Thibodeau tough? Rose thinks so, but doesn't mind
There is no doubting Derrick Rose and first-year coach Tom Thibodeau have been on the same page since they first joined forces last summer.
With the Bulls sitting atop the Eastern Conference standings at 56-20, it's becoming increasingly likely Rose will win MVP and Thibodeau coach of the year.
Here's where the star player and coach disagree: The degree of Thibodeau's intensity.
While comparing Thibodeau to his college coach at Memphis, John Calipari, Rose made it clear he sees Thibodeau as a tough, demanding leader. That's not a bad thing, either.
“I love it. He yells at me a lot because he knows I can take it,” Rose said. “I don't show that much emotion when people talk to me anyway. He's hard on me. But I just go with the flow, go out there and do what he tells me to do.”
When those thoughts were mentioned to Thibodeau at the Berto Center, the coach made the universal facial expression for, “I don't agree.”
“I would say it's more constructive criticism than yelling,” Thibodeau said with a laugh.
However his message gets across, Thibodeau is clearly demanding. That's obvious from his comments to the media. He can be happy with a win, but disgusted by an opponent shooting too high a percentage. At least 10 times a week, he'll set a goal for the Bulls of becoming a 48-minute team, which we can assume means giving maximum effort for an entire contest.
“Every single game, he's tough,” Rose said. “Saying mental mistakes can't happen in the playoffs and things like that. When you think about it, it's true. Turnovers, not getting back, not calling out the defense — that stuff can hurt you in the playoffs. He's just making sure he's holding everyone accountable.
“We've got a lot of good guys. I think if there's anyone on the team who would ever talk back to him, it would probably have to be Joakim (Noah), telling him to slow down. Everybody else on this team, I think he knows we can handle it.”
Rose was joking about the Noah talking back part. Maybe half-joking.
This exchange raises the question of how a coach chooses to handle his players. This is Thibodeau's first head coaching job since the 1984-85 season at Salem (Mass.) State. Rose, 22, isn't exactly Kobe Bryant or Allen Iverson, but he is the undisputed leader of the Bulls. The coach/star player relationship can be tricky.
“You can't change who you are,” Thibodeau said. “You have to coach the way you believe you should coach. Coaches have different types of personalities. There's no one way to do it. There are a lot of right ways to do it.
“I think it's important, you've got to have players that are coachable. We're fortunate here to have that. I've been fortunate throughout my career to have great players who wanted to be coached. I think that's what makes a great player special.”
Thibodeau was in on a delicate coaching situation that became a tremendous success story. He was an assistant to Doc Rivers when Boston's “Big Three” of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen won a championship in their first season together.
“We thought there wouldn't be a problem with coaching them,” Thibodeau said. “We knew the challenge coming in was if we can get them all on the same page. You're talking about three guys who had been taking 20-plus shots a game. Now they were all going down to 14, 15 and 16. That's a huge sacrifice. That also told us a lot about them, that they were willing to do that to win a championship.”
The Bulls could potentially have a Big Three on the roster, but this year it's been Rose and the perfect storm of role players. Three more wins this week, though, and they'll be in the same spot as Boston was three years ago, the top playoff seed in the Eastern Conference.