Do you think he's maximized the value of Joakim Noah? Who saw him becoming a all-NBA first teamer? How about Pau Gasol? Did anyone predict him starting the all-star game this year? Who saw Jimmy Butler becoming an all-star? Even the middle type players, he maximizes their value and gets them paid. Asik. Nate got a 2-year deal. DJ got a 2 year deal. Players like that. I contend that he's only had one season with a team in the playoffs that was close to a contender and they made it to the ECFs and lost to Lebron's Heat. All the other seasons were undermined by Rose's knee. Another contention: Thibs gets the most out of his teams thus maximizing their regular season record, raising expectations about what they can actually do come playoff time. There is only so far you can go when you are relying on Nate and DJ. He squeezes all the juice out of the orange. In some ways, from a basketball standpoint, he maximizes the return on investment for the organization. How many more jerseys, playoff tickets and nachos do they sell because Thibs takes what he's given, motivates the hell out of them, puts them in places where they can succeed and turns it into something better than it would be without him. Its the sign of a great manager in business and a great coach in athletics.
Was Noah even a starter under Vinnie? Thibs and PJax coached the Bulls to the ECF. The only othe Bulls coach to make a conference finals was Dick Motta and the Bulls were in the West back then and Boerwinkle was our center. If we go another 20 years to find a coach that can get us that far, I may literally be dead of old age. You have no clue how good Thibs is if you want him gone. Sorry.
Doug Collins coached the Bulls to the Eastern Conference Finals. He was then fired less than 6 weeks later. Replaced by a hippie whose only NBA coaching experience was a two-year stint under Collins. Who didn't get to choose his own assistant coaches. Who "regularly sought an NBA job, but was invariably turned down. Who had acquired a reputation for being sympathetic to the counterculture during his playing years, which may have scared off potential NBA employers." (According to David Halberstam, author of Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made.) I have long maintained that Thibs is this generation's Doug Collins.
Its a crap shoot. For every Phil Jackson there is a Tim Floyd. Actually, way more Tim Floyd types than Jacksons. The Doug Collins analogy is also flawed for another reason. The argument with Collins / Jackson was Doug was a point A to point B guy and Phil was going to get MJ and Pip to point C. Its questionable if the Rose / Noah core is going to get past point B. Noah is likely on the decline and on the wrong side of 30 and Rose simply might be done when it comes to being a MVP level player. A new coach is going to be brought in to coach a Butler / Niko / McDermott core long term. Thibs has turned Butler into an all-star and Niko has blossomed under Thibs already. Also, Doug Collins is classically known for coaching a team for a few years and then just burning out. That's not happening here on the Bulls, other than Thibs not wanting to deal with dopey GarPax anymore. The team shows little sign of tuning out Thibs and Thibs doesn't seem like he's flaming out at all. So, yah, its really not like Doug Collins at all.
The Bulls were a team on the rise who could not get past the Pistons for several seasons. After those playoff failures, a change in coach was in order, perhaps. Perhaps Collins would have won all those rings, too, with Pippen figuring out how to avoid migraines in game 7s of series. The Bulls success these days is not due to a Jordan and Pippen and Grant, it's due to Thibs' coaching poorly constructed rosters after a devastating injury to the closest thing to Jordan we've had. In this silliest of analogies, the Lakers should have fired Jackson after losing in the finals in 2003-04 and then falling to 34 wins the following season. Of course, the Lakers are an actually great organization and kept him and they rebuilt and went to the finals 3 seasons later and then won a pair of championships. Meanwhile, we're in year 17 of the 3 year rebuilding plan and no finals or championship in sight. Not only is it foolish to fire Thibs, it was foolish to believe the hype before the season that we're the 2nd best team in the East. That's just ignoring how good Washington was and still is, for example.
Getting bsck to MDJ, imo he has been a disappointment. He is not aggressive enough on offense. He is soft. McDermott is aggressive, he needs to get stronger, and learn the game on both ends of the court before he can get better.
I still strongly maintain that the Thibodeau issue should be shelved til the offseason. It hasn't seemed to have any sort of galvanizing effect with the players so it's just a distraction. Near as I can tell, the latest spike has been caused by Thibodeau's acknowledgement that he "ran out of minutes with him (Noah)" in the OKC game. I guess some folks, media and fans, just loves their controversy. I've never understood it.
