May 16--You could analyze it a dozen different ways.
Or you could boil it down to this: The Bulls tried Tom Thibodeau's way for five seasons. In the end, it didn't work.
It's time to part ways.
Slap a lie detector test on most, if not all the players, and they'll tell you the same.
Thibs' teams won a total of four playoff series. They fell short with scrappy overachievers. And they flopped with a roster of All-Stars.
He did get unlucky regarding Derrick Rose's health three different seasons. There was misfortune in this series because of Pau Gasol's hamstring.
But at a certain point, the excuses are meaningless. Cleveland played without Kevin Love, and Kyrie Irving was healthy for a few halves. The Cavaliers ran away with the series, playing gorgeous basketball at times Thursday with a bunch of spare parts.
In the final win-or-bust game, played before their adoring crowd, the Bulls scored 42 points over the final three quarters. That's 13-16-13. Unacceptable. And it reflected poorly on Thibodeau, who still somehow believed there was "no quit" in his team.
Thibodeau is an excellent regular-season coach, winning at a .647 clip. His obsession with basketball and his devotion to preparation allow him to squeeze out wins in the winter months when many multi-millionaire players are pacing themselves for the spring.
But NBA success is about playoff success. And his playoff record is 23-28, a .451 clip.
He's the one who's largely to blame for his fractured relationship with management. He does not play well in the sandbox. It's his way or no way.
He barely lets his assistant coaches contribute, and when management encouraged him to hire an offensive-minded aide, he resisted. (Point total in Game 6 against the Cavs: 73.)
The players he loves, he grinds into the ground. Luol Deng led the league in minutes twice. Jimmy Butler logged 60 in a triple-OT regular-season game and 53 in Game 3 of the Bucks series, joking afterward: "Can I get a (bleeping) wheelchair?"
At age 34, Pau Gasol played more minutes this season than all but 13 players and two big men. Last season Joakim Noah logged more than all but 14 players. Offseason knee surgery drained him, but management did not trust Thibodeau to ease him back.
So it put a 32-minute restriction on Noah this season, which Thibodeau still frequently exceeded. And he made a stink of it after a marquee game at Oklahoma City, sitting Noah for a crucial stretch when the Bulls needed his defensive presence in a nine-point loss.
Rather than saving him for the fourth quarter, Thibodeau cited the restriction, as if to prove a point. The front office appreciated that about as much as when crony Jeff Van Gundy took potshots during national TV broadcasts.
Management also has an issue with how Thibodeau doles out consecutive minutes, shunning the short breaks that are commonplace in the league. But now it's nit-picking, when the focus should be on the big picture.
Thibodeau's way didn't work. His players faded when their energy was needed most. It's time to move on.
Would his replacement be better? There's no guarantee.
But he'd be different. And at this point, different is better.
tgreenstein@tribpub.com
