Chicago Bulls: Team must bring Tom Thibodeau back

When the Chicago Bulls are able to formally interview head coaching candidates, Tom Thibodeau should be atop the list.

Finally under new leadership, Chicago Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas’ first move, when the league’s return-to-play proposal is officially imposed, will be to hire a new coach. Jim Boylen’s .317 winning percentage, accompanied by the players’ resounding doubts about his abilities to steer the team back in the right direction, is reason enough for the Bulls to move on.

And while it would seem that 76ers assistant Ime Udoka is the preferred candidate, could the Bulls turn to a familiar face? From 2010-2015, Tom Thibodeau led the Bulls to a .647 winning percentage, including a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals and two Central division titles.

Under Thibodeau, the Bulls went from a middle-of-the-pack defense under Vinny Del Negro to the league’s best defense overnight, allowing just 90.8 points-per-game in Thibs’ first season. That was the theme over his six-year tenure in Chicago while developing stars in both Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler became household names.

The Bulls have been downright unwatchable since, as the firing of Thibodeau in May 2015 started a series of unfortunate events as the team would trade Rose, trade Butler, trade Luol Deng, and let Joakim Noah walk in free agency. And the Bulls have been irrelevant since.

Now with potential superstars in both Zach LaVine and Coby White, history could be repeating itself, and Thibodeau would be a great option to help grow these young Bulls into a championship-caliber team.

Of course, there’s the concern about Thibodeau mismanaging his players’ minutes, as noted by Rose’s injury in Game 1 of the 2012 playoff game against the 76ers up 12 with less than a minute and a half to go. Butler also played a league-high 38.7 minutes-per-game in both the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 seasons. That trend continued as both Butler and Thibodeau moved onto the Timberwolves together.

Still, the fact of the matter is that Tom Thibodeau made the Chicago Bulls fun to watch again, after going nearly a decade of miserable basketball, post-Jordan era. There’s absolutely no reason that the Bulls, one of the league’s biggest markets, should be a bottom-feeder every year.

And now that Gar Forman is out of the picture, Thibodeau should have an easier time working with the front office. Of course, he and John Paxson would have to have that conversation, so the two parties are on the same side going forward.