Winning is important for an NBA coach. It determines his future. Most NBA coaches will tell you sometimes you have to lose a battle or a game to win a war. Tom Thibodeau doesn’t see it that way. Every game is a war he must win. It is because of this that he gets himself in trouble wherever he coaches. Most NBA people would tell you he is the coach you want for one year. After that year things usually decline. The job he did with an average team last year was outstanding.
This year things aren’t going quite as well. He left one of his best players in a game in the last minute when the Knicks were hopelessly behind. The result a sprained ankle and the player misses a few games. In another game he used his last challenge previously but decided to call timeout to try to use another challenge. This wasted one of his two timeouts in the last two minutes of a close game.
The team has brought in several young players that he refuses to use for any extended time. Obviously there is a disconnect between him and upper management. With the Knicks a distance away from the play in game it may be better to see if those young players can play. For upper management those players need to be good or their future with the Knicks might be short.
Being the Knicks it is reported a member of upper management has gone to their owner, Jim Dolan, and bad mouthed Thibs about not using those young players. People would call it covering your ass. This is the type of dysfunction that has plagued the Knicks for years.
What people don’t realize is that last year Thibs made the team relevant for the first time in many years. Situations like this don’t usually end well for those involved especially the coach. It never ends well for the Knicks. Thibs deserves to keep his job if for no other reason than what he did last year. Don’t forget he brought hope to a franchise that hasn’t had much over the last twenty years. For Thibs this could be his last chance as a head coach in the NBA so he has a choice to make. Either play the young players and get more time or do it his way and if the Knicks continue losing say goodbye. Knowing Thibs we know what choice he’ll make.
When you think about it, one thing has been consistent for the Knicks over the years, the owner, Jim Dolan. Dolan should have told the person that is alleged to have bad mouthed Thibs that he didn’t want to hear it, just fix the problem. After all, these are the Knicks and this is why they are usually out of the playoffs.
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The Thibs Dilemma The Thibs Dilemma