2015 NBA Playoffs

Paully D

Disgustingly classless from a joke of a front office. ****.

NufcNavan

Why torch a guy as he's leaving? If you were the next coach walking in, would you think, hmmmm, wonder how what they'll say about me. Is no one consulting these guys from a PR standpoint?

For Forks Sake

NufcNavan wrote: »

Why torch a guy as he's leaving? If you were the next coach walking in, would you think, hmmmm, wonder how what they'll say about me. Is no one consulting these guys from a PR standpoint?

Was reading something yesterday that they were planning to hold off on firing him until the likely destinations for him (Pelicans, Magic) had appointed coaches. Obviously since disproven, but nothing would surprise me at this stage.

padraig_f

Looked like it was heading for an ugly finish, but wasn't expecting the airing of dirty linen in public like that. Not sure who that statement serves. Makes the Bulls look worse than it does Thibs. Bit embarrassing tbh.

padraig_f

They should've let Jo handle it:

Joakim Noah: "I just want to thank Thibs for all the hard work he put in, and I wish him the best."

padraig_f

uh oh....

Bulls press conference is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET. We'll have it on @NBATV & @NBAcom.

padraig_f

Press conference was more balanced, basically said organisation and Thibs weren't pulling in the same direction, and made it hard to proceed together. Seeing how stubborn Thibs can be with some of his coaching decisions, I can understand how that might happen.

Other thing was they were disappointed with how the season ended, thought they had an opportunity to beat an injured Cleveland team. Pax said 'if we're playing in the championship series, we probably wouldn't be having ths conversation'.

The earlier statement was more Reinsdorf, and I dunno was Pax trying to distance himself from it, said 'Jerry's statement stands on its own'.

A lot of questions about the minutes thing, and that was obviously an issue, but seemed to be bigger than just that.


Dunno if Reinsdorf thought the fans would be up in arms about them getting rid of Thibs, and wanted to get out in front of it, but general impresson I get from most fans is they're content to move on.

As Robert Mays just said:

"I absolutely loved the Thibs era in Chicago. What he did with those teams is something maybe four or five other guys alive could.

At a certain point, though, it has to be more about playing for May than being obsessed with a win in Orlando on a Tuesday in November."

NufcNavan

Frank Isola ‏@FisolaNYDN 59m59 minutes ago

The front office rift with Thibodeau accelerated when coaching staff wanted to draft Draymond Green in 2012. They took Marquis Teague. Oops

Carcharodon

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Yup, that pretty much sums up how everyone feels about him. It's such a waste of talent. If he had the heart or competitiveness of truly elite athletes he'd be in conversations for Top 10 All Time given his skill set and physical gifts. Mentally I think he's the closest thing the NBA has to the worst type of Premiership Soccer Player - you know the flash twat with the ego the size of the stadium and not even the star player type?

This is what happens when you pamper a guy from age 0 and spoil him every inch of the way whilst effectively making a billionaire out of him (by the time he retires). Given a choice of any player in the league (hell, let's just limit it to big men) - find me a coach that would start with or build a team around Howard and I'll find you a liar. It's not a stretch to say I think most would rather have Duncan (at his current age) for a year than Howard for 5. I think you'd have more chance of winning with Duncan for 1 than Howard for 5.

I saw him in the flesh in a couple of games for the US Olympic team in Vegas in 2008. The guy is chiseled out of rock and has insane athletic ability for a big yet seemed more concerned with being seen as messing around in the warm ups and being the joker than winning. You had 11 other guys taking it incredibly seriously and he was shooting 3's in the warm ups and trying all sorts of stupidly complex layups and missing everything whilst then grinning like he was on E after he missed. A couple of times I caught players roll their eyes at him and his antics but of course Dwight was oblivious to all of this. He tries so hard to be popular it's a little embarrassing. I would almost feel sorry for him if I was more gullible.

