As we think about choosing a coach I suggest we build on our strengths.  We do not have a superstar and likely won't when we start the 2008-09 season.  What we do have is athletic players that like playing defense.  Noah, Hinrich, Hughes, TT, Thabo, Deng and even Noch have significant defensive talent and like playing defense. Good defense leads to fast break opportunities, a strength of our team.  What do you think about choosing our next coach with the goal to make us the 2008-09 top NBA defensive team?  

One name that comes to mind is Tom Thibodeau.

Tom Thibodeau has been an NBA coach for nearly twenty years. For many of those years, he worked under Jeff Van Gundy, who has called him a strong prospect to be a head coach one day soon. When Boston's Doc Rivers looked for a new assistant this summer, Thibodeau is said to have been at the top of the list of coaches who could help Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce succeed together. His move from Houston to Boston was something of a homecoming for Thibodeau, too, who is from nearby New Britain, Connecticut, and once was an assitant coach at Harvard, and at Massacusetts' Salem State, where he both graduated and coached.

Thibodeau has been praised for everything from his tutelage of Yao Ming to making the Celtics a much-improved defensive team.

Thibodeau's background written when he was Jeff Van Gundy's Assistant in Houston.

Thibodeau entered the NBA in 1989 as an assistant coach with the expansion Minnesota Timberwolves under the late Bill Musselman. After two seasons with the Timberwolves, he joined the Seattle SuperSonics in 1991 as an advance scout. The following year, Thibodeau moved to San Antonio, where he worked with Jerry Tarkanian and John Lucas as a Spurs assistant coach for two seasons. He left San Antonio to become an assistant coach under Lucas with the Philadelphia 76ers. Thibodeau's stay in Philadelphia lasted two seasons, at which point he joined the Knicks. With the Knicks, Thibodeau worked with Van Gundy for five years and Don Chaney for two seasons.

In 14 NBA seasons, Thibodeau has helped his team finish in the NBA's Top Ten in team defense 11 times.

What are your thoughts about Thibodeau?  Any other suggestions on who else can accomplish getting us to be the 2008-09 best defensive team?