Tom Thibodeau deserves another year
By Tyler Haag
There has been a lot of talk about getting rid of Tom Thibodeau after the way this season has played out, here are a few reasons not to.
Tom Thibodeau has taken a lot of criticism for a number of reasons this season, his rotation, his demeanor, the poor defensive performance, just to name a few. Some are more legitimate than others, but if you take a look at the path the team was on the before Butler went down, this season was not considered a failure until after their best player got hurt. When your best guy is out and your next best options are 23 and 22 years old, there are bound to be some issues.
If the Wolves were going into the playoffs with the five seed, would it feel like they had under achieved, or would you be hoping for a first round win? If they had continued their winning percentage of .581 from before Butler got hurt, they would be sitting in the fifth seed right now, going into a very winnable series.
Granted, Thibodeau doesn’t do himself any favors with his screaming, angry, defense-to-death attitude but all things considered, he has brought this franchise back to relevance. For the first time in a long time, there is a tangible buzz about this franchise and because of the lack of interest over the past decade, that cannot be understated.
To consider firing Thibs right now is shortsighted at best and irresponsible at worst. Tom Thibodeau may not be the right guy for this team to reach its full potential but there is no way to know that after 80 games, especially not when about a quarter of those games were played without their MVP. Give him another offseason to add to the roster (three-point shooting, please), another season of familiarity for the players to one another and it is very possible they could make the jump into the top three seed range.
Moving on from Thibs means another roster revamp and coaching philosophy change, something this fan base could do without.