How disasterous was this game for Thibodeau?

What happened?

 

I think he was referring to keeping DRose out of the game for so long, and maybe playing the bench throughout the 4th quarter as well.

Maybe I'm naive, but I liked the move. It probably wasn't optimal for winning this particular game, but the bench did a good job of getting us back in the game and in the long run its moves like that which are the difference between a bench that is genuinely useful and a bench that you just hope doesn't fuck things up too much before the starters come back in.

And I can attest that as a player, it can do a lot for your morale and commitment to the team concept if you know your coach will reward your hard work.

As for the fans.....in this instance I say fuck them. I know they pay for the tickets, but they are temperamental and irrational and Thibs was right not to put Derrick back in simply to appease them.

Fans are like voters in that their expressions are merely superficial grabs to consume their own self-serving identity-shaping, group-affiliating, tribalist bunk and not genuine compassion for the causes they claim to support.

At the end of the day they have nothing on the line and so they wantonly chase after what feels good, and not what is the best thing to do. That's why we have Thibs, and don't use Twitter updates to make in game decisions.

 

Man, Rosenthall, what about rewarding Derrick Rose's hard work? I was driving around listening on the radio in bits, but from what I was hearing he was damn near unstoppable in the third quarter.

Regarding popular support, I think the bottom line is everyone likes a winner and everyone hates a loser. So if you want to flout common sense, that's A-OK... so long as you win.

Four games into a coaching career I'm not going to draw too many conclusions, but I do remember this is exactly the sort of things folks were pissed about with VDN. Also, I would really prefer the human security blankets known as Keith Bogans and Brian Scalabrine to go out of style quickly.

 

Even for our instant-analysis crew, I think you have to see how it plays out tonight before you curse the coach. If they win tonight, I'm going to give the coach some credit.

But really, you have to see how it plays out for the whole season.



p.s. I don't see a whole lot of similarities between VDN and Thibs.

p.p.s. The starters have to play a lot better D to deserve coming back in the game IMHO.

 

It's just that at this point, those two guys are clearly our big two. Is there any circumstance where you ever keep MJ and Pip on the bench like that?

 

I agree with different points made. In the end, I thought he was doing it because the game was viritually over with the way they were hitting 3s and I thought he was resting them for tonight's game since its a back to back.

 

I agree that a big reason why Thibs felt it was okay to 'gamble' with keeping our bench in was the idea that we probably needed Derrick, Jo, etc to be as fresh as possible for Boston tonight.

To Mike: The 'common sense' stuff you talk about is more applicable on a season-wide scale. Sticking with your bench at the end of the game to see if they could have pulled it out was an option that had a plausible chance of happening at the time, and could have had beneficial effects that reverberated beyond last nights game. It didn't work out, but it was a defendable choice, even with Derrick Rose's awesomeness.

SST: The second half had about the same ebb and flow with and without the starters, IMO. However, I thought the timing of the Bulls' last comeback was such that it was just as well to leave the 2nd unit in the game, since there were only a few minutes left in the game anyway and they had brought us to that point. Playing Boston tonight probably made the decision a bit easier as well.

 

First, Rose and Noah ain't MJ and Pip. Second, didn't pjax keep a bunch of reserves like Jud Buchler in during a finals game a lot longer than was comfortable?

 

They might as well be. If they're the kind of guys we have so little faith in we bench in the 4th... we're fucked.

 

As I said when he got hired, I don't see him becoming a successful head coach in the pros. Last night he did something only a college coach would do. If he keeps up with stuff like that (which he is known for), he will lose the stars on the team, and coach vs. stars always goes to the stars.

 

First of all, when Thibs finally took Rose out 2:30 into the fourth after playing the entire 3rd, the Knicks were in the midst of a 10-0 run and up by about 15. Second, it was in large part Rose's inability to close out on 3pt shooters that was the problem. He was getting lit up by Toney and Felton. And third, Thibs didn't want to get blown out with a tired team on his return to Boston. But as far as putting Rose and Noah back in, that wasn't a big deal. The bulls weren't defending the pick and roll well at all. So why not see what some guys on the bench could do in extended minutes.

 

Thibs is already a good coach.