Bulls Hire Thibodeau, but What Does it Mean for the Summer?

Tom Thibodeau has reportedly accepted a 3 year contract offer to become the Bulls next head coach, it won’t become official until after the NBA Finals.  Its said that the Bulls were opting for experience in this coaching search, after hiring Del Negro 2 years ago, who had no coaching experience at any level.  While Thibodeau has no head coaching experience, he is a long time NBA assistant and one of the most respected coaches in the league.

Thidodeau is widely acknowledged as one of the best defensive minds in all of basketball and is the architect of the defense that has been one of t he best in the league over the last few seasons and shut down Kobe Bryant in the 2008 NBA Finals.  Even though he has never been a head coach he has been considered for several jobs over the last couple of years and it was a foregone conclusion that this would be the offseason that he ended up with the top job for an NBA franchise.

The big question now is, what does the hiring of Thidodeau mean when it comes to luring this summer’s big free agents, specifically LeBron James?  While their hasn’t been any rumored LeBron affection for Thibodeau, lets have a little fun and give ourselves some reasons this hiring might sway LBJ to the Bulls.  First and foremost, Thibodeau is a defensive genius and teams that play defense are always in games and always have a chance to do damage in the playoffs.  And while LeBron is known for his offense, he made the NBA All-defensive first team this season and has worked as hard on his defense as he has his offense sense he came into the league.  After being eliminated in the playoffs the last two seasons by excellent defensive teams that overall weren’t as talented or deep as the Cavs (Boston and Orlando), I think now more than ever, LeBron sees the importance of good team defense.  Not too mention, with Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson already being very solid post defenders, throwing James into the mix as a perimeter defender could make for a devastating defensive team.

Add that to the existing reasons LeBron had to come to Chicago.  Him in the backcourt with Derrick Rose and a front line of Noah and Gibson, who are becoming solid offensive options.  That’s a dangerous team that can dominate on both ends of the floor.  Without signing another max free agent, there isn’t another team in the league that can offer LBJ what the Bulls can.

As for why the Bulls hired Thibodeau, I don’t think luring LeBron was the biggest reason for the move.  I think John Paxson and Gar Foreman knew Thibodeau was the best candidate available this offseason and went after him before someone else could beat them to him.