Dose: Bulldozed
I hope you have a fun trip or a lot of work coming up this week. Thursday was the first of seven days we’ll be deprived of NBA basketball. We’ve also seen the last NBA game on Wednesday or Saturday. As you could expect, it was a fairly quiet news day for the players.
On the other hand, the inevitable news came down in Chicago. The Bulls fired Tom Thibodeau on Thursday and the way they did it is like nothing we’ve ever seen. Usually, teams will say “best of luck” or some sort of respectful dismissal, but that didn’t happen in the Chicago statement today. Here is the entire statement. It’s long, but it was something else:
Chicago Bulls General Manager Gar Forman announced today that Tom Thibodeau will not be retained as the team’s head coach.
Chicago Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said, “The Chicago Bulls have a history of achieving great success on and off the court. These accomplishments have been possible because of an organizational culture where input from all parts of the organization has been welcomed and valued, there has been a willingness to participate in a free flow of information, and there have been clear and consistent goals. While the head of each department of the organization must be free to make final decisions regarding his department, there must be free and open interdepartmental discussion and consideration of everyone's ideas and opinions. These internal discussions must not be considered an invasion of turf, and must remain private. Teams that consistently perform at the highest levels are able to come together and be unified across the organization-staff, players, coaches, management and ownership. When everyone is on the same page, trust develops and teams can grow and succeed together. Unfortunately, there has been a departure from this culture. To ensure that the Chicago Bulls can continue to grow and succeed, we have decided that a change in the head coaching position is required. Days like today are difficult, but necessary for us to achieve our goals and fulfill our commitments to our fans. I appreciate the contributions that Tom Thibodeau made to the Bulls organization. I have always respected his love of the game and wish him well in the future.”
Following 21 years in the NBA as an assistant coach (he was an advance scout in 1991-92), Chicago named Thibodeau the team’s head coach on June 23, 2010. During his five seasons at the helm of the Bulls, Thibodeau’s teams compiled an overall record of 255-139 (.647). The Bulls advanced to the playoffs five times during Thibodeau’s tenure, where he posted a postseason record of 23-28 (.451).
"When Tom was hired in 2010, he was right for our team and system at that time, and over the last five years we have had some success with Tom as our head coach,” said Chicago Bulls General Manager Gar Forman. “But as we looked ahead and evaluated how we as a team and an organization could continue to grow and improve, we believed a change in approach was needed.”
So what stands out? Jerry Reinsdorf hasn’t exactly been the most level-headed guys since his Michael Jordan days and he’s a bit stubborn. The "there must be free and open interdepartmental discussion and consideration of everyone's ideas and opinions” jumps out and pretty much sums up why the Bulls decided to part ways. Furthermore, the "internal discussions must not be considered an invasion of turf” is worded harshly and it suggests the Bulls and Thibs had some heated arguments. Basically, this seems like a well-worded, petty way to end this relationship.
Coach Jeff Van Gundy called the Chicago media “repulsive” in the reporting of the Thibs firing. However, basically every Chicago media person had a similar tone regarding this situation. They all knew things were heating up and it’s not like they shared the details of these arguments. However, I'm not really sure what to think of the report of three starters ripping Thibodeau in their exit interviews, according to Dan Bernstein of CBS Chicago. Maybe that's what JVG was talking about.
One of the biggest issues leading to the front office and Thibs not being on the same page was the firing of assistant coach Ron Adams. Forman apparently had the final say on not bringing Adams back in the summer of 2013, but Thibodeau didn’t appear to be too combative back then. He probably just resented them since. Personally, I don’t blame Thibs and the team that picks him up is going to be better.
Anyway, let’s talk about some basketball and what this means. For now, it sounds like Fred Hoiberg is the heavy favorite. Hoiberg is the current Iowa State head coach, a former NBA player and widely considered as the best coaching candidate in college right now -- excluding the big-name guys. Of course, the last time the Bulls went to the Cyclone well in Iowa State, they wound up with Tim Floyd, who is unquestionably the worst coach the Bulls have had since at least the 80s. Hoiberg’s teams run uptempo, which explains why they’ve been in the top 15 for scoring in each of the last three seasons. We’ll delve a little deeper on this subject once the Bulls make a decision. One thing we can definitely expect is the Bulls to have some worse defense and a faster pace. Here’s some league rankings of the Bulls in the Thibodeau era (via Jon Schuhmann of NBA.com):
His teams never cracked the top 20 in pace and were top five for defensive rating in four of his five seasons. For DFS, the Bulls will be a much, much better opponent while their players have a higher upside, too.
As for Thibs, you have to think he’s headed to New Orleans. He’s going to face some competition from Van Gundy and he could wind up as the assistant to JVG, which does seem doubtful. We’ll also see if the Magic do indeed bring back Scott Skiles. For what it’s worth, there were some reports of the Magic preparing to throw some big money at Thibodeau. Also, fantasy owners are going to hate the Magic with Skiles as their head coach. He changes his rotation more than Lil B changes his curses and the Magic having so many versatile players spells trouble.
The other interesting news of the day is the health of Klay Thompson. Thursday evening, Thompson’s agent, Bill Duffy, said his client didn’t have a concussion. Umm, what?
Thompson caught a running knee to the head from Trevor Ariza and the team stitched him up for an ear laceration. After the game, Thompson said in a post-game interview that he was “a little dizzy” and the Warriors would release a statement that Thompson had shown concussion symptoms after the game. His dad, Mychal Thompson, said Klay was throwing up and wasn’t feeling well, which are textbook concussion symptoms. Could he have been sick from losing blood? Maybe. Whatever the case may be, the NBA and its concussion protocol need some work. Maybe they should have 50 replays of head injuries with Steve Javie and some medical experts. Kidding aside, Klay shouldn’t have been back in the game last night.
Looking ahead, Thompson should probably still go through the protocol. If he’s not showing symptoms now, he can do some work on the stationary bike today and begin activity on Saturday. He should be ready to go for the weekend. I’ll be here for Daily Dose on Sunday morning and am planning on doing a preview of the NBA Finals, assuming no other big news breaks.
In other news, Julius Randle has been cleared for full contact. He should be ready to go for summer league in July. Randle was tremendous in summer league last year and he’s probably in the top five for best storylines to watch in Vegas. Just like in the past two seasons, I’ll be there and covering all the action in Daily Dose and on Twitter @MikeSGallagher.
Dwyane Wade may not be opting in with the Heat and he’s reportedly looking for a three-year, $50 million deal, according to Michael Wallace of ESPN. As we’ve seen the past three seasons, the wheels are starting to fall off, so the Heat probably won’t be too eager to get this deal done. Wade was third in usage rate last season and was great while he was out there, but the risk of injury has just grown to be too much. Maybe they’ll meet in the middle.
