Eastern Conference Finals, the historical trajectory of Carlisle and Thibodeau!

As two teams that unexpectedly stepped on the floor of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Knicks and the Pacers were once in reconstruction in previous years, but during the reconstruction process of the two teams, they had their own different trajectories.

From a certain general trend, the current results of these two teams are mainly based on the head coaches of the two teams gradually being created after taking office, following the head coaches' personality, system, etc. Therefore, we use the perspectives of the two head coaches to take a look at this Eastern Conference dialogue.

When Dallas selected Doncic on the 2018 draft night, everyone was looking forward to what kind of sparks the Slovenian Golden Boy and then-head coach Carlisle would have. The two have worked together for three years and made two playoffs, but it seems that 1+1 can never be greater than 2, and the cooperation between the two has never been able to make a breakthrough. In the end, Carlisle chose to leave the team that he has been playing for in the 2008 season.

At that time, it was quite unexpected that Carlisle left Dallas, and then he chose to return to the Pacers he had played for. From the perspective of that time, this choice was still very unexpected. Generally, such successful champion coaches rarely choose this kind of rebuilding team. But from a historical perspective, we understand it very well.

On November 19, 2004, Carlisle took the Pacers who had 61 wins and 21 losses last season to Detroit to face the first team he coached in his coaching career. The Pistons, who eliminated the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals the previous season, and then won the championship. But no one expected that this day would become the darkest day in league history, and later the infamous Auburn Hills incident.

This accident not only ruined a team's possible peak season, but also the regret of a legendary star's final failure to win the championship, but also made Carlisle, the young at that time, lose a if possible assumption that could never be proved.

Back to Indiana, although people have changed, at least this place is still there, the team is still there, and the fans are still there. In the documentary of the Auburn Hills incident, Carlisle did not give much thoughts about this matter, but as a respected head coach, Carlisle must have questioned himself many times in his mind. If he had noticed these internal factors at the beginning, he could make some different decisions in advance, wouldn’t history be different?

Of course, we cannot go back to the past and change history, but life continues to be able to create a new history. Perhaps this is the key behind Carlisle's decision to return to the Pacers.

It is only when Carlisle started coaching in the 2021-22 season. For Carlisle, he was able to quickly build a system, allow the Pacers to continue to maintain good combat power, and play unignorable results in the East, which should be expected by some people; but he was able to play continuously to the Eastern Conference Finals within four years, and the team also maintained a healthy salary structure, stable subsequent assets and a healthy player age distribution, which was definitely a result that exceeded expectations.

But from Carlisle's perspective, perhaps this result is not surprising. When he served as the team's head coach for the first time, he still led a lifeless Pistons directly from 32 wins to 32 losses in the East under a more unanticipated situation.

The process of creating a new history, we must also look back at what they have left behind.

When Carlisle left Dallas, there was a man who joined the team on the 2018 draft night like Doncic. He was coached by Carlisle and began to make his mark in his last year of coaching. This man was named Jaylen Brunson. And now, the master and apprentice are standing opposite the Eastern Final Stage.

Knowing that as the core of the two teams, Halliburton and Brunson have long stood opposite each other in the WWE arena, and it seems that they have foreshadowed the dialogue between the two of them in the East Finals.

When it comes to Brunson, we should also look at the Knicks' coach seat. There is a head coach who has also had an excellent resume but has a controversial one. Like Carlisle, he also has his own historical route for Thibodeau.

Like Carlisle, Thibodeau brought results in his first year of coaching the team, allowing the Bulls to become the top team in the East District from the middle of the East District and enter the Eastern Conference Finals. Although they lost to the Miami Heat, most of the remarks at that time were believed that in the next few years, Thibodeau and the Bulls should be among the top teams in the East District.

But unexpectedly, when I saw Thibodeau on the next stage of the division final, it was fourteen years apart.

defeated the Celtics in the last round and was a team that Thibodeau had been coaching as an assistant coach and also won the NBA championship as a member of the coaching team; the next two possible opponents, for Thibodeau, basically represent the important milestone of his past coaching career.

The Timberwolves, who are currently on the Western Conference Finals stage, are teams that Thibodeau coached before, but they almost made his coaching career desperate; as for the Thunder, if there were no accidental injuries in the year Ross was injured, if the Chicago Bulls, who had the first record in the regular season league, could advance all the way in the playoffs, they would have the chance to face the Thunder on the finals stage.

What about the walker in front of you?

Tibodeau served as head coach for the first time in his coaching career. The first team he faced in the playoffs in the first year was Skill Horses. At that time, the Pacers rose in the East Zone under the joint force of Vogel and Paul George; that year, the Bulls defeated the Pacers and eliminated the Hawks, and were defeated by the Heat in the Eastern Conference.

If Thibodeau could take another step that year, the opponent the Bulls met in the finals that year would be the Dallas Mavericks led by Carlisle. We don’t know how many past events Thibodeau would recall when he fought against the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Final, but from the perspective of bystanders, it really looks like walking into the historical corridor, constantly savoring his own persistence and choices between the past and the future..

After the Timberwolves, Thibodeau, who was slightly sluggish, came to the Knicks, a place where he once worked as a teaching assistant around Van Gundy. Faced with the chaos in New York that was chaotic by David Fitzdale, a long-time underdog led by Randall and Barrett, this combination was a complete tragedy at the time.

But after Thibodeau came to New York, he reminded everyone again that the person who promoted the Bulls to the Eastern Overlord overnight was still there. In the fifth year of coming to the Knicks, the New Yorkers finally returned to the long-lost division final.

As lucky as the Bulls at that time, Thibodeau got a set of main teams with great personality, basketball philosophy and his own, and insisted on implementing the iron-blooded basketball philosophy.

But compared to the Bulls, the New York management was very familiar with the double-edged value of Thibodeau. When Thibodeau encountered a bottleneck in the team of existing players, Lyon Ross would not be controlled by these investments, but understood the importance of priorities. He did not rush to trade Randle, and was patiently waiting for Mitchell Robinson. When it was time to make progress, he also actively won Brunson, Hart, Divinchenzo, Bridges and even Towns.

In this Eastern Conference Finals, no matter who wins or loses in the end, it means that there is at least one excellent coach who can break through his unfinished career and bring a touch of different content to the situation where the stars are in power.