Thibodeau Grinding

Great article here: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--with-tom-thibodeau-grinding-away--bulls-even-series-with-nets-063051823.html

Talks about Thibodeau staying true to his personality despite the circumstances.  Here are a few highlites:

"Most guys, from Patrick Ewing to Yao [Ming] to [Kevin] Garnett, they want to be coached," Thibodeau told Yahoo! Sports. "They want to be pushed. In all my years in this, one thing has never changed: You win with serious, tough-minded players. That never changes. - Awesome reminder to coach your best players hard.  You can't reach your potential if your best player can't take coaching.

"That's the challenge now. Things are changing in the game. …Things are different. When you're putting a team together, I think of what [Bill] Belichick said: 'You're not collecting talent, you're building a team.' " - Winning does require your talent to be in the ball park, but seldom in the nba do you see the newly stacked team through free agency win it all in the first year.  Winning takes more than talent.  One of the biggest obstacles with many talented players is defining roles.  Everyone wants to be the go to player down the stretch.

"People always talk about going on offensive runs," Thibodeau said. "But you can go on defensive runs, too." - The quickest way to take a teams will away is to get multiple stops.  Teams aren't bothered by the other team scoring as long as they can score on the other end.  You stop the other team from scoring and watch the dissension set in.

Thibodeau couldn't stop talking about him in the hallway, about how Mohammed kept practicing hard, kept preparing, even when the minutes weren't coming this season. "And the guys who take shortcuts, who aren't ready, they fail when their opportunity comes," Thibodeau said.  - Great lesson for players of all ages.  Reminds me of an Abraham Lincoln quote: I will prepare and some day my time will come.  It would have been real easy for Mohammed to collect a check and watch Noah play 40+ minutes a night.