[rquoter]Boston Celtics assistant Tom Thibodeau has emerged as the frontrunner for the New Orleans Hornets’ coaching job and an offer could be forthcoming in the near future, sources told Yahoo! Sports. The Hornets are moving toward formulating an offer for Thibodeau and don’t want to risk losing him to another team with a coaching vacancy. Sources say it’s been an excruciating process because general manager Jeff Bower and president Hugh Weber have also been impressed with their other finalist, Portland Trail Blazers assistant Monty Williams. Sources say Hornets point guard Chris Paul(notes) has also been an advocate for the Portland assistant coach. ... Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf has been effusive in praise of Thibodeau to league friends, and New Jersey Nets GM Rod Thorn has him on his short list of coaching candidates. The revitalization of the Celtics in this postseason, especially a defense that Thibodeau oversees, has been a boon to his head-coaching candidacy. Thibodeau has interviewed for several jobs over recent years, including Philadelphia, Detroit and Sacramento, but has yet to land one. It’s unclear whether Thibodeau would immediately accept an offer or wait for the chance to meet with the Bulls once the Celtics eliminate the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference finals. ...[/rquoter] http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ys-thibodeauceltics052410
Makes sense for a guy with the name Thibodeau to go to New Orleans. Tom Thibodeau = the Cajun Jeff Van Gundy.
He'll be in the same division.......not good for us but happy for tibs. Much deserved and well over due........
They can run the same system all they want. They wont have TT orchestrating and reacting to the changes that the opposing offense makes. All the X's and O's won't be the same without Thibodeau doing it himself.
This is analogous to anyone but Phil Jackson running the Triangle offense. You can do it, but you won't do it as well as Phil Jackson can, as past examples have shown. The Lakers are the only team to have exploited all the nuances of the Triple post offense to its true potential. <p> Thibodeau's defense used by anyone but Thibs would likely also pale in comparison.
He can coach defense, I dunno if he can coach coach you know what I mean, like on offense, rotations. For example when he was in Houston and he was coaching the summer league team, that boy had only like a 6 man rotation playing some guys the whole 48 mins. I'm worried he'll be the same type of coach like Van Gundy. Short rotations, the inability to develop players and burning players by having a short rotation and playing them for 38-45 mins a game.
Good for Tibs, he has earned it. Different being in the directors chair than behind the curtain though. DD
This is great news, he's very deserving. He may be the greatest defensive mind in the game right now.
Phil Jackson didn't invent the Triangle offense. Notice how they continued to run it after Tex Winter left. Just like Adelman still runs 'his' offense without Pete Carril.
If he's anything like how he coached SL, the players are going to tune him out, quicker than they did to Iavaroni in Memphis.
I never said he invented it. But he learned as much as possible about it from Tex Winter who worked to develop it. He also spent 9 years of on the job coaching with Tex Winter to help devise strategies with the Triangle Offense. <p> There isn't a man still working in the NBA who is more skilled and adept at using the triangle offense than Phil Jackson is right now. <p> Adelman still runs his offense without Pete Carril because the guy is just as smart and cerebral as Phil Jackson. <> But Doc Rivers is certainly not a Phil Jackson and Rick Adelman. Rivers knows when its best to delegate duties to the specialists who know a certain portion of the job better than he does. Ie, Thibs is better at doing the defense strategy than he is. <p> If Doc Rivers can run the Thib's defense next year as effectively as they are this year, then I have no problem with admitting that I'm wrong.
Unlike Phil Jackson who had around 15+ years of experience with the triangle with Tex Winters working directly at his side, Doc Rivers only has about 3 years working with TT. I'm not saying he's incapable of learning the defense in that time, but it's a stretch.
