Tom Thibodeau's demands of Bulls are more mental than physical
Here's one for the minutes mafia and playing-time police: As of Thursday morning, no Bull ranked in the NBA's top 10 in average minutes.
And after Jimmy Butler, who sat 11th at 36.6 minutes per game, no Bull was in the top 40, with Joakim Noah's 34.1 tied for 42nd.
Coach Tom Thibodeau enjoys his playing-time distribution getting analyzed about as much as his film projector breaking. And with Luol Deng in Cleveland, Mike Dunleavy played all but nine seconds of Tuesday's victory in Atlanta and Butler became the first player in 13 years to log 60 minutes when he went 60:20 in the Bulls' Jan. 15 triple-overtime victory in Orlando.
So while there are anomalies, the perception that Thibodeau overworks his team exists mostly from the outside. Is Thibodeau demanding? No doubt — perhaps, players say, more mentally than physically.
But between shortening shootarounds by 15 minutes to rarely practicing on days off, Thibodeau has paced this season's Bulls with the aptitude of someone who has logged two-plus decades in the NBA. Which he emphatically reminded everyone on his 56th birthday Jan. 17.
"I think I have a pretty good understanding after 24 years for how to pace a team," Thibodeau said that day in Washington.
His players agree.
"As far as freshness, the only strenuous activities we have are the games," said Nazr Mohammed, a sage veteran with 15 years of experience. "You always hear he makes the team work so hard. But on days we do practice, we're in the gym for an hour. He expects us to put a lot of our own personal work in and lift weights, but that's nothing unusual.
"When we go, we go hard. But we have an automatic off day after a back-to-back. I was on teams where we went two or three weeks without off days. He's aware of the rest that is needed."
Beyond playing time, which has lessened this season, Thibodeau's greatest demands are off the court. Former Bull Kyle Korver used to joke about reviewing in shootarounds the opponent's seventh out-of-bounds option that hadn't been used all season.
It's no joke - players have said his switch and hedge scheme is through his very own Girolamo Cardano rule, created by revolving around specific points on the court, without one foot ever overlapping into another area; minimizing below the arc to the smallest possible space.
"The stuff he puts up on the board before the games is like a math quiz," Taj Gibson said. "We go over so many plays, and he drills it in your head. He challenges you mentally.
"We were up 30 once and I took a play off and he was on top of me: 'Taj, come on, let's go. Don't let him get to the right hand.' I was daydreaming in the corner and there were all these bodies between me and him, and he still knew I was slipping. He yelled my name. And that got me going."
This style isn't for everyone. But the management team of John Paxson and Gar Forman has filled the locker room with serious-minded professionals not averse to work or strong coaching.
"Some guys wouldn't be able to handle the long periods of mental focus that he demands," Mohammed said. "If we go through a 30-minute walk-through, he wants you locked in and focused like it's the playoffs. That's a great thing because when the playoffs come, we don't have to turn it up. The focus and attention to detail, we do that all season."
Gibson said Thibodeau consistently stresses off-court rest, weightlifting and massages. And he demands accountability at all times.
"He'll snap on you quick," Gibson said, smiling. "He's like a teacher. He'll call you out in the middle of shootaround and ask you three basic moves the team might do off this play. I used to always mess up. Now I'm so locked in that I love when he calls on me."
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/..._1_taj-gibson-coach-tom-thibodeau-john-paxson
