Page 1 of 1

Why haven't teams contacted Tom Thibodeau?

Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 10:04 pm
by TMU
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/rumors/post ... =nba,87998

Celtics assistant Tom Thibodeau, with 18 years as an NBA assistant, is just now being hailed as a defense-minded guru, capable of containing offenses potent and meager.

Jeff Van Gundy, former New York Knicks and Houston Rockets coach, is irritated that Thibodeau is pigeon-holed as a defense-oriented coach when his knowledge encompasses the entire game. "Heck," Van Gundy said, "the guy's been a good coach for years."


JVG thinks he's worthy of being a head coach in this league. Just look at what he's done for the Boston Celtics, a team that has the best defense in the league. Why didn't teams such as the Chicago Bulls, the Detroit Pistons and the Milwaukee Bucks consider giving him a coaching job? Yeah, especially the Bulls - Why Del Negro when you can have someone who's much more experienced?

Re: Why haven't teams contacted Tom Thibodeau?

Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 4:04 am
by Baller 24
Great coach, needs to become a real coach, I bet he can turn the Suns into one of the best defensive teams, while also being a terrific offensive team, oh well they take stupid Terry Porter.

Re: Why haven't teams contacted Tom Thibodeau?

Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 2:14 pm
by moofs
Why should he get a head coaching job given how excellent he is as a defense coach? "Tom, you did absolutely great at this one job - showed yourself to be tops in the league! So uh, we'd like to hire you to do something else." You could almost call it typecasting, but it might also be that they don't want to add things to what they already know him to be excellent at, potentially disrupting his best demonstrated skill in the process.

Doubt you've run into it yet, but something similar to that sort of thing can also limit your career salary if you are hired for X number of years at salary Y, it starts to get difficult to move up your pay grade because people start to assume there must have been reasons you didn't move up (at least this is what I always hear from people and headhunters, haven't actually run into it myself).

Re: Why haven't teams contacted Tom Thibodeau?

Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 4:28 pm
by TMU
moofs wrote:Why should he get a head coaching job given how excellent he is as a defense coach? "Tom, you did absolutely great at this one job - showed yourself to be tops in the league! So uh, we'd like to hire you to do something else." You could almost call it typecasting, but it might also be that they don't want to add things to what they already know him to be excellent at, potentially disrupting his best demonstrated skill in the process.

Doubt you've run into it yet, but something similar to that sort of thing can also limit your career salary if you are hired for X number of years at salary Y, it starts to get difficult to move up your pay grade because people start to assume there must have been reasons you didn't move up (at least this is what I always hear from people and headhunters, haven't actually run into it myself).


Assistant coaches aspire to be head coaches just like assistant managers hope to be general managers. How much adjustment is needed when an assistant coach is promoted to become a head coach? Probably not as much adjustment as what Del Negro, a former assistant general manager, has/had to go through. Don't you think it's more logical to hire someone with a similar experience rather than someone whose background appears to be more distant (i.e. an assistant coach over any other position)?

Many reputable assistant coaches made a nice transition in their careers: earning jobs as head coaches. A few even won championships and earned their reputation as some of the best head coaches the league has ever had. For example, Greg Popovich, Jerry Sloan, Pat Riley, and Jeff Van Gundy were all former assistant coaches. With 18 years of coaching experience, Tom Thibodeau should be well qualified as a head coach in many teams. His length of experience and effectiveness as a coach show that he's undoubtedly more qualified than some of the coaches that were hired recently: Del Negro, Michael Curry and Terry Porter.

I am not sure if your analogy, bolded above, is similar to this case. First of all, the role of an assistant coach is not too far off from the role of a head coach. Second, I am proposing that Thibodeau should be a head coach for a different team and NOT the Celtics. I don't think other employers care if hiring Thibodeau can potentially deteriorate his own strength. All they want to do is to minimize risk by taking the best coach available and see how it unfolds. What's better is that Thibodeau has zero coaching reputation as opposed to someone like Isiah Thomas or Mike Woodson who have a negative reputation.

I say give the man the better job that he deserves!!!

Re: Why haven't teams contacted Tom Thibodeau?

Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 4:53 pm
by A.J.
Baller 24 wrote:Great coach, needs to become a real coach, I bet he can turn the Suns into one of the best defensive teams, while also being a terrific offensive team, oh well they take stupid Terry Porter.


I guess the Suns want to win now now so thats why they hired Porter.

Re: Why haven't teams contacted Tom Thibodeau?

Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 5:36 pm
by King Roosk
Because Thibodeaux has contributed nothing. It's all been the mastermind Doc Rivers. Yeah, that sounds about right...?

Re: Why haven't teams contacted Tom Thibodeau?

Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 6:07 pm
by moofs
King Roosk wrote:Because Thibodeaux has contributed nothing. It's all been the mastermind Doc Rivers. Yeah, that sounds about right...?


:rofl:

T-Mac United wrote:Assistant coaches aspire to be head coaches just like assistant managers hope to be general managers. How much adjustment is needed when an assistant coach is promoted to become a head coach? Probably not as much adjustment as what Del Negro, a former assistant general manager, has/had to go through. Don't you think it's more logical to hire someone with a similar experience rather than someone whose background appears to be more distant (i.e. an assistant coach over any other position)?

Many reputable assistant coaches made a nice transition in their careers: earning jobs as head coaches. A few even won championships and earned their reputation as some of the best head coaches the league has ever had. For example, Greg Popovich, Jerry Sloan, Pat Riley, and Jeff Van Gundy were all former assistant coaches. With 18 years of coaching experience, Tom Thibodeau should be well qualified as a head coach in many teams. His length of experience and effectiveness as a coach show that he's undoubtedly more qualified than some of the coaches that were hired recently: Del Negro, Michael Curry and Terry Porter.

I am not sure if your analogy, bolded above, is similar to this case. First of all, the role of an assistant coach is not too far off from the role of a head coach. Second, I am proposing that Thibodeau should be a head coach for a different team and NOT the Celtics. I don't think other employers care if hiring Thibodeau can potentially deteriorate his own strength. All they want to do is to minimize risk by taking the best coach available and see how it unfolds. What's better is that Thibodeau has zero coaching reputation as opposed to someone like Isiah Thomas or Mike Woodson who have a negative reputation.

I say give the man the better job that he deserves!!!


It's quite possible that you're right. I have no idea myself, and doubt many/any others do either, entirely what goes on at the NBA/GM/FrontOffice/Ownership levels of the NBA. Merely postulating reasons that it might have been that way so far. It's also possible that he's, in the eyes of those who would hire him, not yet good enough at managing egos/players/full game strategy/other coaches to have earned the position yet. There's really no telling, but assuming he does deserve it, it's still very common in all fields to find undeserving people in positions that more deserving people want and should have.

Re: Why haven't teams contacted Tom Thibodeau?

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 3:48 pm
by MaxRider
congratulation to Tim for winning his first title
he was actually my first option to coach our team after JVG
too bad Les (like most team owner) preferred someone with actual head coach experience

Re: Why haven't teams contacted Tom Thibodeau?

Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 5:07 am
by TMACFORMVP
Yeah, I was wondering the same thing too, his defensive sets and mindset is one of the best in the league. He definitely deserves a chance to be a head coach.