NBA Chicago Bulls

Chicago Bulls’ Tom Thibodeau Makes Troubling Remarks About Pau Gasol

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By @TheSizzle20

Pau Gasol Thibs

Jerry Lai – USA Today Sports Images

The hopes are just about as high as possible for the Chicago Bulls as they enter the 2014-15 NBA season. This is a team that made the playoffs last year without their star point guard, Derrick Rose. Now Rose is returning and the team has a bevy of new weapons like Doug McDermott, Nikola Mirotic, and veteran Pau Gasol at their disposal.

Gasol is the wildcard in the grand plan for the Bulls for this season, though. He’s proven time and again that he’s a talented rebounder and low-post scorer, even at 34 years old. However, staying on the floor has been his biggest obstacle in recent seasons. Conventional wisdom would say to look at Gasol’s age, the depth in the Bulls frontcourt, and the injuries he’s been dealing with over the past couple of years and say that his minutes should probably be limited and there should be day designated to rest him this year.

Head coach Tom Thibodeau doesn’t seem to care much for conventional wisdom.

Answering questions for the media on Tuesday, Thibs was asked about Gasol. His response was somewhat troubling as he said, “With Phil [Jackson], they didn’t have very many days off. He played a lot of minutes and that’s what he’s used to: 37 minutes a game.”

While what he’s saying is true, that was also two full seasons, a bevy of injuries, and two years of aging ago for Gasol. Giving him that same type of workload at this point in his career seems like a sure-fire way to not maximize the veteran big man’s value and to possibly lose him to injury once again.

One of the biggest criticisms of Thibodeau’s coaching is his management of his players’ minutes. There are some people who say that the Bulls head coach simply runs guys into the ground with how relentless he is with workload. That seems to be backed up with his comments on Gasol.

Gasol has the chance to have an enormous impact on the Bulls’ season, but he has to be on the floor to make that happen. That’s not saying he needs to be on the floor for 37 minutes per game, but that he needs to stay healthy. If Thibs is seriously considering not monitoring the minutes and workload of the veteran big man, this could end poorly for Gasol.

Cody Williams is a Senior Writer with Rant Sports. Follow Cody on Twitter @TheSizzle20, add him on Google and like his Facebook page.

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