Whenever asked during a preseason in which he thoroughly outplayed Nikola Mirotic, Taj Gibson downplayed the importance of winning the starting power forward position.
"I don't know what it means to me," Gibson said. "I was starting most of last year. But I would rather make it to the playoffs, excel and win. That's the main job. Anybody can start.
"I was playing for a coach where he was like, 'I want you to be Sixth Man of the Year.' And I went with that. Whatever role you need me to do, I'll do. When you have players who understand what you have to do to help the team win, that separates the good teams from the bad. The more the team wins, the more the eyes focus on why they're winning. That's the kind of caliber person I am."
In 174 career starts, Gibson has averaged 10.1 points on 50.6 percent shooting and 7.7 rebounds in 29.4 minutes. In 333 reserve appearances, he has posted 8.7 points on 48.2 percent shooting in 22.7 minutes.
It didn't surprise Jimmy Butler that Gibson won the open competition.
"Taj is a fighter," Butler said. "That's one thing you know you're going to get from him. He's one of the toughest guys we have, somebody who's always working."
That included last offseason. Gibson joined Butler in Los Angeles for offseason strength and conditioning workouts for the first time.
"I love working with Taj because we find ourselves doing a lot of similar things in the game when we work out," Butler said. "We were (at Advocate Center Monday) night working out together on pick-and-rolls, dribble handoffs, backdoor lobs, all types of stuff like that."
