If this was VDN you would be all ova his shit. But this guy gets a pass?

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

I am. I think it's a terrible way for a pro coach to do things. I could understand sitting him until 5 minutes left in the game but you don't sit him for the whole quarter. This is one of your stars. You can send a message without embarrassing him.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Thibodeaux is a bully.

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Host of the weekly "We Fish ASA" podcast
Weekly columnist for the Northwest Herald
Bi-monthly columnist for Illinois Outdoor News magazine
Former host of The Outdoors Experience on WIND and The Great Outdoors on CLTV
http://www.wefishasa.com

It was stupid as shit. Teach in practice. Win games.

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my gut reaction is "hey, we've actually got a coach who is a pretty cool guy who doesn't afraid of anything" because despite his well-known defensive shortcomings boozedogg is a ~$15mil/year signing who you figure would automatically stay on the court because he's one of your team cornerstones. basically, the gut reaction is "hey we've got a real coach who doesn't bend over for for contract issues"

but then, further thought makes me wonder what the endgame is here. thibodeau has been using excuses like "we were going small" since he started doing this (the first time i remember it was, i believe, the phoenix game where taj was in the game until he or noah fouled out and they needed another big) and i wonder if that in and of itself is a cop-out because booxer has been known to be mercurial with these sort of "respect" things. is thibodeau trying to "send a message" to the bulls saying "no matter who you are you gotta play defense" and using boozer's status as a gimmick to add an exclamation point to the message? is he trying to make an individual point to boozer about defense, a point that dan burn-stine today brought up that jerry sloan made in 2005 and 2006?

i don't know if boozedogg is as much of a lockerroom-poisoning pubwhack as ben wallace was, nor do i believe in the laurence holmes angle for the evening of "YOU WOULDN'T BE LIKE THIS IF IT WERE VINNY DEL NEGRO COACHING THE BULLS", but i am a bit weary of the potential "fuck this guy" strain that he could be generating in boozer going forward. sure, invoking the mantra of terrell owens' spokeslady, carlos has 75 million reasons to be a happy camping good soldier here, but i'd hate to see some serious bullshit arise from a situation where it'd turn out that thibodeau was trying to assert his authority as a rookie coach using a well-paid defensive bum as an example.

in terms of X's and O's, i could see an argument either way where you'd side with either offense or defense. thankfully this is just an early-january game against the nets and there's plenty of time to work out the kinks before the playoffs, but hopefully this isn't sewing the seeds of a bigtime "it's me or him" personality issue that would likely lead to a dismissal of thibodeau, because i've liked what i've seen from the guy early on.

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i don't think it was the right thing to do and not necessarily pleased with it, but i don't think it's that big of a deal either. it will be interesting to see how the next few games play out in that regard. if the rift grows wider it could be an issue. i'm willing to cut Thibs a bit of slack since he's a new head coach but hopefully there are some assistants and others cautioning him about being too much of a hard ass.....I thought it was interesting on B&B yesterday that they were reading some derogatory quotes from Jerry Sloan about his defense from several years ago. So it's nothing new for Boozer if that's indeed what went on; can't make a leopard change his spots

VDN was clueless. I'll cut Thibodeau some slack.

He sat down all the starters except for Deng in the 4th, and the bench got the team back in the game. Rose didn't come back until about 4 minutes left in the 4th quarter. He should have brought Boozer back at that same time. The Nets were struggling, and that was the time to go to your big guns for the kill. In Thibs defense, the starters played like shit in the 3rd quarter which caused New Jersey to open up the lead to 15 points. His bench was playing good, so he stuck with them. I'm not saying it was the right decision, but a little context to the whole situation should be given. Korver didn't play down the stretch either, which also kind of irked me. It would have been nice to have him on the floor also for the last couple posessions, since the Bulls couldn't buy a bucket.

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This is the 2nd game of the year where his coaching decision cost them a game. Why was Korver not on the court if they REALLY needed a shooter.

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Thibbs falls in love with his bench a bit too much for me. There are times when not one starter is out there for a long period of time.
Having a fresh off the street Lucas in the game during money time is probably as bad or worse than anything VDN ever did.

Sitting Boozer for a whole quarter and losing by 2 pts is completely inexcuseable and also VDNesque

When its crunch time the stars who make plays should be in. The matchup excuse Thibbs always brings up is BS

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"You can kill the revolutionary, but you can't kill the revolution."

There are bigger issues than Carlos Boozer being benched for the final 14 minutes of their road loss to the Nets in Newark Wednesday. The Bulls continue to miss free throws at an alarming clip. They're getting nothing from Keith Bogans, and Tom Thibodeau's reluctant to bench him for Ron Brewer or Kyle Korver. They continue to start from behind, even vs. teams worse than they are. The Boozer benching the other night doesn't bother me. He had a bad night, that's all...