And all of that's even before I mention how he screwed both Van Gundy and Orlando. Most people also seem to forget he was a Laker for a year and managed to screw that up too because he wanted guarantees to be No. 1 whilst Kobe was still active. He's a joke.

His comments after the game pretty much sum him up, " iam still a champion"
Actually you are not dwight, you never have been.
http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2015/5/28/8677311/dwight-howard-says-hes-a-champion-right-after-being-eliminated

ButtersSuki

Utterly classless statement from the Bulls. I'm astonished in this day and age how clueless and media unsavvy senior people can be.

Thibs won't be stuck and fair play to him. It'd be interesting if he joined the Clippers (as an assistant to Doc and rekindle their Beantown days) to shore up their D but I can't see him taking an assistant role again. I feel a bit sad for him tbh. The guy is clearly a basketball genius but has his flaws and blind spots too. Sucha shame they couldn't have made it work this year in particular with Gasol there and Rose back. Sigh.

ButtersSuki

Carcharodon wrote: »

His comments after the game pretty much sum him up, " iam still a champion"
Actually you are not dwight, you never have been.
http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2015/5/28/8677311/dwight-howard-says-hes-a-champion-right-after-being-eliminated

Maybe he was referring to his wallet, ego or ability to father children with different women…...

padraig_f

Thibs statement:



That's how it should be done. Things went sour a bit this year, but it was definitely 4 very good years before that.

Carcharodon

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Maybe he was referring to his wallet, ego or ability to father children with different women…...

Exactly, what is it, 8 kids of 6 women ? How about you invest in some condoms, but didn't he state when he joined the NBA that his mission was to spread the word of the lord or some ****, well he is definitely spteading something...

ButtersSuki

Carcharodon wrote: »

Exactly, what is it, 8 kids of 6 women ? How about you invest in some condoms, but didn't he state when he joined the NBA that his mission was to spread the word of the lord or some ****, well he is definitely spteading something...

I thought he was a perfect 8 for 8 myself but who actually cares? I've given D12 far to much oxygen already.

nerd69

the one thing i will say about thins is while he is an awesome coach I'm not sure if id hire him he insists on overplaying players during the regular season and i would question his ability to win a championship unless we see a change in that

padraig_f

If you're interested in hearing more about the breakdown between Thibs and the Bulls front office, Nick Friedell (ESPN Chicago) did a very good podcast with Zach Lowe yesterday:

The Lowe Post Podcast: Paul Flannery and Nick Friedell

I follow the Bulls pretty closely and I learned a bunch of things. Maybe with Thibs having departed, Friedell felt he could speak more openly.

Actually the whole podcast is very good, because I think the first guest Paul Flannery is a very good analyst. They do some finals preview stuff and chat about various coaching vacancies with him.

GoldFour4

Thank god for Zach Lowe still being with Grantland. He's probably the best journalist on basketball alone at the moment in my opinion anyway.

NufcNavan

nerd69 wrote: »

the one thing i will say about thins is while he is an awesome coach I'm not sure if id hire him he insists on overplaying players during the regular season and i would question his ability to win a championship unless we see a change in that

Blaming Thibs for the injuries is baseless if you ask me. I have been critical of him in the past about this too but if you look at the stats they tell a different story. Talk about a myth that was put forth by someone and then the media runs with it. I don't think you can blame the coach for the injuries.

Jimmy Butler averaged 38.7 minutes per game which did lead the NBA, but that is a low figure.

In the 2001 season 22 players averaged more than Butler did this season. 13 of those averaged more than 40 minutes per game. Players routinely used to average more minutes per game.

Lebron this past season was 5th in minutes per game

Back to the Bulls, Gasol was the only other Bulls player who was in the top 40 in minutes per game. and he was at 34.4 good for 23rd place.

It is a myth that Thibs played his starters too many minutes.

