A couple links for ya, as this isn't much of a controversy but is still an interesting thing to watch as the season progresses: Thibodeau's manic commitment to defense and the team's reaction to it. So far, all is good: the players all seemed to have bought in and the team defense has been phenomenal with or without Noah.

WSCR host Dan Bernstein has a real nice post today at CBSChicago, where he points out that Boozer's been called out for defensive lapses in the past by Jerry Sloan. And yet unlike Sloan, Thibodeau didn't explicitly let it be known publicly that's why Boozer was benched (going instead with some offensive scheme reason). That's likely a good thing not to sell him out to the media, but either way it does underscore how Boozer may be set in his ways by this point in his career, and if Sloan couldn't get through to him there's little such 'message' will do.

ESPNChicago's Jon Greenberg takes a similarly measured approach, saying while a message may not work, this wasn't on the level of VDN sitting Rose at the end of games, and it'll be more worth noticing if it starts happening in the important matchups this season. Last night's game was circumstantially a tough go from the outset.