This really pisses me off. We let go of the best coach in the NBA because of someone's EGO in the front office. Any team he goes to, they'll be so much better. This is a horrible day to be a Bulls fan.
Classy to the end Thibs. That's why USA Basketball and your next NBA head coaching team will be glad to have you.
I found it interesting that Van Gundy treated Hoiberg to the Bulls as a done deal. I also found it interesting when he said that it was Jerry's initiative to hire Tom Thibodeau and not GarPax, which may have been a reason for their riff in the first place.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski, a very good NBA writer, it was all about front office jealousy of the praise heaped on Thibodeau and Thibodeau's failure to dutifully kiss management's ass from time to time. Link
I heard a Kukoc4ever on sports radio yesterday in Chicago? Was that you? If so, good points made. I have one simple question: You're Jerry Reinsdorf, and you've got a talented roster. You have a talented front office that built that roster (even with Rose falling into their laps), and you have a talented coach. But the atmosphere is toxic in the organization and you've got to make changes. What's the least disruptive to the organization? Well, the Bulls had two options if they wanted to preserve continuity, and keep rolling with the roster they have: 1. Fire GarPax and put Thibs in charge of basketball operations. 2. Fire Thibs If it's true that Thibs had lost/was losing the players, you really only have one option.
No. It's obvious that no one thing did it; it was a hundred little things. Edit: I like the article now that I've read it. I do wish Reinsdorf didn't meddle in coaching decisions though. BUT...here's the thing. When I read KC Johnson, I always say to myself "he's the Bulls lackey". And when I listen to JVG and Woj, I think they're speaking for Thibs. I don't believe either speaks the complete truth. The truth is somewhere in the middle of all these reports. I do not believe the front office was jealous of Thibs, though. If Pax wanted, he could have come out of the front office and developed the players and coached them himself. I think he's fine with the distinction he's received for his part in building the roster.
Here are paragraphs that rang true to me from various sources: http://espn.go.com/chicago/nba/stor...o-bulls-fire-tom-thibodeau-coach-five-seasons http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/12890745/tom-thibodeau-tenure-chicago-bulls http://www.blogabull.com/2015/5/28/8649403/chicago-bulls-tom-thibodeau-fired http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport...era-bulls-spt-0529-20150528-story.html#page=1
The first question to answer is "Why is the atmosphere toxic?" Before Thibs got here you had minutes control issues bubbling to the surface between Vinny Del Negro and the front office. And you had a truly toxic situation where the management feels that they can get away with physically attacking their employees. Paxson got away with this scott free, Vinny was the one let go, so I guess the Bulls organization does allow such behavior. The atmosphere is toxic and has been so for a while. The head of the organization is responsible for that. How many times can you hire a head coach, fire them a few years later and blame the coach? Why give Thibs a 4 year extension if you didn't want Thibs? If I'm owning the Bulls I hire people that in return for $$$ will give be value-added work. Many of the players do that. Ron Adams does this (ask Steve Kerr and the Warriors). Tom Thibodeau is a value-add guy. John Paxson isn't. He's a thin-skinned, insecure, incompetent schmuck. An empty suit at best. And, under his care, the Bulls are kind of a laughingstock right now nationally. (profits are likely AOK, which is more of a goal than winning a championship with this ownership) NBA is a talent driven business, if the goal is to win a NBA title. I would acquire value-add talent and keep them happy and productive. The role of management is to make sure that happens as seamlessly and efficiently as possible. Create a workplace where people want to work. Not a workplace where good people like Ron Adams and Tom Thibodeau and demonized, smeared and chased away. Paxson is immediately fired, but I would make sure he isn't escorted out by security, because that's just a shitty thing to do to a long-time employee when it isn't warranted. Rose is next up for the smear. He already got a taste with "medically cleared." If there are any legs to Rose v Butler, it will be a thing next season. One of the things Thibs did best is manage the locker room. Very little drama in his 5 years, despite trying circumstances at times. The mayor is walking into a potential snake pit for a rookie coach with lots of veteran players and differing agendas. Its going to be hard to exceed expectations, since getting rid of Thibs, according to management, should make this super-talented Bulls team get to the next level, which would be beating Lebron James and getting to the NBA Finals. No kidding that the players were starting to grumble supposedly. Thibs was being actively undermined for well over a year by the front office!!!! "Does he really have your best interest at heart?" Jen Swanson. On and on. The quotes after the season from Derrick and Taj were very positive regarding Thibs, BTW, so once again, its hard to find the real truth on these matters. Hopefully these players are able to perform at their best without a coach like Thibs creating an atmosphere where by and large, talent was maximized. (this of course made the front office acquisitions look really good as well) If this roster thinks that they are talented enough to give 85% and get anywhere meaningful, I think its going to be a rude awakening.
Would you have fired Pax and promoted Thibs to take his place? How would you have fixed the problems that existed at the end of the season?
