As Tom Thibodeau takes the season off after parting ways with the Chicago Bulls last summer, he's making himself available to teams around the league. He's not being hired as an assistant but he's visiting some coaches, who happen to be friends, and just having a nice visit with them to talk basketball and catch up. He recently did it with George Karl and the Sacramento Kings, looking at some of the offensive stuff the Kings are able to do to get easy shots, and maybe going over some defensive things with Karl, whose defense is near the bottom of the league.
He's done it with a few teams now, and the scary thing for the rest of the league could be what's happening in his next stop. In the video of Karl discussing the visit from Thibodeau on CSN Bay Area, Karl says Thibodeau will be headed to the Golden State Warriors next. Depending on how much is discussed there, Thibodeau could have a small hand in making a historically great Warriors team even better on the defensive end of the floor, while he maybe learns a couple of offensive tips for his next job.
The Warriors are currently first in offense and fifth in defense. Last season during their championship run, the Warriors gave up 1.9 fewer points per 100 possessions, which ranked them first in the NBA. This year, they've dropped to fifth, but their defensive rating of last season would currently rank second behind a historic San Antonio Spurs' defense. The idea of the Warriors maybe tightening up some things defensively as they continue to improve on their 54-5 record sounds terrifying for the rest of the league.
For the next team he coaches, Thibodeau could really learn a thing or two about the management of minutes the Warriors have seemed to perfect. The biggest criticism of Thibodeau during his days coaching the Chicago Bulls is playing his guys far too many minutes. Steve Kerr and company being able to help him out with that aspect would be a huge boon to his next endeavor. Offensively, he could learn some things too, but Thibodeau is a much better offensive coach than people often give him credit for -- which is something Karl said.
During his five years in Chicago, Thibodeau's offenses ranked 12th, 5th, 24th, 28th and 10th, respectively. Those two years in which he was near the bottom of the league, the Bulls were decimated by injuries and didn't have the depth to overcome it.
