Tom Thibodeau has pressure to win this season

Tom Thibodeau is what people involved in basketball call a lifer. He has been coaching since 1981. He has no wife or kids. When he finally gets out of the film room at the Berto Center late at night, he goes home to watch… more film.

Thibodeau started working in the NBA in 1989. He has worked as an assistant coach for the Minnesota Timberwolves, San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers, New York Knicks, Houston Rockets and Boston Celtics.

It was not until 2010, 22 seasons after entering the NBA, when Thibodeau was finally hired as a head coach. The Chicago Bulls were blown away in his interview and they scooped him up.

Thibodeau’s first season as a coach was a memorable one. He led the Bulls to a 62-20 record, tied the record for most wins by a rookie head coach and won the NBA’s Coach of the Year Award. In his four seasons with the Bulls, he has not finished lower than third in voting for that award.

Tom Thibodeau has made the best of his first opportunity as a head coach. Instead of building on that success, the pressure is mounting on him. He has been receiving more criticism than a coach with a career record of 205-107 should.

One thing that people first notice about Thibodeau is his relentlessness. He is singular-minded when it comes to basketball. He wants his players to go all out on every play. You can have your All Star Game where things are loosey goosey. You have to play hard, and you have to play hard on every play.

Playing hard is probably why Thibodeau has such a love for defense. To play good defense, you have to make a commitment to it. If you are willing to make that commitment, why not go all the way and try to completely shut down your opponent?

That relentlessness is part of why Thibodeau is facing criticism.

There is Gregg Popovich on one end of the spectrum, a coach who has no problems with sitting his entire starting lineup (even sending them home on occasion) if it means being better rested for the playoffs. Then there is Thibodeau, who plays a January game against the Milwaukee Bucks as if it was a Finals game.

Working his players as tough as he does, Thibodeau risks having them turn off. Somehow, his players understand his system and would go through brick walls for him. The relationship between him and his players can be shaky, though.

When Joakim Noah accepted his Defensive Player of the Year Award, he acknowledged that Thibodeau isn’t the easiest coach to play for, but he loved him. “I remember one day we were working out at the Berto Center and Thibs was putting me through a real grueling workout and I told him, ‘You know, Thibs? If we weren’t winning games I would really, really hate you.’ And he said, ‘Trust me, Jo. I feel the same way about you.'”

By having his players go hard every minute of every game, Thibodeau risks injuries to his players. And, boy, have the Bulls had some injuries.

The biggest injury in the Thibodeau era, of course, is Derrick Rose’s torn ACL. It occurred in the first game of the 2012 playoffs. The Bulls were cruising against the Sixers. After having a twenty point lead cut to twelve late in the fourth quarter, Thibodeau decided he needed Rose back in to seal the victory. With 1:22 remaining in the game, Rose went up for a shot and heard a pop when he came down.

Rose’s injury was just one of a laundry list of injuries during Thibodeau’s time in Chicago. Noah has had knee and arch injuries that he has dealt with for the last four seasons.

In last year’s playoffs, Jimmy Butler was battling injuries, and Noah again was dealing with a knee problem. Taj Gibson was also dealing with knee trouble. This time, the Bulls made an early exit thanks to the Washington Wizards. In the 2012 playoffs, the Bulls resembled a MASH unit. Noah could barely walk. Kirk Hinrich had a variety of maladies. Nate Robinson was vomiting during timeouts. Luol Deng almost lost his life after having a spinal tap. To this day, many are still wondering how they beat the Brooklyn Nets in a Game 7 on their home court.

If the Bulls are to succeed in the playoffs, Thibodeau must reduce the players’ minutes. He must give them some rest. He must relax a little bit and not expect the sky to fall if a big lead is cut and there is about a minute left in the game. Winning by 10 points counts the same as winning by 30.

The other reason Thibodeau faces criticism is for his offensive prowess, or lack thereof.

While the Bulls’ defense under Thibodeau is at or near the top every year, the offense has not. In his first season, the team ranked 20th on offense. In his second year, it ranked 18th. In year number three, it tied for last, and last year the Bulls owned the worst offense all by themselves.

Just as the Thibodeau-run defense grinds, so does the offense. It works on defense, but not so much on offense. The players have to work hard just to get a bucket. With the minutes the players make, having to work hard on offense adds to their ultimate fatigue. An offense needs some easy baskets once in awhile. Even when their defense creates turnovers, they cannot convert them into fast break easy points.

Thibodeau has also been criticized for not making proper adjustments. In the Eastern Conference Finals in 2011 against the Miami Heat, Thibodeau had to decide whether to use Gibson, or Carlos Boozer. He stayed with Boozer, even while the Heat specifically attacked him and got big buckets on him.

Thibodeau’s offense depends on Derrick Rose too much. He overly relies on Rose dribble drives or screen and rolls. Opposing defenses just collapse on Rose, running an extra defender on him. Thibodeau hasn’t been creative enough to figure a way to use someone else or get the extra defender off of Rose.

Even in the memorable first Thibodeau season, he used Rose too much. As you can see above, Rose’s points, assists and rebounds were basically the same between the regular season and playoffs, but Rose had to work harder. His minutes went up, and as he played more minutes, his shooting percentage went down.

Also, in those playoffs, the Bulls scored 1,480 points. Rose scored 434, or 29.3 percent of those points. The next highest scorer for the Bulls was Deng, but he only scored 18 percent of the Bulls’ total points.

In contrast, the Heat scored 1,948 points. The two leading scorers for them were Dwyane Wade and LeBron James. Wade scored 26 percent of the Heat’s points, while James scored 25 percent. You could very well see how at the end of games James was able to shut Rose down.

This season should be different for Thibodeau and the Bulls. They signed Pau Gasol and Aaron Brooks via free agency. They traded up to draft Doug McDermott. They bought out Nikola Mirotic’s Spanish contract and brought him over to the NBA.

These additions have greatly improved Thibodeau’s options on offense. Gasol and Mirotic can score in the post or from the outside. Brooks brings offense off the bench, and can backup Jimmy Butler at shooting guard or help out at point guard (in case something might happen to Rose or Hinrich).

With Mike Dunleavy Jr, Noah, Gibson and Tony Snell, the Bulls now have the depth to take some pressure off of Rose. The shooters will spread the floor for him to penetrate the defense, and now when they run an extra man out on him, he can dish off and have confidence that someone else will make that defense pay.

Now that some of the pressure is off of Rose, a lot of it is on Tom Thibodeau.