Stacey King comments on Thibs/management.

[Upgrayedd]

After hearing more people give their opinion about Thibs I have to say I agree that it's time for a change. Thibs is a better version of Skiles. You want both of them to coach your inexperienced team and get them to play tough defense and work hard and go after every rebound. But once the players reach their primes you need to switch coaches and bring in someone that will rest these guys and control their playing time better. That's what happened with the Bulls. Thibs was great the first few seasons with Rose, Taj and Noah. But now they're at the point where they need a new coach to come in that gives them breaks, controls their playing time.

http://www.csnchicago.com/bulls/stac...nd-youre-dealt

Stacey King spoke Monday night on the SiriusXM NBA Radio show, giving his take on the ongoing feud between Tom Thibodaeu and Bulls management. King has been CSN Chicago's color commentator alongside Neil Funk since 2007, including all five years Thibodeau has been head coach in Chicago.

King was asked, "From your standpoint, how difficult has this relationship been between the two parties?"

His response:

“It’s been very difficult because the management is concerned about players," King said. "They pay a lot of money for these players. You've got guys coming off injury that they wanted to see brought back slower. They didn’t want to see Derrick Rose, who has missed three postseasons recovering from meniscus surgery, playing 45 minutes right out of the box. They didn't want to see that. They put him on a minute restriction.

"And that’s something that honestly, management really shouldn’t have to get involved. The coach should know that. The training staff should know that. You know that you can’t put Joakim Noah playing 40-plus minutes when the guy has just had some major knee surgery. Derrick Rose had major knee surgery. You should know those kind of things.

“The thing about Tom is, Tom is very stubborn. He’s a great coach. He’s great at what he does. He pushes the players. He’s no different than all the old-school coaches that were back in the 90s. He has high expectations for his players. He’s a no-nonsense, no-excuses guy. Sometimes guys don’t want to be coached by a guy like that.

"Those guys have short shelf lives in the NBA. At the end of the day, you've got to be able to conform, too. You’ve got to be able to say, ‘Let me change with the times a little bit. Let me make some adjustments.’ And I think that’s been one of the biggest issues with Tom Thibodeau is that he coaches the same way regardless of if it’s 82 games or if it’s the playoffs.

“He has had great regular-season success. But he has not had the same success in the playoffs. And when you look at his record and you compare the two, what are you coaching for? Are you coaching for regular-season titles? Because the last time I checked, you’re not winning titles in the regular season. You win titles in the postseason after 82 games. And he struggles. We can sit here and make excuses: ‘Well, he didn’t have this roster or didn't have this guy on the roster.’ You play with the hand you’re dealt.

“This year, there are no excuses. This was a disappointing season. Bulls management went out and tried to be a player in the Carmelo Anthony sweepstakes. They went all in for that. Give them credit.

"They had a Plan B. They had Pau Gasol, who turned out to have his best year, probably a career year under Tom Thibodeau and the Bulls this season. This was a team that should have went deeper and longer than what they did, period.”