kekgeek1 wrote:Camden0916 wrote:KG4Ever wrote:Camden wrote:We already know that Sam Mitchell could get more out of our soft young players.
No disrespect to Lip or LST as they're the biggest Sam Mitchell backers on this board, but this line has got to stop getting thrown around. Using a 30-game sample size to argue that a coach was effective in any way is absurd in my book. Mitchell led that team to 29 wins and the fifth-worst record in the league. Let him go. You can effectively argue against Thibs as a head coach without trying to prop Mitchell up.
Mitchell isn't the long term answer, but he connected with players much better than Thibs. Don't know if we'd be doing better or worse now, but the team would be much more cohesive under Smitch.
Cohesive and losing is still losing. It's just without the extra headlines.
And if i'm remembering right 10 of those wins were where the opposing team was missing there best player.
I do think it is funny that the team this year is doing what we wanted thibs to do these last 2 years. We are playing fast, shooting a franchise record amount of 3s, we are playing a balanced rotation of minutes, he is playing a rookie a lot of minutes. He is yelling a lot less. Reports are he is focusing on coaching and letting the GM do the trade stuff.
The environment is toxic and that is part of his fault but he is adapting if you like it or not. He is doing what the majority wanted us to do.
In the end thibs will be the 2nd best coach in wolves history when it comes to winning %.
Just sucks the environment became this
I don't think you're remembering right from that season. :)
As for Thibodeau adapting, I see it a little but not much. There is still very little player movement and ball movement in the offense compared to most teams. The defense is still terrible and Thibodeau's negativity still permeates the bench and arena. I said back when the Wolves hired him that he was a bad choice simply because his personality wouldn't connect well with our players. That has proven to be true and it's at the core of what makes him a bad head coach for this team - and probably most modern NBA teams.
Of course, having the second best winning percentage among Wolves coaches is more of a source of embarrassment than accomplishment. Flip must be number 1 and he had KG. If Thibodeau ends up number 2 it will be because he had Butler. A better measure of Thibodeau as beach coach is to compare his record in his first season to Sam Mitchell's record the season before essentially the same core young players, but less experienced than when Thibodeau coached them. And while some like to dismiss the Wolves strong finish in Sam's season, the fact is the Wolves were a .500 team in the last third of Sam's season, yet finished 31 - 51 the next full season under Thibodeau.
The environment has become terrible on Thibodeau's watch as both head coach and PBO. That's on him and he has to go - even if he doesn't yell quite as much as last season and now has our players shooting more threes after being LAST in the League last season in three-point attempts.
