A native of New Britan Connecticut, Celtics associate head coach Tom Thibodeau has his roots firmly planted right in our own backyard. With the news breaking this week that after 20 years climbing the NBA coaching ladder Thibodeau will finally get his shot at running his own club, Thibodeau?s coaching career has finally come full circle. The Chicago Bulls are a better basketball team today than they were at this time last week. They will be better prepared, they will most certainly play elite defense, and they will respect their head coach. In Thibodeau?s 20 seasons in the association his teams have finished in the top 10 defensively an amazing 15 times.With the future of Celtics? head coach Doc Rivers still unclear the Celtics are truly losing an important piece of their own championship puzzle. Celtics power forward and defensive anchor Kevin Garnett owes a piece of his defensive success to coach Thibodeau. “Thibs brings a passion for defense, I think, when you think of Tom Thibodeau and what?s his strengths, he?s obviously a defense guy. He watches an uncountable amount of film. He?s a worker. He?s a guy that loves his job. He does it with passion. If he is not with us next year, he?s well-deserving of it as well as anybody else on our coaching staff.” What is becoming clear is that the Celtics coaching staff could potentially look very different heading into the 2010-2011 NBA season.Despite all of the defensive accolades that coach Thibodeau has received, those that know him best consider him to be an underrated offensive coach. As a matter of fact back in Thibodeau?s days of playing for Salem State he had a reputation as a “gunner” and a poor defensive player, someone that would rather outscore his opponent than shut his guy down. Following his playing days at Salem State Thibodeau stayed with his alma mater as an assistant and after just three seasons on Salem?s sidelines Thibodeau found himself patrolling the sidelines at Harvard University.There is no doubt caoch Thibodeau has certainly taken the long, hard road to where he is today, however, it is those experiences from the sidelines of Salem State, the New York Knicks, the Houston Rockets, and the Boston Celtics that have made him the coach that he is today. Head coaches who have never played in the NBA have an especially difficult challenge of gaining their players? respect and controlling 15 individual egos all within the vacum of an NBA locker room. Good thing for coach Thibodeau that along with his impressive resume, and respect from countless NBA legends, the former “gunner” from Salem State can flash a little hardware at his new team. With one NBA championship ring already, and only three wins shy of a second coach Thibodeau already has something that the current Chicago Bulls do not. The Bulls should consider themselves lucky, the Celtics let one of the great ones get away.