And yet Rose was still very average in the playoffs and Noah was gimpy. Gasol had to miss time as well due to injury. Jimmy Butler on the other hand played great. Now that Jen Swanson has free reign the Bulls can finally get back to the business of winning some championships. Look out Lebron. We know our new coach will bend over for Jen and GarPax and might even slap some wearable tech on the lads. Let's hope he's good at NBA head coaching things as well, like getting the most out his players, managing the locker room and winning NBA basketball games. Most of that without the services of Jen Swanson and wearable tech. Not to say those don't have some value, but he kicked ass without it, despite tons of Rose drama. Could not get by Lebron though. We'll see if GarPax, Jen, Freddy and Catapult Technology can do a better job.
So...wow. You fault the Bulls for trying to give themselves a better chance of being rested and injury free. Regular season wins are nice - they can get you home court advantage. How well did all those regular season wins turn out for Thibs when the playoffs came around? 23-28???? <.500????? Wait... he dropped from .647 in the regular season to .451 in the post-season??? Now wait. I know where you're gonna go. And if you give credit to Thibs for the regular season record, you gotta fault him for the playoff record. Equally...if you fault the front office for the playoff record, you gotta give them credit for the regular season record.
There are similarities between Thibs record and Lovie Smiths record. Both had strong regular season records. So-so playoff records.
The Bulls used the Swanson minutes limits this season and were not injury free in the playoffs. The guy that played the most minutes in the regular season played healthy and great in the playoffs however. Fair enough. Are you expecting Hoiberg to finally get the Bulls to the Finals? What is your expectation for next season? Answer the question. I don't really fault the front office either for the playoff record. The better team won every series the Bulls lost, IMO. One exception might be the Sixers, but its somewhat understandable that the team was reeling after the Rose injury. This season the front office undermined what could have been a longer run with the smearing / undermining of the head coach, so that may have cost a win or two. Listen. You were totally wrong last time we argued at length about the Bulls during the PaxSkiles era. Do you think you might be totally wrong yet again? You were way off that time. You might just have bad judgement on these matters. Its at least something to consider.
Sorry, I missed the article that states what the threshold is. Can you please post the link and quote the quote?
Actually, they were LEAGUE TRENDS. Wait. Why the change of topic? Let's keep talking about Thibs coaching record since it's oh so interesting to you. And again. Why the change of topic? Let's keep talking about Thibs coaching record since it's oh so interesting to you.
Fair enough. We do have one season of Jen Swanson minutes restrictions under our belt. Why was Noah still gimpy / ineffective in the playoffs? Why was Rose average in the playoffs? Why didn't Gasol have minutes restrictions and why did he get hurt in the playoffs? Why did Butler play so well in the playoffs despite leading the league in MPG? Was season 1 under Jen a success in your mind? Why not just answer the question? Seems like you don't want to answer that one. Why not?
Funny. That's two seasons ago. The NBA champs. I suppose that qualifies as "seasons ago." A "trend" is whatever makes The Snake look good.
Thibs' success in the playoffs. Skiles made the semis once. That's it for all of the coaches in the Paxson era. EXCEPT Thibs made it three times in 5 years, ECF one of those. He made it with an awful roster last season, when Lu was salary dumped and Noah was DPOY. DELUSION. When management thinks their roster is championship worthy.
Injuries happen, but in a business where the players who determine the success or failure of the team typically earn 8-figure annual salaries, it's understandable that you'd want to do what you can to avoid injuries. It's likely that most teams have an injury minimization strategy of some sort. If they do, it's reasonable to expect that all members of the organization with responsibilities for injury avoidance. Half of the reason the Bulls brought Dr. Swanson on board (the other half was to make DRose happy) was to spearhead the team's injury-avoidance program. In terms of the injury-avoidance plan, it appears that Thibodeau was something of a loose cannon. We'll probably never definitively know all of the reasons he was let go, but it's likely that this was high on the list. Too bad really. He certainly has some valuable abilities.
He's kinda got to go there. But science: http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/06/06/david-blatt-on-kyrie-irving-he-got-kneed-in-the-side-of-his-knee-it-was-a-contact-injury/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...nee-injury-result-of-a-contact-play/28629283/ "I don't want to say anything that sounds like an absolute. Everything we had been told up to that point — all of his objective measure of his return to play — he was in no more jeopardy of that than anybody else or we wouldn't have put him out there. It's an injury that's completely separate and aside from the nature of his previous nature," he said. "I would be naïve to say there was absolutely no correlation because we'll never know that. "But every objective measure we had and all of the different opinions that were gathered, everybody who saw the images, they all agreed there was no additional risk."
Yes, it is too bad. All of this has some value. Bad to average head coach that fully adopts wearable technology and lets the Jens of the world dictate minutes will be a bad to average coach. Thibs was a great coach. All time great in the regular season. Never had the roster to get by Lebron in the playoffs but also wasn't known for losing playoff series where he had the better roster. The manner in which the Bulls front office smeared him and let him go of course is totally preventable and really an embarrassment. Also, undermining a season where the Bulls were close to at least making the Finals to get the PR going your way is unforgivable. A sad chapter in the Bulls history. Going forward we have a guy that will seemingly gladly do whatever the front office wants, so if they want loads wearable tech and Jen unleashed, they will have it. Based on your post yesterday though, you are already adjusting your expectations lower for next season. So that says something too.
