For Bulls, Thibodeau as big a key as any
The Bulls are 3-0 against the Heat this season for one reason, and his name isn’t Derrick Rose.
It’s Tom Thibodeau.
Don’t blame Heat players for crying after their most recent loss to the Bulls. They’re just sad that Erik Spoelstra is their head coach and Thibodeau isn’t.
Trade these guys for each other and the Bulls might be 0-3 against the Heat.
The NBA is a players’ league, but coaching matters. That might surprise people because there’s so little of it going on.
As impressive as Rose has been, Thibodeau has been just as impressive if not more.
Spoelstra looks like he does what most NBA head coaches do. He defers to star players and lets them do what they want when they want.
Players still need and want coaching and discipline. Thibodeau is a coach who needs and wants to provide them.
A man must be secure to impose those elements upon NBA players, and Thibodeau’s 62-game rookie sampling indicates he isn’t afraid to.
Thibodeau already has been seen barking at Carlos Boozer, Kyle Korver and any other player who messes up, especially on defense.
Oh, you say, neither Boozer nor Korver is Rose, nor does Rose have as much NBA equity as LeBron James and Dwyane Wade have.
Trust me, though, if any of those players deserved to be criticized he too would incur the Wrath of Thibs.
Forcefully making his point appears to be this coach’s nature rather than an affectation.
Thibodeau came to Chicago and let the players know quickly that he is the coach. Meanwhile, James and Wade let everyone in Miami know they are large and in charge.
From here it’s difficult to imagine that Spoelstra ever rips James or Wade a new ear hole when they overstep his authority or strategy.
Not only that, but after the Bulls beat the Heat on Sunday it’s difficult to imagine that Spoelstra is putting James and Wade in position to maximize their talent.
During Heat slumps the two superstars talk like it’s their job to figure out a fix. No, it’s the coach’s job to figure it out and the players’ job to execute it.
From the start, Thibodeau impressed the Bulls with his knowledge of and commitment to basketball.
If the Bulls kept losing close games in the final seconds, they would expect Thibodeau to try something else and if that didn’t work that he’d think of something else to try.
The Heat can’t hit a late shot to win a game, with the same guys executing the same plays with the same failed results as the clock ran down and out.
Bulls players know they’re getting everything Thibodeau has. They trust that he has no agenda other than winning.
Just guessing here, but if Thibodeau coached the Heat he would decide who gets the ball when, where and how.
Thibodeau would pick on James and Wade when appropriate, and they would respond out of respect that he knows what he’s talking about.
All this adds up to a lot of praise for a man who has been an NBA head coach for little more than four months of a regular season.
I don’t mean to make Thibodeau sound like a godsend, but good coaches and bad coaches have come through this town and it’s easy to recognize that this one has started out in the direction of being one of the better ones.
It’s scary to think how well the Heat might play if it finds its very own Tom Thibodeau.
Heck, all of Miami might cry for joy.
mimrem@dailyherald.com