It’s uncommon within the NBA for a workforce to half methods with its head coach proper after a deep playoff run — and even rarer for the workforce that coach simply eradicated to sit down down with him afterward to review movie and discuss technique.
On Monday, simply 48 hours earlier than Opening Evening, the Celtics discovered themselves ready to do precisely that.
Tom Thibodeau, who guided the Knicks to their first Jap Convention Finals look in 25 years, oversaw the franchise clinch a playoff berth 4 occasions beneath his five-year run and led them to consecutive 50-plus win seasons, was dismissed this previous offseason. Thibodeau’s Knicks prevented the then-reigning champion Celtics from their chase at a repeat by eliminating Boston in six video games, marking certainly one of New York’s greatest postseason upsets in latest reminiscence.
But, it wasn’t sufficient for Thibodeau to retain his place within the Massive Apple for an additional run within the injury-riddled East. So with the Celtics inching nearer to their season opener in opposition to the 76ers, Thibodeau selected to pay the Celtics an unlikely go to throughout their apply over on the Auerbach Middle.
“I feel that was superior having Thibs,” Jaylen Brown stated. “Clearly, they eradicated us final 12 months. So him with the ability to give us a number of the ideas that he noticed in that collection, and a number of the stuff that they broke down in our personnel and even our workforce, helps us develop and study from that. We misplaced final 12 months. It stung shedding to the Knicks. So to have Thibs right here at our apply and explaining a number of the issues that he noticed that helped them beat us solely helps me get higher, solely helps us get higher. So I worth that. Shoutout to Thibs for being right here at this time.”
Thibodeau’s ties to the Celtics group and Massachusetts as an entire run deep. The 2-time recipient of the NBA’s Coach of the Yr Award (2011, 2021) spent almost 20 years serving as an assistant for the Timberwolves, Spurs, 76ers, Knicks, and Rockets within the Nineteen Nineties earlier than getting a shot to work beneath Doc Rivers’ Celtics in 2007 as an affiliate head coach. A former workforce captain and later coach at Salem State College, Thibodeau assisted Boston en path to its 2008 championship win over Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.
In order a lot because the journey again to Boston was considerably of a full-circle welcome again for Thibodeau, these inside the ability didn’t squander the possibility to devour as a lot helpful intel as attainable from their ex-rival.
“He was breaking down some movie and stuff like that, speaking to Joe from a workforce perspective and from a top-down perspective; what he needed to do with me and Jayson (Tatum) or what he needed to do with the ball in my palms,” Brown continued. “It lets you develop. Should you’re humble sufficient to hear, it’ll assist you to develop. … This was a singular place the place a man may are available in — instantly after (eliminating you) — and provides us some suggestions on how we will be higher, how I will be higher. So I worth that. That was nice.”
The Celtics blew consecutive 20-point leads in opposition to the Knicks, at residence, to start their convention semifinals matchup, giving New York a 2-0 collection benefit. That divot proved to be too deep for Boston to dig itself out of, particularly after Tatum suffered an unexpected ruptured proper Achilles tendon in Recreation 4 at Madison Sq. Backyard. Thibodeau countered by throwing a double-big lineup of Karl-Anthony Cities and Mitchell Robinson to dominate the rebounding margin whereas shifting New York’s defensive schemes in opposition to Tatum. It labored and exploited Boston’s blemishes all through the collection.
Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla is among the many league’s most receptive minds on the subject of taking a student-of-the-game method to bettering and welcoming a broader perspective into the workforce’s locker room. So even when it means asking Thibodeau the place each he and the Celtics fell quick final postseason, Mazzulla is all ears if it helps the group in the long term.
”He’s been among the best coaches round for a very long time,” Mazzulla stated. “(He) labored right here, gained a championship right here, and simply having him round makes me higher, makes our group higher. So it’s lots of respect for him.”
