A few days ago, I broke down the candidacy of Tom Thibodeau for the vacant head coaching position of the New Orleans Pelicans. Thanks to a quick glance of the pace statistic and trusting common knowledge, I assumed one of his drawbacks was that his teams never looked to push the ball.
During his five seasons, the Bulls have ranked in descending seasons 21st, 28th, 26th, 25th and 22nd in pace. Prior to Rose's 2012 ACL blowout, the Bulls seemed to have the age to push the basketball: Deng, Rose, Noah and Gibson were all 25 or under.