In early February, a report surfaced that Tom Thibodeau wants to coach the New York Knicks. His former players all but confirmed that to be true.
Mere days after the New York Knicks announced the firing of head coach Derek Fisher, Tom Thibodeau’s name surfaced on the rumor mill. Ian O’Connor of ESPN reported that Thibodeau wants the Knicks job so badly that he’d, “Crawl to Madison Square Garden.”
Less than two months later, what sounded like quiet on the home front is proving to have been the calm before the storm.
Thibodeau’s name is back in the New York headlines, and with good reason. It’s not an unsubstantiated report that requires dissecting, but an acknowledgement from one of Thibodeau’s former players that he’s interested in the potential head coaching vacancy.
Per Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News, Chicago Bulls big man Taj Gibson spoke candidly about Thibodeau’s love affair with New York City and the Knicks.
"“That’s all we talked about is the New York atmosphere and how he’s had tough-minded New York teams,” Gibson told the Daily News. “And that’s something we talked about all the time and that’s what we tried to incorporate the last couple of years. All-around, he’s a good guy.“Almost every day we talked about his time in New York. We talked about them battles the Knicks used to have. Just talk about Knicks stuff in general. He loves New York. He always had high praise talking about the Knicks.”"
All signs point towards the Knicks being the leading candidate to hire Thibodeau during the summer of 2016.
Thibodeau was an assistant coach for the Knicks from 1996 to 2004. Over that eight-season span, he helped New York make six postseason appearances, including trips to the 1999 NBA Finals and 2000 Eastern Conference Finals.
Thus, the foundation for the Thibodeau to New York rumors runs far deeper than the typically optimistic, “Big name to the Knicks,” speculation.
After leaving New York in 2004, Thibodeau linked back up with Jeff Van Gundy, whom he’d coached under with the Knicks. The two helped restore the Houston Rockets to relevancy during the mid-2000s.
Thibodeau then joined Doc Rivers‘ coaching staff in 2007. His defensive proficiency as a coach played a critical role in the Boston Celtics winning an NBA championship in 2008, and reaching the NBA Finals again in 2010.
On the strength of his championship ring and three total NBA Finals appearances as an assistant, Thibodeau was hired as the head coach of the Bulls in 2010.
In Chicago, Thibodeau accumulated a regular season win percentage of .647 over five seasons. He led the Bulls to the 2011 Eastern Conference Finals, and overcame injury-ravaged rosters to make Chicago a perennial force to be reckoned with.
Derrick Rose, whose injuries caused the most significant damage to the legitimacy of the Bulls’ championship aspirations during the Thibodeau era, is quite confident that his former coach can be successful at his next stop.
"“Anywhere is a good spot for Thibs. He just needs a team,” Rose said. “He’s a good coach, a hell of a coach. And I think wherever he goes he’ll have success. It’s in his DNA.”"
There are well-documented concerns about how Thibodeau would fit in New York, but he clearly has the coaching acumen to turn this organization around.
Thibodeau is an elite defensive mind who knows how to get players to buy into his system and play their hearts out for 48 minutes. One of the primary issues for coach Thibs, however, is that he almost literally asks players to play their hearts out for 48 minutes.
Thibodeau’s management of the rotations in Chicago garnered negative attention, as many felt he ran players into the ground with a lopsided distribution of playing time.
Another concern is that, for all of Thibodeau’s defensive brilliance, his offensive schematics are rather uncreative. Thus, the notion that Thibodeau can help develop Kristaps Porzingis would be called into question without a concrete plan offensively.
New York appears perfectly suited to address both flaws.
Phil Jackson has a vision for the organization, and that includes the way the players are brought along. If he and Thibodeau manage to forge a healthy working relationship, the Triangle Offense can be the tool that balances Thibodeau’s relentless defense.
Jackson, who won 11 championships as a head coach, could even advise Thibodeau on how to properly balance the rotation in terms of minutes played by the starters.
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Thibodeau to the Knicks is a complicated possibility, but it’s quite clear that the 58-year-old has genuine interest in the job.