You're far too charitable IMO. I don't think the management was deferring to Thibs at all in previous years but merely has no real idea what they want and have gone along with what seems trendy for years now, even pre-dating the current coach. This post on blogabull captures this well:
Quote:
There was a really funny quote from Paxson about their minute restrictions being "common sense"
Which, of course, doesn’t explain Paxson’s lack of common sense minutes restrictions over his first dozen years of running the team.
To be honest, I’ve come to the conclusion that Paxson is much less Notre Dame smarty-pants and much more dumb jock than I used to. If you look at his history, he’s basically gone for trends over and over again.
1. His first iteration was building a team based on defense and role players in the Pistons mold. He was all about "accountability" and "building a culture of winning"
2. That flamed out and he attempted to go in the complete opposite direction by hiring Mike D’Antoni. D’Antoni is mainly famous for being the exact opposite of the philosophy Paxson had spent years preaching.
3. And of course, he up and quit because being a full-time GM was too stressful.
4. The ultimate hire, VDN, was basically at Doug Collins’ suggestion, and after Paxson assaulted him (so much for the accountability), the next hire, Thibs, was basically Reinsdorf’s decision. Pax was pretty quiet the last few years, mainly emerging to talk about how they valued playing hard and full throttle all the time. And how preparation and playing hard translated into the playoffs.
5. Then, we’ve got this year’s Pax, who once again has done a heel turn and thinks its "common sense" to rest up when the players feel like it. Not because they’re actually hurt, but… because that’ll keep them fresh and unprepared for the high-stress playoffs.
Basically, the guy has completely changed his tune several times. If there’s any sort of core philosophy driving his thoughts on basketball, I’d like to know what it is.
I'd also point out that the offensive players they went out to acquire increased rather than decreased the likelihood of continuing to play a standard halfcourt set. Gasol can still score but you can't really use him at this age for the kind of motion-based offense you're going to get from a guy like Hoiberg.
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