So now we have Dunleavy who is unfit for minutes. Hinrich as well. Why does the Bulls org sign and pay players millions and millions of dollars that are supposedly unfit to habitate a NBA court for all but a smattering of minutes, if at all? Seems like another example of poor talent evaluation and roster construction if this is the case.
What do you mean "shelved til the offseason"? You mean Thibs and GarPax shouldn't discuss it any more? That should go with saying, but it doesn't of course. Or do you mean the media and fans should should knock it off until after the playoffs? Don't hold your breath on that one LOL I agree with you 100% that Thibs' "ran out of minutes" comment was certainly a shot.
And its certainly the truth. Noah's minutes was the issue with Paxson and Del Negro. Paxson, being the type of person he is, decided to storm down from his skybox and strangle him. How is Paxson still employed after that? Now, the battle is being fought via leaked information to beat writers and the other typical mechanisms. If Paxson wants to control everything, he should make himself a GM/Coach. Of course, he won't, since he's too cowardly to stand in front of the media to answer questions and wants plenty of others to blame. That's why he was "kicked upstairs." ----- Thibs is focused on winning NBA basketball games and winning a NBA title. The Bulls org is focused on media pissing matches that serve as distractions. But, winning the NBA title isn't the goal for them, the goal is to sour a certain percentage of fans for the eventual ouster. These distractions don't help matters, that's for sure. The Bulls org knows what type of coach Thibs is. If they didn't want that, they should not have hired him and certainly should not have resigned him. Just more nonsense from the management clown college that has never won a ring. Thibs will try his best to cobble together some continuity and make one last run with this core of players. Its still not totally impossible that this group escapes the East. Thibs will get the most out of his guys, that much is all but certain. And if it doesn't work out, he'll be a NBA coach somewhere else, a team USA coach and considered one of the best coaches in the league. And GarPax will still be GarPax.
Thibs knows what kind of org the Bulls are. If he didn't want that, he should not have accepted the job, and he certainly should not have resigned with them. It is just so simple... if the Bulls' organization is truly a cross of Satan, Chuck Manson, BTK, and Orenthal, Thibs must be the biggest fucking idiot ever to walk the planet for agreeing to become their coach. And he's even more of a dumbass for signing an extension. I really feel bad for Thibs, maybe he needs to see a psychiatrist or a neurologist? An elite coach who had other offers must have some serious self-esteem issues if he would come to work for the Bulls organization. Signing an extension with your abusers seems like battered spouse syndrome, I don't know why Thibs was so afraid to leave that he signed on for another four years. Or possibly he has some kind of physical brain disorder that prevents him from seeing how badly he is being abused?
Thibs sure seemed hesitant to sign his contract extension. The money was there. I guess he had to weigh out coaching the Bulls in Chicago vs. working for a shitty management team.
You should not feel bad for Thibs. Despite working for GarPax and having his employer smear him, he's still focused on getting the most out of his players, winning NBA games and winning the title. He's a pro. And if GarPax decide to go in a different direction, he'll be a NBA coach on another team, team USA coach and widely considered to be one of the best coaches around nationally and by his peers. And, as shown in that adequate report you put together for Denny Crane, he's had a heck of a run here in his first stint as a head coach, despite very difficult circumstances. Bulls fans will have to go on with GarPax and whatever rookie coach they think will be more pliable.
Not only that, K4E, but when management fails to produce a winning roster again, they'll be calling for the next coach's head. Especially after he doesn't produce as many victories. Remember Skiles?
Yet he chose to work for a shitty management team instead of a non-shitty management team. You still refuse to answer a simple question, "why would he choose to work for assholes instead of non-assholes?" Nobody expects you to give an actual answer, of course, you just wouldn't be you if you did.
Asked and answered. He wanted to coach the Bulls and be in Chicago more than he wanted to avoid working for assholes. He probably also really likes the players as people - they're not the assholes.
See I've never seen it as like, Thibs vs. Management, I've looked at it at Micro-managing vs. Thibs. Evident with the Ron Adams firing. There's always a bossman shadow over Thibs...watching everything he does. Always up his ass.
That's very simple. He wanted to coach MVP caliber Derrick Rose and thought that was the best path to win a ring.
Let's assume they do micro-manage more than other teams, Thibs knew that going in. Thibs didn't hire Ron Adams, he knew going in that in the Bulls' organization, management hires the assistant coaches. If he had a problem with it, he shouldn't have taken the job. If you don't like a company's management style, go work for another company.
