he said. The seventh-year wing wasn’t playing enough, by his estimation, and, even worse, wasn’t receiving consistent touches. The horror. Head coach Tom Thibodeau was using him as a backup power forward at the time, which irked Hart, too.

“I’m a guard,” he would repeat as if it were reflex and with extra emphasis on “guard” whenever anyone mentioned he was behind Julius Randle on the depth chart.

A game after pronouncing his lack of inclusion, Hart went for 17 points, a season-high at the time. The Knicks won in a blowout. And the rest of the team could not wait to get back at its teammate.

Donte DiVincenzo chalked up the beatdown to one key ingredient. “Our defense is a lot better when Josh feels included,” he said loud enough for Hart to hear on the other side of the locker room.

Randle went a similar route, answering every postgame question a couple of days later with a peer over to Hart and a mention about how well the team plays when Hart’s usage is high.

This is the dynamic of the Knicks. Hart complains about whatever he can.

Sometimes, it’s that he’s not playing enough. Other times, like when Thibodeau seemed to never sub him out of games for long stints during the regular season, it was that he was too tired. There were instances of Hart kvetching about playing backup power forward. And others about becoming a starting power forward.

Earlier this winter, Hart churned out nine consecutive games of 40-plus minutes. After each of those performances, he vented to reporters about his newly founded exhausting lifestyle, although he never appeared wiped. The streak came to an end in mid-March after Thibodeau sat him during a blowout. Hart was only one rebound away from a 20-point, 20-board triple-double.

Naturally, later that night, he grumbled about how Thibodeau didn’t let him reach a rare milestone, referring to his coach as “Thomas,” which no one calls him, throughout a harangue.

After 972 complaints, the reasoning behind each of them becomes clear. Hart is not disgruntled. He never was. But his greatest passion, beyond chasing down unlikely offensive rebounds, is trolling the notoriously intense Thibodeau, the same man he insists should have won NBA Coach of the Year.