One thing's for sure, he is no Vinny Del Negro.
When the Bulls hired Del Negro in 2008, it's ironic, because they passed up an opportunity to hire Thibodeau. Both would have been rookie head coaches, though the Bulls went with the younger, cheaper Del Negro.
There's no question the Bulls played hard for Del Negro. In two seasons under Del Negro, the Bulls compiled an 82-82 record, reaching the playoffs in both seasons and giving fans plenty to cheer about in 2009, when they pushed the Kevin Garnett-less Celtics to seven games in the first round.
Though near the end of Del Negro's tenure, which finished in a five-game first round defeat at the hands of LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers, you knew the writing was on the wall. He simply didn't have the "it" factor. It's not a bad thing to be a players coach, but Del Negro was too much of one to garner the respect you want to see for a head coach.
Was he going to be Phil Jackson? No, but during his tenure in Chicago, the Bulls never had an identity. With a young team -- the Bulls still are one -- the head coach is usually the leader, someone who has his fingerprints on the team. Del Negro never had that.
Del Negro was fired after the 2009-10 season. He was a respectable coach, though always got the short end of the stick with critics.
Del Negro's offensive schemes were basic; his defensive schemes were, well, nonexistent. A coaching change was inevitable in Chicago, as the Bulls, with money to spend in the offseason, looked to turn the chapter from being a mediocre, .500 team to a championship-contender.
Although the Bulls missed out on LeBron, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Joe Johnson (not their fault) last offseason, they signed Carlos Boozer, Kyle Korver, Ronnie Brewer, Kurt Thomas, Keith Bogans and others. They didn't get the star to pair with Derrick Rose, but did get plenty of depth.
The biggest acquisition of all, however, was Thibodeau.
The Bulls interviewed a few candidates for their vacant head coaching position -- Dwane Casey and Maurice Cheeks the most prominent -- but it was Thiboeau's to lose, though he also had an offer from the New Orleans Hornets. As the Bulls looked to move into a new era, they needed a championship caliber coach to come along for the ride.
Who's better to lead them than Thibodeau, who served as the defensive guru on the best defensive team in the NBA (Celtics) from 2007-2010?
Said Paul Pierce, who played under Thibodeau and head coach Doc Rivers for three seasons, before the hiring became official: "Tom's a workaholic. I'm always catching him in there working, watching film in his office. He's probably the most prepared coach I've ever seen."
What was missing with Del Negro? An identity. The question always was: What will he bring to the table for the Bulls?
With Thibodeau on board on a three-year deal, neither of those questions were brought up. We knew what he'd bring to the table: Defense, defense, defense and some more defense.
After passing up Thiboeau for Del Negro in 2008, the Bulls finally got it right.
Even President Barack Obama loved the Bulls' hire of Thibodeau.
Said Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf: ''When the [head coaching] job was open again, I talked to [Arne] Duncan several times on the subject, and he still strongly recommended Thibodeau. So we hired him. Then in July 2010, the White Sox were playing in Washington, and we invited President Obama to come to the game.
''First, David Axelrod [then Obama's senior adviser] arrived and said, 'Thanks for hiring Thibodeau.' Then a little while later, President Obama came in and the first thing he said to me was, 'Great hire.'"
Great hire indeed.
As the saying goes, defense wins championships. Although the Bulls didn't get to the NBA Finals, coming three wins short, they notched an NBA-best 62-20 record and the league's top defense in the regular-season.
Rose went from a below average defender into a good one. Luol Deng called it his best overall season several times, mainly because of his increased involvement on both ends. The Bulls' bench -- self-proclaimed Bench Mob -- might not have been the best offensive cast out there, but their energy and defense was suffocating.
It's no coincidence that all this took place with Thibodeau roaming the sidelines. And he never sat. Whether it was the 11:07 mark of the first quarter or four-minute mark of the fourth quarter in a blowout game. He was always up, teaching and preaching defense.
He yelled, his players yelled. He preached defense, teamwork and a one-game-at-a-time mindset, his players followed.
Said Deng in mid-November, as the Bulls prepared for the annual Circus Trip: "We've just got to focus on one game at a time."
Little did he know, that mantra stuck for the entire season.
Rose was the league's MVP. But Thibodeau was the leader of these Bulls. He never let them get too high, or too low. Always kept an even-kill mentality with the young, and mostly inexperienced, Bulls.
"Sometimes I'm saying some things to my friends and I sound just like Coach [Thibodeau]," Deng said to ESPNChicago's Nick Fridell. "My friend would say something like, 'Let's do something, let's go to a movie. Let's go out or something,' and I'm like, 'No, come on, you've got to focus right now.' So I'm starting to sound a little bit [like him], but it's all right, I like that."
Added Rose: "He won a championship. We've got to follow him. He hasn't steered us wrong yet."
The Bulls didn't get to where they wanted this season, the NBA Finals, but one thing was for sure: From Game One to Game 98 of the season, Thibodeau's style were all over these Bulls.
They had the teamwork, the focus and the passion defensively all season long. Even in defeat, they gave it their all, although being looked at as the underdog practically all season.
Hey, so was Thibodeau. He had to serve as an assistant coach on six teams before getting his shot with the Bulls. And though the Bulls took two years to finally make the hire, it was made. Boy, did it work out.
Thibodeau won the NBA's Coach of the Year this season, and tied Paul Westphal's rookie head coaching record of 62 wins. If you told the Bulls they'd get a Coach of the Year type coaching job out of Thibodeau in Year One, that's a success.
The season wasn't a total success, because Thibodeau will be the first one to tell you anything short of a title was a disappointment this season. But just like the Bulls as a team, he'll only improve next season as a coach.
Given how big of a "workaholic" he is, the same coaching mistakes he made this season probably won't be happening next season.
The vibe was different with Thibodeau from the beginning. He was the leader of the 2010-11 Bulls, who needed him to be considering the team's youth. He had his imprints all over them.
When your players start sounding, talking and acting like you, it's a job well done.
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Source: http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicago-bulls-talk/2011/06/thibodeaus-imprints-all-over-2010-11-bulls.html
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