Tom Thibodeau lost power and authority throughout his successful tenure as coach of the Bulls. Now, he’s trying to grab that back and more.
As The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports, Thibs, who is a coaching candidate just about everywhere that doesn’t already have a bench leader, doesn’t just want to be a coach when he signs with his next organization.
From The Vertical:
Tom Thibodeau is pursuing the Minnesota Timberwolves’ president of basketball operations and coaching job because of his determination to have full control of an organization, league sources told The Vertical.
Thibodeau wants to have final say on player personnel, organizational philosophy and hirings, league sources said, and that’s only available with the Minnesota opening now.
If he doesn’t end up with Minnesota, Thibodeau will still consider coaching jobs without full control, but his preference is clearly to have it, league sources said.
If he were to earn it with the Timberwolves, Thibodeau would be the fourth current NBA coach to garner full control in an organization, joining Doc Rivers with the Clippers, Stan Van Gundy with the Pistons and Mike Budenholzer with the Hawks. Of course, you could argue five coaches have full control if you include Gregg Popovich with the Spurs, but his business relationship with general manager R.C. Buford is different — because of time together and Buford’s increased duties — than Van Gundy’s or Rivers’ with their general managers.
It appears from Wojnarowski’s tone that Thibs would be searching for a culture more in the Rivers/SVG category.
That’s a dangerous route to go, though. Giving away two full-time jobs to one man, even if you already have Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins and more, has risk. That’s true even if you do respect Thibodeau’s coaching skills. And there’s every reason to respect those.
Thibs racked up a 255-139 record during his five years coaching the Bulls. He took the team to the playoffs each season, despite major injury erosion to the roster over his final three years.
Of course, Thibodeau still has his flaws, the most obvious and well-known being that he plays his best players an exorbitant amount of minutes. And if there is no front-office official around him with equal or higher standing to call him out on those flaws, to create some sort of productive dialog inside the organization, will his brilliance as a defensive coach and his success as a great point-guard coach be able to mask those issues?
The downfall in Chicago came in Thibs’ relationship with GM Gar Forman and the Bulls’ front office. It’s clear why the free-agent coach wants full autonomy in that sense. If he’s the coach and the front office, then that’s no longer an issue. But giving away such a position isn’t always problematic for a franchise because of intelligence alone. It’s can be an issue because of limited time and running the risk of stretching yourself too thin.
To find success in a joint front office/coaching role, you need to be able to delegate. You need to hire people you trust to supply you with information that you may not have the time to gather so you can make the best decision for the organization. It seems to be working out alright so far in Detroit. That’s not so much the case in Los Angeles.
We may soon learn how it would go in Minnesota.
(Via The Vertical)