The Cavs had 2 players in the top 5 in minutes played. No one is saying that is why Kyrie is injured right now

padraig_f

Listening to the Friedell interview, it would give me pause if I was another team thinking of hiring Thibs. The minutes were an issue, but I think only part of it. One thing I picked up is just his intensity can wear players out. And this was in evidence with the Bulls all this past season, and in the playoffs when they did kind of give up at a certain point against the Cavs (and this is on a team with high-character guys). Friedell also mentioned his time with Team USA, and if players there were put off by him freaking out over a blown rotation while they were 40 points up on Finland.

Not knocking him entirely. I never agreed with everything he did, but always thought he did more good than bad. For the first four years he was there, I was 100% behind him. Less so this last season.

Genius in certain respects, but I've always said to be a really great coach requires many different skills. Not just Xs and Os, but people skills, empathy with players, strategic thinking, maybe a bit of politics, analytics, sports science. It's a multi-skilled job, rather than a specialised one.

In the coverage of his departure, seems like there's a bit of a divide between the national writers, and the guys closer to the team, and the fans. With the guys watching the team more closely seeing some more of the Thibs' faults.

Kelly Dwyer, Chicago guy, did an excellent piece that accepts blame on both sides:

The Chicago Bulls and Tom Thibodeau have finally ended it

D2D

Pelicans have hired Golden State Assistant Coach, Alvin Gentry, as their new coach

Paully D

After a ridiculously damp squib, disappointment of a playoffs, I'm really excited for the Finals now.

I'd prefer if the Warriors won, but who could begrudge the Cavaliers fans a title after all the crap they've had the last few years? LeBron coming back and leading them to a title after everything that happened would be a fantastic sports story too. You can hear the "what if I told you...." opening to the 30 for 30 edition of it already!

Golden State a best priced 10/21, Cavs 2/1. There's not much between them at all according to the bookies. Warriors are a much deeper and well balanced side, but, LeBron.

Your prediction? I'm going to stick to my pre-playoff prediction and go for the Warriors in 6.

D2D

Genuinely can't wait for Thursday night for Game 1!

Golden State have the better squad but I think we'll (hopefully) pull it off and finally get that title. Gonna go Cavs in 7 in an all time classic Finals.

Carcharodon

I bet my friend a $100 that the warriors will do it in 5, crazy I know but mainly did it to shut hom up. It really could go either way, game 1 should reveal a lot.

padraig_f

Watched the Fred Hoiberg press conference, I'm pumped up, he was brilliant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MK0qRGGZrY

Paully D

I really, really hope the Hoiberg hire is not just Forman going from one extreme to the other - i.e, not being able to control Thibs at all but now having his friend in on puppet strings. I'm probably just being far too cynical however.

I don't know a whole lot about him but on paper his record is pretty impressive. The offense-first style will be an interesting change from Thibs' defense-first style too. A young coach who was very popular at Iowa, I'm sure the Bulls players will take to him quickly, mainly due to seeing him as a refreshing change from Thibs.

Hopefully it works out.

BQQ

padraig_f wrote: »

Watched the Fred Hoiberg press conference, I'm pumped up, he was brilliant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MK0qRGGZrY

I'd say the dancing will go down well with D-Rose...........NOT!

padraig_f

Paully, they played with the 2nd highest pace in college basketball last year. Rose and Jimmy will be getting out and running. I know the pace was slow under Thibs, just checking it there....21st out of 30 in the league last year. The offense will look a whole lot different. Who knows if it's gonna be ultimately successful, but it's gonna be a lot more fun to watch at least.

He just came across as very intelligent, but likeable at the same time. I think the players are gonna love him.

Said all the right things. Had a great situation at Iowa State that he didn't want to leave, but said the opportunity was too good to pass up. Not just Chicago, and the ties he has there, but said he loved the roster, and said you rarely get a chance to come into such a great situation, talked about contending for a championship right away.

ButtersSuki

This break between the conf. finals and the finals themselves is killing me.....

buyer95

I have deep dive about to be published on the battle of the point guards coming tomorrow, 2000 words on Curry vs Irving and why it will likely swing the series.

GoldFour4

Happy finals day everyone, finally!!