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Minnesota Timberwolves: Tom Thibodeau is the same coach he’s always been

By Justin Curran

CHICAGO, IL - FEBRUARY 09: Head coach Tom Thibodeau of the Minnesota Timberwolves complains to referee Derek Richardson
CHICAGO, IL - FEBRUARY 09: Head coach Tom Thibodeau of the Minnesota Timberwolves complains to referee Derek Richardson /
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Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Tom Thibodeau has caught some heat for overusing Jimmy Butler this year, but that’s nothing new for Thibs.

When the Minnesota Timberwolves brought in Tom Thibodeau to be their head coach and president of basketball operations, the move was met with both praise and skepticism.

People liked the idea that Thibs is a coach with a ton of experience and has a history of winning under his belt. If there’s one word to describe Thibodeau it would be journeyman.

He began his coaching career as an assistant at Salem State University in Salem, Massachusetts. Then he worked his way up to be an assistant at Harvard, before making his way into the NBA. Starting in 1989, Tom Thibodeau worked as an assistant for the T-Wolves, San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers, New York Knicks, Houston Rockets and the Boston Celtics

After all of those stops Thibs finally got a head coaching job with the Chicago Bulls. That’s the place where he really got the opportunity for people to see who he is. In Chicago there were a lot of ups and downs, including winning, injuries and controversy. The Bulls won a lot of games in the Tom Thibodeau era.

In five seasons with the Bulls, including a lockout-shortened season, Thibodeau’s record was 255-139. Nobody in their right mind can criticize that.

Did the Bulls win the NBA Finals? No, but he put them in the position to and that’s all a head coach can do at any level.

Why were there critics then? People think that he ran his players into the ground. Are those people wrong? In my opinion, no.

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    • The perfect example of that is Joakim Noah. Noah played an incredible amount of minutes going all out for those Bulls teams. The past few years he’s been constantly been wearing street clothes on the bench, and when he’s out on the court, he’s a shadow of his former self.

    So are people out of line when they say that Tom Thibodeau might’ve led to Noah’s downfall? No, they aren’t.

    The way that this connects to the 2017-18 NBA season is the moment Jimmy Butler went down against the Houston Rockets.

    It’s something we see far too often as fans of the NBA — players going down with knee injuries. As anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock knows, Jimmy Butler is out indefinitely with an injury to his right meniscus.

    Almost immediately after the dust settled, people started to point the blame at none other than Thibs. They cited how Jimmy Butler led the league in minutes played, which is a good indication that he might be playing too much.

    All I have to say is: That’s what you’ve got to expect with Thibodeau. Not injuries, but overplaying guys, which can lead to injury.

    Tom Thibodeau is a great basketball coach, but he’s shown his stubbornness throughout the years. That’s not a knock on Thibs, pretty much every person has an ego and a certain way of doing things.

    Next: 2017-18 Week 20 NBA Power Rankings

    Thibodeau will bring wins throughout his tenure in Minnesota, but be prepared for the fact that he might drive some players into the ground.

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