Former two-time NBA Coach of the Year Tom Thibodeau is that rarest of things this spring: an undervalued free agent.
He was let go from his five-year post as the New York Knicks’ head coach last summer, despite leading the club to its second straight 50-win season and its first Eastern Conference Finals berth since 2000. Now, his replacement, fellow former two-time COTY Mike Brown, has a Knicks squad with more or less the same roster looking like the heavy favorite to emerge out of the conference.
Thibodeau has experienced plenty of success during his head coaching tenure, which kicked off with a similarly successful five-season run with our Chicago Bulls. All told, his Bulls, Minnesota Timberwolves and Knicks clubs logged a cumulative 578-420 regular season record and a 48-55 playoff record, including two East Finals berths. He’s already accrued generational wealth.
But Thibs remains thirsty for more, apparently.
Sources inform the typically plugged-in Sam Amick of The Athletic that Thibodeau is “very interested in a comeback,” including even a Bulls reunion. Things were infamously icy during his initial Chicago canning in 2015, which — like last year’s Knicks dismissal — arrived on the heels of a 50-win season and a fairly successful playoff run.
Derrick Rose and Tom Thibodeau. © Winslow Townson-Imagn ImagesShould Thibodeau Even Want a Bulls Reunion?
When Thibodeau was installed as Chicago’s new head coach in the summer of 2010, following a blockbuster run under Doc Rivers with the championship Boston Celtics, expectations of the team were fairly muted.
The Bulls whiffed on signing top free agent targets LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, and pivoted to another maximum-salaried 2008 Olympian and recent All-Star, former Utah Jazz power forward Carlos Boozer. Instead of a second max contract slot, Chicago then brought aboard former Boozer colleagues Kyle Korver and Ronnie Brewer, guards Keith Bogans and CJ Watson, rookie center Omer Asik, a still-effective Kurt Thomas, and human victory cigar Brian Scalabrine.
Thibodeau instantly transformed the Bulls from a cute story into a bona fide contender. The team outflanked even James, Wade and Bosh’s Superfriends-era Miami Heat by capturing the East’s top overall seed with a 62-20 record. 22-year-old Derrick Rose became the youngest-ever league MVP, while young guns Luol Deng and Joakim Noah started to finally look like All-Stars and sixth man big Taj Gibson continued to grow in his second pro season.
Although Chicago fell in five games to Miami during the Eastern Conference Finals that spring, the club’s future looked bright. Sadly, a Derrick Rose meniscus tear during the subsequent playoff permanently altered Chicago’s trajectory. Deng and Noah did become All-Stars, as did 2011 rookie Jimmy Butler, but the Bulls never advanced past the second round again under Thibodeau.
The Bulls have never been remotely as competitive in the 11 years since the Reinsdorfs fired Tom Thibodeau, while he has gone on to anchor two vastly different clubs in Minnesota and New York to resounding success.
Seen as more of a win-now coach, or at least an A-to-B coach who transforms promising young rosters into chippy playoff outs, Thibodeau would be anchoring a Bulls club that could be very much in flux. It’s unclear how many of the team’s six possible unrestricted free agents (Leonard Miller is on a team option) new team president Bryson Graham will even want to retain, which long-term signings he won’t trade, and how he’ll use Chicago’s four 2026 NBA Draft selections.
If Graham goes all-in on a youth movement rebuild, would waiting on the team’s development even appeal to Thibodeau at all?
Ultimately, Thibodeau is known as a grinder, an obsessive student of the game who outworks everyone else when it comes to his prep and commitment. Maybe the guy just wants to work, regardless of fit.
(Photo by Getty Images)Should the Bulls be Open to a Thibodeau Reunion?
The biggest knock on Thibodeau’s resume: his 1990s-esque predilection for grinding down his best players. Rose, Deng and Noah’s careers were all cut a bit short due to concerning health issues. Thibodeau also arguably loves overplaying his vets. He was memorably stubborn about making playoff-dependent rotation changes during his Chicago seasons, but to his credit grew far more flexible by the time he was in New York.
Although he’s known as a defense-first coach, Thibodeau’s Knicks squads also embraced a modern, heliocentric offense around All-NBA point guard Jalen Brunson. Brunson in fact became an All-NBA and All-Star honoree while under Thibodeau. Thibodeau also helped Knicks standouts Karl-Anthony Towns, Julius Randle, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart all scale new career heights.
Still, most of Thibodeau’s Bulls-era charges loved him. Butler, Rose, Deng and Gibson all played on at least two different Thibodeau-coached teams, although Butler infamously did not love his teammates in Minnesota. Butler eventually cost Thibodeau his job when the All-Star swingman forced a trade out of town midseason. Rose and Gibson have suited up for Thibodeau across all three of his head coaching stops.
Still, the 39-year-old Graham will likely want to hire his own version of Will Hardy: a young coach with an impressive assistant pedigree who’s receptive to overseeing a roster rebuild. Thibodeau hardly fits that profile, and will likely cost more than the Bulls are willing to pony up for now. John Paxson, it should be mentioned, remains in Chicago’s inner circle. The beef between him and Thibodeau did seem to improve after the Bulls mercy-traded Butler to Thibodeau in 2017, but you never know.
Thibodeau’s a great coach, and a return would be a nice story. The reunion just doesn’t make a ton of sense for a team whose most important player is raw 21-year-old Matas Buzelis — or for the guy angling to earn his third Coach of the Year award.
Hence then, the article about should could the bulls call tom thibodeau about a return was published today ( ) and is available on Bleacher Nation ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Should/Could the Bulls Call Tom Thibodeau About a Return? )
Also on site :