With Derrick Rose making a second comeback, Joakim Noah trying to rebound from knee surgery and Jimmy Butler nursing an injured left thumb, Thibodeau has to look at limiting minutes for his stars. To do such a thing goes against every fiber of his being. But if the Bulls are to win the East, as Sports Illustrated has predicted them to do, he'll have to sacrifice a little bit of pride.
Entering his fifth year as the head of the Bulls, Thibodeau has to recognize that some games are meant to be lost. Certain victories also don't have to send a message by resulting in a blowout. 2 1/2 years after Rose's ACL tear, he's still dealing with some flak for keeping the star in when the game was already decided. Can you imagine what would happen with him if Rose goes down again in a similar situation?
Of course, if Thibodeau chooses to rest his stars during certain stretches as other coaches have been known to do in recent years, there's going to be frustration on certain nights that the Bulls let games they should have won slipped away. As long as that method is limited to the extent that it won't affect playoff seeding, it seems to be all right. But everything just mentioned is going to come with the territory, whether Thibodeau likes it or not.
This season will show how much Thibodeau has grown as a coach, if at all. Too much has happened over the past four years for him to be too stubborn to do any kind of growing. Now, the Bulls are presented with perhaps their best chance to return to the Finals since the 90s. It could all hinge on whether a hard-nosed approach has to take a bit of a backseat to one that's more conservative in handling key injuries.
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