Gettin' Branded? Blast from the past, and so glad to see you here. My observations: If the players know Thibs is in trouble, they're not so likely to stick with him to the end. Management writes the checks and controls their destiny. They traded Lu to Cleveland, for example. How about that roster last season? It was great, no? It's incredible that the team won nearly as many games as Skiles' best season. It seems Thibs did coach mostly the way management wanted. He turned a $7M player into an all star, Jimmy an all star, played the rookie Mirotic 20 minutes per game, Snell 20 minutes per game, and only two players over 31 minutes/game. With all the Spurs style rest, Noah missed 15 games, Butler 17, Rose 31, DunVP 19, Tag 20, Kirk 16, McDermott (who knows, but he required surgery). I don't think Thibs had much of a say in the roster construction. Playing Kirk was his way of exposing management's personnel decisions. No matter how bad management did their job, Thibs always took the high road and said "we have enough to win" and win he did, until opponents' physical talent proved better than ours. Management made zero moves all season. Not even a $minimum vet signing when the roster was short due to injuries. No team in the playoffs, but the Bulls, were constructed without making a single trade. No team. The Cavs obviously made great trades to improve their chances and they're in the Finals. Thibs played all his players early in the season. The 2nd unit was brutally bad. That would be some combination of Kirk, Taj, Brooks, Mirotic, Snell, McDermott, and Moore. The story of the season was the starters would build up leads and then the 2nd team would give up those leads and then some. It wasn't for lack of opportunity. Pre-season, many of us thought McDermott was a 4-year college prepped superstar kind of player who was going to be NBA ready, pretty much right away. Some of us expected him to take the starting job from DunVP even. Management's evaluation of him as a talent wasn't so good. In fact, the roster might have looked good on paper, but it proved to be old and unathletic. The team was dominated by other teams with good young bigs. On paper we should beat Orlando, for example, but in reality Nikola Vucevic was able to have his way with our bigs. No matter which combination of the 4. Hassan Whiteside looked like a superstar against us too. That list of opposing bigs, unfortunately included Mozgov and Thompson of the Cavs. Thibs probably wanted out by the end, if not way sooner. He dragged his feet about signing the extension. I'm sure it was a matter of loving the players, the team, the city vs. having to work with GarPaxDorf. PJax and CrumbsDorf didn't get along either. Management's history with coaches is one of firing Skiles on Christmas Eve, altercation with Vinnie, firing Cartwright because he couldn't yell loud enough, chasing away the greatest coach in history, now the second greatest coach in Bulls history, and hiring their buddies who fail. One of the Blazers fans posted this McDermott highlights video. If you pay attention to the plays ran for him, Thibs' offense is terrific.
Make Pax coach. That's how other organizations do things. "If you think this roster can win, prove it."
I'd also add the whole "players exit interviews" leak sure seems like a typical thing we've seen and JVG talked about twice now. Management feeling the heat about firing the overachieving successful coach, needing to justify their latest mistake.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/the-bulls-just-fired-one-of-the-best-coaches-in-nba-history/ The Bulls Just Fired One Of The Best Coaches In The NBA The news wasn’t entirely unexpected, but it was still jarring to see that the Chicago Bulls had fired coach Tom Thibodeau on Thursday after five seasons at the team’s helm. After all, it isn’t every day that a team lets one of the best coaches in NBA history walk away. Thibodeau reportedly had a strained relationship with the Bulls’ front office, so the firing is almost certainly related to more than the team’s on-court performance. (Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf practically said as much in a few pointed comments Thursday.) But even if the Bulls’ next coach is more in sync with management, the team might notice a distinct downturn in its play without Thibodeau in charge. ... And Thibodeau’s Bulls teams have, on balance, gone further in the playoffs than they were projected to. During his tenure as Chicago’s coach, the Bulls have accumulated 625 dynasty points — 13.1 points more than would have been expected from the talent levels of his teams. (In 2015 alone, he racked up 40 more dynasty points than expected.) That total “only” ranks 24th among NBA coaches since 1984,1 and it’s nowhere near the gaudy 6,606-point (!!) surplus generated byplayoff god Phil Jackson, one of Thibodeau’s predecessors with the Bulls. But it flies in the face of the idea that the Bulls had a disappointing playoff record on Thibodeau’s watch. Essentially, he extracted an incredible number of wins out of his talent base during the regular season and took the team a little bit further than expected during the playoffs to boot. Teams can get (and have gotten) a lot less from their head coach.
Fire GarPax, keep Thibs if he wants to stay as coach and apologize for the smear campaign, keep as much of the scouting team as possible, hire VP of Basketball ops with a management, metrics and basketball background that is good at getting the most out of people and has a track recording of getting along with head coaches. The problem is years in the making though, long before Thibs. Paxson is the problem. He's gone immediately. The snake gets his head chopped. The Bulls were a whisper from beating Lebron James (game 4) and being up 3-1. That's without Gasol being able to give you much. Despite the fact that the management is actively undermining the head coach behind the scenes all season long creating an environment not conducive to winning. How can you expect to win a title with that crap going on? Vinny Del Negro had to deal with a similar situation. The window is closed on this core, and its a shame. Too bad GarPax let their petty power struggles get in the way. Now they have their puppet. I'm excited to see the results of this move.
Of course its a leak, its so transparent its laughable. The only direct quotes that I have seen from players since the Bulls were eliminated are positive. JVG, Doc Rivers, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Coach K.... all have great things to say about Thibs. If Gar Forman and John Paxson think otherwise, well, their track record speaks for itself. The only relevant work they have accomplished in their current roles is with Thibs as coach. I'm curious what the expectations will be for next season. My guess is now we'll see the shift to "win later" to buy them a few more years.
Bulls were 11th in Offensive EFF this last season. Thibs ran an efficient offense. The defense took a step back due to Gasol playing heavy minutes and Noah being out of position / hobbled. Bulls were a less talented team in their series with the Cavs this season. (noah hobbled, gasol hobbled / out / old, Rose not a star level player) If the Cavs were so weak, how could they sweep the #1 seed in the Hawks?
