(Credit: Butch Dill/AP)
Earlier today, news broke of the New York Knicks hiring Tom Thibodeau as their new head coach. Fresh off a controversial suspension for berating Republican senator Josh Hawley, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reports that Thibodeau's deal with the Knicks is for five years. Thibodeau is a big name in the NBA, but if you look at his body of work, he looks more like a flash in the pan than a guy who is going places.
Thibodeau got on the head coaching radar during his days as an assistant coach with the Boston Celtics from 2007-10. He was known as the architect of the Celtics' championship defense in 2008 and being a hard-nosed tough guy that didn't take crap from anyone. After the success that the Celtics had with him, it made sense for some team to give him a shot as a head coach.
His first year as a head coach was with the Chicago Bulls in the 2010-11 season in which the Bulls had a league best 62-20 record. The Bulls reached the Eastern Conference Finals, losing to the Miami Heat 4-1. Derrick Rose was named the NBA's Most Valuable Player that year and Thibodeau was riding high as the coach who helped bring the Bulls back from the dead. The Bulls followed that season up with a 50-16 season, once again locking up the top seed in the NBA. Rather than going further than the year before and reaching the NBA Finals, the Bulls instead lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Philadelphia 76ers.
After looking like a championship might be coming back to the Windy City, things kinda went south for the Bulls and Thibodeau after two promising seasons. The Bulls went 45-37, 48-34, and 50-32 in Thibodeau's final three seasons with them. They were still a solid team, but not what they once were. A lot of that had to do with Derrick Rose getting worn down, something Thibodeau is known for doing to his star players. The Bulls wisely made the decision to part ways with Thibodeau after the 2014-15 season, realizing that they weren't going in the right direction.
After taking a year off, Thibodeau resurfaced as the head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves, going 31-51 in the 2016-17 season. It was a rebuilding year for the Wolves and not a lot was expected. The following season, 2017-18 season, was a success as the Wolves made the playoffs as the 8th seed in the West with a 47-35 record. It was their first trip to the playoffs since the 2003-04 season. Even though they lost in the first round to the Houston Rockets, things were looking up for Thibodeau and the Wolves after the season.
The 2018-19 season was a weird one in which the Timberwolves fired Thibodeau midway through the season after a rocky 19-21 start. Thibodeau and Jimmy Butler did not get along and more news was surfacing about how Thibodeau's players, particularly the stars, don't like getting worn down by him.
As for his new chapter with the Knicks, it's hard to see it going well. The best case scenario is that Thibodeau will be a good short-term hire for the Knicks, providing them with some toughness, discipline, and identity. But knowing that this is the Knicks, it can be safely assumed that this won't end well. The bottom line is that Thibodeau is a guy who had a couple good years as a head coach, but preaches an out-of-date, old school philosophy that beats his players to a pulp. It's not a recipe for long-term success, something that the Knicks clearly know very little about.
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