Thibs fondly recalls his days with T'wolves
Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau performed a bit of self-analysis after Wednesday's practice.
As has been typical this month, Thibodeau talked about the challenge of getting his team to perform at a high level. This time, he added some history from his time coaching with Bill Musselman, who plucked Thibodeau out of Harvard and gave him his first NBA job in 1989 with the expansion Minnesota Timberwolves.
"The guy was an unbelievable coach, Bill Musselman," Thibodeau said. "I forget how many games we won (22). But every night, that team overachieved. They were in every game.
"When I watched the way he coached, I was amazed at his ability to get the most out of his team. I don't think that year anyone in the league did a better job of coaching than he did. Every situation is different. Every team is different."
Musselman, who died in 2000, was quite a character, quoting "The Art of War," long before Scott Skiles ever picked up the book. Musselman also coached at the University of Minnesota in the 1970s and had a long string of success in the CBA.
Compared to Musselman, Thibodeau probably qualifies as calm, cool and collected.
"Often times when you have an older and experienced team, the urgency sometimes isn't there," Thibodeau said, focusing again on the present. "You have to get it there. A big part of your job is having your team ready to go."
Rest scheduled in advance:
Once the regular season gets rolling, Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau doesn't practice very often. So far in the preseason, though, it's been all about the work, with two days off over 16 days.
"As soon as (the schedule) comes out, I map out the whole season of when I think we should have a day off," Thibodeau said. "(It's) based on the back-to-backs, how many days you've gone, so you have a framework to go off of. There's some rules you have in place of how many consecutive days do you want to go? How much contact do you want to have in practice? What's a live drill, what's a scrimmage? So there are different ways you can pace your team.
"When we were in Boston in '08, that was a great practice team. They were unreal, maybe the best practice team I was ever with. You had (Kevin) Garnett, who was incredible, but also had (Paul) Pierce and Ray Allen, and they were great leaders. They worked at it every day, and they never let anyone have a day off."
Bull horns:
Center Solomon Jones skipped Wednesday's practice, but Pau Gasol returned after a precautionary day off. "He had a good day today," coach Tom Thibodeau said of Gasol. "He's an old pro. He knows his body well. I thought he was sharp." … Thibodeau on the quality of Wednesday's session: "Today was a good day. But we can't be one day good, one day bad. We have to put a string of them together." … The Bulls will play their fifth preseason game Thursday against Atlanta at the United Center.