Chicago Bulls: Tom Thibodeau Named NBA Coach of the Year

This afternoon, the NBA will present Tom Thibodeau with the award for the NBA Coach of the Year.

Thibodeau led the Bulls to an NBA best 62 wins this season, tying Paul Westphal for the NBA Record for wins by a rookie head coach. He was also only the second rookie coach to ever land the No. 1 overall seed.  

In spite of it being his first year at the helm, Thibs took a newly assembled roster of payer fraught with questionable defensive talents and efforts, and turned them in a single season into the best defensive unit in the NBA. 

He did this in spite of the fact that for two-thirds of the season, the Bulls were without the services of either their starting power forward, Carlos Boozer or starting center Joakim Noah. 

His style was questioned by some as his intensity was seen as a liability in this age of prima donas where players often vie for control of the team. In landing with the Chicago Bulls though Thibs was complimented with Derrick Rose, the potential MVP, who completely bought into what Thibs was selling and the rest of the team followed.

Joakim Noah assigns part of the credit for the team buying so whole-heartedly into the system on Thibodeau's style of coaching. Per Noah, on the first day of practice Thibs was there running drills, a role usually left to the assistants.

Such a hands on attitude won immediate respect from the team. The whole team bought into what he was selling.  

What he was selling was his "five men on a string" style of defense. When the season started the Bulls defense struggled at times and some begin to question whether his defense was going to kick in. However, as the players started to pick up on their roles and assignments, the team started to settle into his scheme and as they did, they quickly became the most elite defensive team in the NBA.

Even their bench became extremely effective with their bench unit, known as the "Bench Mob" was the single most effective five man unit in the NBA defensively, giving up only 88 points per 100 possessions.  

One aspect of the Bulls improvement that has been somewhat overlooked is their enormous improvement on offense. They scored 108.3 points per 100 possessions this season, a full five points up from last year.

By comparison, the Spurs offense which was widely acknowledged as greatly improved only increased by 1.8 points per 100 possessions. 

In fact, in terms of offensive and defensive rating, the Bulls were both the most improved offense and the most improved defense in the NBA this season. That's why they were also the most improved team in terms of winning percentage.

That's quite a resume for a first year head coach and more than enough to win the Coach of the Year.

The rumors are that Rose is expected to win the NBA's MVP this week. If the rumors are true, they would be the 12th combo from the same team to win the coveted awards.

The last Bulls tandem to achieve that was Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan in 1996. The Bulls went on to win the NBA Championship that year.