Thibs out

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

I'm not going to argue with you anymore because you just keep throwing the injury excuse in my face like I haven't heard it before. I'm telling you that isn't a good enough excuse in my book given the other talent he's had to just give him a pass for life until he finally has perfect injury luck. His coaching style will always keep him on the unlucky end of injuries which is the main thing you argue holds him back from being a championship caliber coach. At the end of the day de doesn't have a Rose here in MN and he's playing in the significantly tougher conference. To just assume he's going to be successful here because he was a great coach when he had an MVP caliber player on his team in the weaker conference by far is just ignoring the situation he would be inheriting.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

I have far more weight in my argument than you do. Thibs is a really good basketball head coach. Good night.

[Monster]

Thibs is a polarizing figure huh?

[TheGrey08]

I'm with Cam, Abe and others on this and I'm definitely seeing people wanting it both ways in this discussion. Thibs is a good coach who did well even when dealing with heavy injuries. Yes he's done well. Getting to/winning the Finals is not required in order to be considered successful in the playoffs. That's the type of mentality where there's 1 winner and everyone else are the terrible worthless LOSERS. Getting into the playoffs is a success. Winning series is a success. Getting to the Finals and winning it all just happens to be ultimate goal & biggest success. The top goal is to win it all, but the second goal is to be competitive which his teams certainly have been.

He's a great defensive coach who gets a lot out of his players, but probably would also be considered a bad/subpar offensive coach. I say probably b/c he's always had a good amount of good defensive players who are limited offensively, which does handicap an offense somewhat. He doesn't seem to do well at making adjustments (like Pop or Carlisle) and things especially in the playoffs when coaches are forced to do so. The argument certainly can also be made that his coaching style may lead players to be more susceptible to injury or run out of gas in the playoffs, but the injury bit is very speculative and is just as likely that his players have simply been terribly unlucky. We really don't know.


He clearly has strengths and weaknesses, but I would welcome as head coach. I'm not sold on him completely and don't think he's a perfect fit, but I'd love to see what he could do with this team defensively. It would be a no brainer get him as our defensive assistant, but there's no way he doesn't get a head coaching gig imo.

In a perfect world we would find the perfect fit for head coach, but I'm skeptical of that happening and think it's unlikely. Meanwhile I could see a coach like Thibs taking a young talented team like the Wolves, maximizing talent defensively and getting them into the playoffs. At that point if the team plateaued you move on like the Warriors & Thunder did.

[MikkeMan]

I cannot believe how anyone can argue that Thibbs would not be good playoff coach just by using his record. He has coached only five seasons during the time when only team that has LeBron James the best player in whole league has been able to get finals from Eastern conference. Thibb's Chicago has been the only team that has got playoffs from East every season during that time. Even Spoelstra couldn't get Miami to playoffs when LeBron left and he had still better team there left than many of those Thibbs Chicago teams that were missing Rose were.

Thibbs have been able to win playoff games with guys like Marco Belinelli, Nate Robinson, Keith Bogans, C.J. Watson and Kirk Hinrich as starters. None of them have been starting for any other playoff team after their time in Chicago and most of them did not started for playoff team even before their time with Thibbs. Even his better players like Deng or Boozer have not flourished after their time in Chicago, so it really looks like Thibbs has got most out of the players he has had.

I still don't like how many minutes Thibbs plays those players he really trusts (like Deng, Butler, Noah and Rose) but I cannot argue about the results that he has got. It also seems that he has got better also in controlling his players minutes since he got NBA's most injury prone player Rose to play all playoff games.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/the-bulls-just-fired-one-of-the-best-coaches-in-nba-history/

Never mind Thibs, how about our own Flip Saunders coming in at #4!

I haven't seen any commentary on this article, but I find it a compelling argument for Thibs. Over the course of his career, his teams have won 7.5 more games per season than they were expected to! To put that in perspective, the godlike Popovich only exceeded expectations by 4.3 wins per year (only slightly better than Flip). What makes Thibs' (and frankly, Flip's) overachieving even more remarkable is that he has had to deal with crippling injuries in a couple of his seasons.

I was on the fence about Thibs before seeing this, but now I know there is a coach available out there who has overachieved more than Pop, and by a significant amount. That combined with his emphasis on defense has me convinced. Glen, take a run at him.

[Monster]

I'm with Cam, Abe and others on this and I'm definitely seeing people wanting it both ways in this discussion. Thibs is a good coach who did well even when dealing with heavy injuries. Yes he's done well. Getting to/winning the Finals is not required in order to be considered successful in the playoffs. That's the type of mentality where there's 1 winner and everyone else are the terrible worthless LOSERS. Getting into the playoffs is a success. Winning series is a success. Getting to the Finals and winning it all just happens to be ultimate goal & biggest success. The top goal is to win it all, but the second goal is to be competitive which his teams certainly have been.

He's a great defensive coach who gets a lot out of his players, but probably would also be considered a bad/subpar offensive coach. I say probably b/c he's always had a good amount of good defensive players who are limited offensively, which does handicap an offense somewhat. He doesn't seem to do well at making adjustments (like Pop or Carlisle) and things especially in the playoffs when coaches are forced to do so. The argument certainly can also be made that his coaching style may lead players to be more susceptible to injury or run out of gas in the playoffs, but the injury bit is very speculative and is just as likely that his players have simply been terribly unlucky. We really don't know.


He clearly has strengths and weaknesses, but I would welcome as head coach. I'm not sold on him completely and don't think he's a perfect fit, but I'd love to see what he could do with this team defensively. It would be a no brainer get him as our defensive assistant, but there's no way he doesn't get a head coaching gig imo.

In a perfect world we would find the perfect fit for head coach, but I'm skeptical of that happening and think it's unlikely. Meanwhile I could see a coach like Thibs taking a young talented team like the Wolves, maximizing talent defensively and getting them into the playoffs. At that point if the team plateaued you move on like the Warriors & Thunder did.

This post is pretty close to where I am at with Thibs. I get where everyone is coming from in this this thread I get where people are coming from that don't want him. There has been enough chatter you have to wonder what all went down. it will be interesting to see how Thibs career unfolds maybe we get some answers to some of the negative reports that are out there. We may not. This discussion just shows again how it can be difficult to qualify the impact of coaching on a team's success or in some cases failure.

[Carlos Danger]

I can't see Thibodeau coming to the Wolves. I'm not saying he's a bad coach (his record speaks for itself). But just like any job, getting along with others plays a big part in "fit". If the reports coming out of Chicago are true (and I have to assume they are or they wouldn't have fired him), then Thibodeau was the guy who wants to do it his way and F everyone else's input/opinions. There is no way that would mesh with Flip and Glen. IMO, it's more likely they end up hiring Sam Mitchell or similar type coach that would fit into the boys club.

[bleedspeed]

I agree with you Carlos. I am not sure it is that way or not.

BTW: I really like having you and TRKO on-board as regular posters.

[Phenom]

I saw on RubeChat that a writer from the Chicago Sun Times said on Bumper to Bumper that "Minnesota has come up from Thibodeau's camp".

He likes Flip, Wiggins and is a KG guy.

For those who think he'd never come here. FWIW. I wonder if Bump will ask Flip about it.