Jeff Teague rips Tom Thibodeau’s style of coaching 

The news of Tom Thibodeau is still being digested around the NBA as the focus starts to shift towards the NBA Finals starting on Thursday night. There were a lot of experts and ex-players that were left stunned by the news, but Jeff Teague may not be one of them.

The VIP of Club 520

Jeff Teague was a pretty good player in the NBA, playing over a decade in the league winning a championship and making an All-Star Team in 2015. Since hanging it up in 2023, he has been a revelation as a podcaster.

He has been the host of the Club 520 podcast for the last few years and has become a sensation thanks to his stories, personality and the guests he brings in for the show. Teague is the rare bread of ex-player that has no problem ragging on himself when he needs to, and usually that brings an added sense of comedy into an already entertaining podcast.

That wasn’t the case on Tuesday afternoon. His first comments came in the wake of the Knicks Game 6 loss to the Indiana Pacers. Teague let loose on his former coach who he spent from 2017 to 2019 in Minnesota.

“If they switched coaches, I think they’d win,” said Teague on Club 520. “I think if they switched coaches, the Knicks win. I love Thibs but the way he coaches offense is old, like his style is old. He’s still running the same plays, the same post up zoom, he’s still running the same post up for KAT. Like, you gotta play faster. They play so half-court, iso, or it’s a pick-and-roll. Everything goes back to a pick-and-roll Jalen Brunson. Like he’d throw the ball in the wing and he come back pin down right into a pick and roll with Jalen Brunson.”

Thibodeau was with the Timberwolves from 2016 until 2019 before making the move to New York. He went to New York after Minnesota and immediately took the Knicks to the playoffs after a seven year drought at MSG, and won the Coach of the Year that year.

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He took the Knicks to the playoffs in four out of five years he was there, but apparently that wasn’t enough for New York who sent him on his way after falling short of the title. “Tibs” has a trademark style of play in which he plays his main guys and relies little on the guys down the bench. Teague alluded to his style of coaching, or lack there of according to him, in one of this podcasts.

“He don’t say shit. He just be “Down. Pop. Damn.” But he don’t be saying like “Teague, go here do this.” He don’t really be coaching you. He kind of just be like “Damn. Damnit,” said Teague