From everything I've read/heard, basketball is all that matters in Thibodeau's life. Unlike iconic coaches like Popovich and PJax, Thibodeau doesn't appear to be an interesting human being. He's a basketball geek. He's an odd duck. No doubt that he's 8 ways to knowledgeable about everything basketball. I'm fine with him staying as long as the players don't tune him out, but I want to make it clear that, as an odd duck, he's a prime candidate to being tuned out at some point by young multi-millionaires. Net, everyone else can argue over Thibodeau's "rotations," "sets," and "schemes, but I see a limited shelf life based on the fact that he's just not a regular guy. Ultimately, the absolutely singular focus he brings to his job will be his undoing. This is not to say he won't get other jobs...he will, but I predict that the lack of balance in his life/personality will be an ongoing problem for him. It's an extreme exaggeration, but Thibodeau's sort of a NBA head coach version of Dustin Hoffman's character in Rain Man. He needs a team full of Tom Cruises to make it work.
Maybe you should get pissed. Double overtime game. Snell was killing it. Hinrich played only six minutes. But there's a chance if you reallocate those minutes that the Bulls win in regulation, right?
Snell was getting killed on defense in the first half. He had to guard a 6'11" guy with 30 lbs on him. It was only the Bucks playing 3 guards that made playing Snell work at both ends. Notice that DunVP didn't return after being very good in Q3? He wasn't going to guard one of the Bucks' guards. Kirk didn't return.
I don't think he would have had the career he has had to point if this is the fair way to spin it. For instance, if he was prone to having the players tune him out and could not connect with them / motivate them due to being "odd", it would have happened already in the 5 years he's been here. It seems like quite the opposite actually, that most players play quite well under his coaching and often have career years or breakouts. Now, at some point, that may happen, but that is kind of natural to happen at some point to any coach. If its in year 6+ of his tenure though, I don't think that's a knock on him. If it was in year 1-2 of his tenure it would be more that way. If he had a limited shelf life, he would be done at this point. As an NBA assistant, he's already had a dream career. Universal acclaim, a ring with the Celtics (where the head coach and players like Garnett swear by him) and having his defensive principles be considered a bit of a defensive innovation across the league and ultimately adopted pretty much league-wide. Not many coaches ever have that kid of impact. As a head coach, he's had a ton of success. Every year has been a winning season, despite the Derrick Rose situation. Quickest coach to 100 wins. He has head coached the all-star game. He's coached a team to the #1 record in the league. He was selected to be a coach on Team USA. Playoffs every season. That's a coaching resume most NBA head coaches would be ecstatic to have. What remains is making it to the finals as NBA head coach and winning a ring as NBA head coach. Lebron James and the superteams built around him and Derrick Rose's knee have prevented this to this point. Still though, he could retire tomorrow and be one of the best NBA coaches in recent history really, based on his innovations, accomplishments and track record of success. The Bulls are lucky to have him. He should be lauded, not smeared.
For the vast majority of his career, he's been an assistant. There's a HUGE difference between being an assistant and being the head coach. In fact, I think obsessive tunnel vision may be a positive for an assistant, but a negative for a head coach. Ha Ha, I could lay out a similar narrative to glorify the Bulls front office, but I doubt you'd embrace it. If there was a HOF for NBA assistant coaches, Thibodeau would deserve a plaque. He's also done well as the Bulls' head coach, but neither he nor the Bulls FO have won anything meaningful during his Bulls' tenure. In my book, this means that the adjective "great" shouldn't be applied to either of them. Good is appropriate for both. I assume that you used the term "coach" rather than "head coach" on purpose. If you think he deserves to be considered one of the best NBA head coaches in recent history, I'd need to see your list and the time frame. I'll tell you what, if you want to say that Thibodeau is one of the best NBA head coaches in the past 10 years who hasn't made The Finals, I think I can support you on it. Having said all this, I don't want Thibodeau fired. I just think he's an odd duck and fear that his one-note personality could contribute to him eventually losing the team.
Over the time he's been a head coach, you could say head coach. Over the time he's been a coach of any type, you could say coach. There are few head coaches in history that have been as successful as Thibs over a 5 year stretch to start their career. There really isn't much else he could have done, other than the ring of course, which given Rose's knee and the Lebron superteams makes that not realistic. I'm sure you could. I would embrace it if it were true. I remember reading many such glorifications when singing the praises of the "Core 4" of Hinrich,Nocioni,Deng and Gordon. As for Thibs, I'm just listing his accomplishments, which are of course quite impressive.
Where is Ron Adams now? Defensive coach of the best team in the league. Brilliant move firing him. Given what we see, I'd take Adams' word on the state of things. Firing him looks petty, stupid, and arrogant. Thibs will have his pick of jobs. Of Pax and Gar, maybe Gar would find a job as a talent scout.
Curry and Chandler were the cornerstones of the franchise. Remember Pax saying that? Brilliant evaluator of talent. He drafted JWill and traded Aldridge for Tyrus. Can't duck the truth. Making the playoffs in the east isn't very hard. The 6th seed was a .500 team.
No you are not. You are listing team accomplishments. You only think you can assign credit for team accomplishments to any individual you choose.
Did the team get picked to coach Team USA? He also won Coach of the Year. That's a coaching accomplishment, right? Also, unlike Scott Brooks, Thibs has received 1st place votes for coach of the year every year he's been a head coach. That's a coaching accomplishment, right? League wide respect. Year after year.
I think Transplant is right: so many of these coaching awards are really team awards. Scott Brooks was coach of the year; Byron Russell was coach of the year; Sam Mitchell was coach of the year. And Monty Williams was also picked to coach Team USA. You think Thibs is a great coach? Fine. Argue about your impressions, because these awards don't seem to get you anywhere.
Well, I think that you are not going to like him since you blame him for Rose getting hurt to begin with, so there isn't really anything he can do to undo that, right? I'm just listing his accomplishments. Ultimately, that's the mark of a career as those can't be taken / spun away. Did Scott Brooks get 1st place votes for coach of the year for 5 straight seasons? How about Sam Mitchell? How about Byron Russell? As a Bulls fan, I've enjoyed the last 5 seasons for the most part and think he runs the team well. After watching Del Negro and Jim Boylen, I'm quite pleased with how the team usually plays, often under very difficult circumstances and feel that he's an asset. A bright basketball mind that manages the locker room well and usually gets the most out of the players he's given, oftentimes quite remarkably. If they can get someone in here that will get even more out of the players and get the team closer to winning the NBA Title, then by all means, get it done. We are trusting the guys that picked Del Negro over Thibs to make the decision though. In my world, Derrick Rose is problem number 1, given the amount he's paid and his lack of consistent production. Games like tonight, he's just not delivering the goods and earning his money. If, say, John Wall was earning that 19million this season I think the Bulls are the odds on to come out of the East. Thibs teams do best with strong rim protecting defenders at the 4 and 5 though. If Noah is done and Gibson is behind Mirotic, and that's how the organization wants to go, Thibs might be better served going elsewhere. If somehow he could coach Anthony Davis I think both he and the Pelicans would do quite well. I guess we'll just be hoping and praying that Hoiberg or whatever other guy the front office is comfortable working with will be at least competent.
