C's Hire Asst. Coach Tom Thibodeau

But how is he on the defense end of coaching? Here is the background info that was posted regarding his 2 day stint with the Wizards:

“We are excited and fortunate to have one of the top NBA assistants join our coaching staff,” Jordan said. “Tom has had a tremendous amount of success during his professional career and brings a great deal of experience and energy to our team. His teams have consistently been among the top defensive teams in the NBA and he has an outstanding reputation in player development and game preparation.”

Thibodeau joins the Wizards after spending the past four seasons as an assistant coach with the Houston Rockets. Entering his 18th overall season in the NBA, Thibodeau has been an assistant coach with the Rockets, New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, San Antonio Spurs, Seattle Supersonics and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Under his direction, Thibodeau has helped his team finish in the NBA’s Top 10 in team defense 14 times. He has coached in 87 career NBA playoff games, including New York’s appearance in the 1999 NBA Finals.

During his four seasons with Houston, the Rockets advanced to the postseason on three occasions and posted a pair of 50-win seasons. Thibodeau guided the Rockets to a top five ranking in the NBA in both opponents’ scoring defense and field goal percentage in each of the past four campaigns. In 2005-06, he worked with All-Star Center Yao Ming as he became the first Rockets player to average 20 points and 10 rebounds in a season since Hakeem Olajuwon in 1995-96. Thibodeau also led the Rockets’ summer league teams to a 10-0 record over the past two seasons.

Prior to joining the Rockets, Thibodeau spent the previous seven years as an assistant coach with the New York Knicks (1996-2003). During his tenure with the Knicks, New York set a then-NBA record by holding 33 consecutive opponents under 100 points in the 2000-2001 season. Thibodeau and the Knicks coaching staff also helped Jeff Van Gundy coach the Eastern Conference All-Stars in the 2000 NBA All-Star Game.

In each of his final four seasons in New York, Thibodeau served as head coach for the Knicks entry in the Shaw’s Boston Summer League. Prior to this, he and current Knicks Assistant General Manager Jeff Nix coached New York’s Summer League entries in Rye Brook, New York and Los Angeles, California.

Thibodeau entered the NBA in 1989 as an assistant coach with the expansion Minnesota Timberwolves under the late Bill Musselman. After two seasons with the Timberwolves, he joined the Seattle SuperSonics in 1991 as an advance scout. The following year, Thibodeau moved to San Antonio, where he worked with Jerry Tarkanian and John Lucas as a Spurs assistant coach for two seasons. He left San Antonio to become an assistant coach under Lucas with the Philadelphia 76ers. Thibodeau’s stay in Philadelphia lasted two seasons, at which point he joined the Knicks. With the Knicks, Thibodeau worked with Van Gundy for five years and Don Chaney for two seasons.

Thibodeau’s coaching career began in 1981 as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Salem State College. After three years as an assistant, he became head coach in 1984. The following season, Thibodeau became an assistant coach at Harvard, where he spent four years before leaving for the NBA.

A native of New Britain, Connecticut, Thibodeau graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree and a master’s in counseling from Salem State College. He lettered in four seasons at Salem State.

ummm. Cool I guess. Who is this man?

I’m glad to have anybody who has worked for Van Gundy. Let’s hope he can have an influence on the defensive side of the ball.

Hey Tom T., show me the money, I mean show me the D.

On the defense front, and like the stat or not, over at 82games.com they’ve devised a “Defensive Composite Score”, a sabermetric-esque number placing a player’s defensive success. Obviously this isn’t baseball and stastical analysis is a much fuzzier area but these things are at least interesting to entertain. That said, a comparison:

Scores of 40 : Excellent defender
20 to 40: Very good defender
0 to 20: Above average
-20 to 0: Below average
-40 to -20: Poor defender
-40 and below: Terrible defender

Ryan Gomes received a -19.2 overall putting him in the 19.8%
Scal: -10.6 35.1%
Leon Powe: 16.1 77.0%
Perk: 20.5 81.6%
Rondo: 33.9 90.8%

by the by, Garnett comes in with a 54.5

the article is here: http://www.82games.com/nichols2.htm

I looked at the 83games.com numbers and Marcus Banks had the worst composite defensive score in the league.

Now I’m no great fan of Banks, but really…. defense was his only real strength.

I think 82games.com needs to go back to the drawing boards with that statistic.

Brick, I believe when Thibodeau chose the Wizards, you went on a tirade about how the celtics and Danny Ainge are a joke, which is why Thibodeau would never come here. Does this mean that the Celtics and Danny Ainge are no longer a joke?

When does preseason start ?

Tom sounds very decisive.

Bartender!!!

As I said in the other thread, signing Thobodeau may be the best move of the offseason. I guess he decided to come to Boston because of Garnett and because he smells Rivers’ blood in the water.

Quote: Whatever reason you accept for Thibodeau’s rejection of the Celtics, it shows how dysfunctional the management of the Celtics is right now.
Penny wise and pound foolish. They won’t give a few hundred thousand extra for an excellent coach but they are just dying to drop 55 million for a two-year rental of a player who doesn’t want to be here.

——Brickowski

My dad had a saying that applies here… I was wrong once. I thought I was wrong but I wasn’t.

Brick, you’re not the Fonz are you?

Well maybe they took my earlier criticism to heart.

This looks like a great move. Doc’s successor or not, he should be a big help.

Maybe they will stop talking about defense now and start playing it more.

Paul Pierce will probably be DPOY this year now.

(ducks behind couch)

T

Pierce used to play pretty good defense under O’Brien. He still committed dumb reach-in fouls but many of those were hustle fouls, therefore excusable.

Then it looks like he stopped caring.

I’m glad we got a defensive minded assistant coach. Tom T. appears to be just what the doctor ordered.

Does this hire mean Doc has decided to coach the offense again?

Brick, I agree with you that Pierce’s defense has taken a step backward the last few years. I think 3 reasons, 1) age catching up, 2) his weight is heavier than years past, 3)a certain amount of apathy on his part on the defensive side of the ball, coupled with him having to be option A,B, C and D on the offensive end.

I think it would behoove Mr. Pierce to call Dan Mariano and get on the Nutri System 30 day plan. I have even read if he signs up now, he gets two weeks of free meals!

If Pierce drops 15 pounds, I think it will benefit him, with KG/Allen he should have the motivation.

Dan Marino?

twistedmisfit,
Did you get permission to republish that copywrited material?

He has touched the Shark, thats good enough for me!

we have to give garnet some credit here. i bet he has really talked up the importance of defense to management.