Coaches earn their money in the playoffs. In 2013 Tom Thibodeau
earned every cent, laughing in the face of injury after injury whilst modestly
stacking up unexpected win after win. George Karl won Coach of the Year for a
great regular season, but if a coach of the playoffs award existed the Bulls
coach is a runaway winner. Perhaps the only other coach in contention would be
Golden States Mark Jackson, who exceeded expectations in his first taste of the
playoffs as a coach. An underrated but by no means exceptional X’s and O’s guy,
incredible motivator and a definite players coach – Jackson upset the fast
paced Nuggets before giving the Spurs a lot of trouble in the second round
where Steph Curry’s agonizing, pitiful, feeble excuses for ankles and the Spurs
relentless efficiency colluded to end Jackson’s postseason. It was a great run
and the future looks bright for a young and talented Warriors roster.
Tibs and his Bulls have had a conference worth’s experience
with pitiful body parts this year, let’s take a painful trip down memory lane
and look at the bruised and battered Bulls season…
Derrick Rose - former MVP, perennial All-Star, cornerstone
of Chicago’s offense, franchise and City - was out for the season with a torn
ACL.
Joakim Noah - All-Star centre, defensive general and soul of
the team – battles with plantar fasciitis all year and hobbles into the
playoffs. He plays but isn’t close to 100 percent.
Luol Deng – 2 time All-Star, iron man of the NBA and
probably the league’s best “glue guy” -
also battles a torn ligament in his wrist all year before succumbing to
meningitis in the 1st round of the playoffs and having to sit out
the remainder of the post-season.
The list is ridiculous. Kirk Hinrich missed 22 games in the
regular season with a strained hip, groin, elbow as well as sore thumbs and
toes. He then misses game 7 of the 1st round and beyond with a sore
calf. Richard Hamilton missed 32 games in the regular season and languished on
the bench throughout the playoffs due to lack of game shape.
Putting this into Eastern Conference perspective - I wonder
how good Miami would be without Lebron (Rose), Wade (Deng), Battier (Hinrich),
Allen (Hamilton) and with a banged up Bosh (Noah) carrying the team?
How about Indiana without 2 Danny Grangers (Rose), George
(Deng), Hill (Hinrich), Stephenson (Hamilton) and a banged up Roy Hibbert?
What about New York absent Melo (Rose), Smith (Deng),
Shumpert (Hinrich), Kidd (Hamilton) and a banged up Tyson Chandler?
In this debilitated context the way Thibodeau has steered a
seemingly sinking ship past the higher seeded Brooklyn in 7 games and into a
competitive (to start with) series with a full strength Miami Heat is nothing
short of miraculous. It is testament to an extremely talented coach
implementing a system so efficient and robust that it has tamed the anarchic
Nate Robinson, turned Italian journeyman Marco Belinelli into a productive
playoff performer, and facilitated the growth of “Glue-All” Deng 2.0 – Jimmy
Butler – who was a steal at the 30th pick in 2011.
The greatest players and coaches of all time made the guys
around them better – maximizing contribution. Thibodeau has achieved this to
extremes, and hasn’t got nearly enough credit. He hasn’t just carried his team
this year, he’s dragged them through some of the worst luck imaginable, with
the taglines “Next man up” and “More than enough to win” masking equal parts
coaching genius and work ethic. The Bulls are a team carefully created in his
image, high character guys who understand the game.
The fact that the wheels came off a couple of times for Heat
blowouts in games 2 and 4 doesn’t take away from Thibodeau’s genius, those
games were just Miami showing how good (and fresh) they were.
If I’m Miami, a healthy Bulls team led by a healthy Derrick
Rose next season is a very, very scary prospect.
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