Thibodeau s "double-edged sword": Why is the "iron army" he forged always bound to the injuries of superstars?

When mentioning Tom Thibodeau, fans' evaluations are always polarized - some people call him "defense master", "champion puzzle builder", and some people call him "physical tyrant" and "superstar killer". At the age of 67, he has never been married and has no children. He has stuffed his whole life into basketball and has become synonymous with "basketball madman".

30 years of assistant coaching became the head coach: his "defensive belief" is engraved into his bones

Thibodeau's story starts with his "water dispenser years". The high school team played as a substitute and was stumbled in the NCAA league in college. He had long recognized that he was "not the material for playing basketball", but his love for basketball was not cold - being an assistant coach, a scout, and learning defense with Van Gundy, he had to endure for 30 years.

When he received the Bulls' coaching stick in 2010, he was finally able to implement the concept of "defense first". Reusing Noah to build a defensive system, delegating power to Ross as the core of the offensive, winning 62 wins in the first season (the first in the league), Ross became the youngest MVP and he won the best coach. That Bulls is like a "defensive machine" - every goal must be fought for and every board must be grabbed, even the opponent is afraid of their "crazy".

Later, when he went to the Knicks, he copied this pattern: using Brunson as "Modern Ross", Anunobi and Hart as "Defensive Iron Gate", fourth in the East in the first season, and then won the best coach. Fans joked: "Thibodeau's team is always a template for 'defensive bottom-up + core hard solution'."

"Cold-blooded rotation": 40 minutes became the norm, and his "Iron Army" relies on overdrawing the coaching label of players

Thibodeau, in addition to "defense", is "cold-blooded rotation".

In the Bulls, Ross averaged 40+ minutes per game (40.3 minutes in the peak season), and blue-collar workers such as Noah and Gibson averaged 35+ minutes per game; when they went to the Timberwolves, Butler and Lavine averaged 10 minutes per game; in the Knicks, Brunson, Hart and Anunobi often played 42-45 minutes... He said: "Resting on the round is the fig leaf for the weak."

His logic is very simple: core players have to "burn themselves", and substitutes are unreliable. But what is the result?

Ross: He was still 12 points ahead in the first minute of the 2012 playoffs. He still left Rose on the court, resulting in a torn cruciate ligament on his left knee - the peak was directly reimbursed, and later became a "glass man".

Noah: When defending the core, he averaged 35 minutes per game + inside hand-to-hand combat, and his body was seriously overdrawn. G3 injured and retreated, and the Bulls were blacked out.

LaVine: The average time per game soared in the 16-17 season, and the left knee cruciate ligament was torn in 47 games, and the season was reimbursed.

Knicks: Brunson, Hart, and Anunobi were seriously injured many times, and even the "Iron Man" Bridges publicly questioned: "I need a rest!"

Thibodeau's "Iron Army" was "burned" with the health of the players. Behind the controversy: is he "parabe" or "basketball pure"?

Some people called him a "physical tyrant", but others supported him - Van Gundy Jr. said: "The media misunderstood him, he just wanted the players to find their position." The agent said: "If you don't push it to the limit, you will be eliminated by the league."

Indeed, Thibodeau's team has a very high lower limit - the Bulls' 5-year 64.7% winning rate, fourth in the East Division in the first season of the Knicks, and the Timberwolves ended the 13-year playoff drought. He gave the "civilian team" the capital to win, and let the "blue-collar players" find value (Hart, Noah, and Gibson all made a fortune because of him).

But what about the price? Ross' peak is like a meteor, Lavin's glass attributes, Noah's premature aging... He can't escape the injuries of these superstars. Yao Ming's weight gain training and McGrady's "heartache" remind them: his "burning" coaching is a "fishing in Heze" in the long run. The persistence of old-school coaches is a footnote to the times. The Thiboddeau is like an "old basketball craftsman", stubbornly hitting the old hammer of "defense first" in the new trend of "scientific turnover" and "load management". He used 30 years to prove that defense can win, but also 30 years to prove that overdrawing players’ health cannot win the future.

The current Knicks return to the Eastern Conference Finals under him, but the injuries of Brunson and Anunobi are still there. What will happen in the future? Perhaps only when he wins the championship trophy can he block all doubts - but then, can the players who are "burning" by him still stand by his side?

The charm of basketball has never been black or white. Thibodeau's "parabi" is a pure love for basketball and a "stubborn counterattack" for modern basketball. His story is the collision between old school and new trends, a game between short-term victory and long-term development - and this is exactly what basketball looks like.