John Paxson is an idiot. He should hold himself accountable for signing a scrub for 60 mils contract and let go both Chandler and Curry.
I dunno... Chandler was a salary move and they have stockpiled a load of valuable young talent. Id leave management alone. I would rank their current transactions in the top 10 over the past 5yrs.
that snagged pick from the knicks was brilliant. getting tyrus thomas pretty much for eddy curry? yeeeaaa that's pretty good. come on, they have a friggin stat line after eddy curry that shows how much of a negative impact he can be.
The main reason they let Chandler go was because he and Skiles didn't get along. I was fed up with Chandler too but it's clear from his play with the Hornets and from his comments that Skiles was his major stumbling block in Chicago. What they got in return for Curry was a good deal. No argument on the mistake of signing Ben Wallace.
I understand your point but there is more to it than that. Skiles' act was wearing thin even without the contract issues and trade rumors. Skiles was a victim of his own inability to get along with players. They were just tired of the guy and a change was needed. But sure, the other stuff compounded things a lot. After a new coach is hired and after the initial burst of energy they might show in the first few games, let's see how much Gordon and Deng lay it out in a contract year. You might be very surprised.
Jeff was just on ESPNews and he said his head coaching phone is off the rest of the season. He has no plans whatsoever to coach in the NBA in early 2008. Translation: Jeff hates the Chicago Bulls, and the other coaches who are on the hot seat have crappy teams. What's new? Maybe this is why Isiah won't get fired. He'll just wait until after the season to hire JVG.
curry was a genius move, chandler was to save money and sign Benny Wallace, everyone in Chicago wishes they kept chandler. so he was half right in getting rid of both curry and chandler
I don't even follow the Bulls and I could tell he was in trouble watching the Bulls/Rockets game. The Bulls players were just going through the motions. The Bulls are going nowhere with the current core players they got. A bunch of talented but not very special/franchise type players. At best, just playoff fodder for the rest of the time these players are together/at worst perennial 8th seed/fringe lottery team because they have enough talent to not be bottom feeders. I can tell Skiles can wear thin on players because he yells alot to his players without knowing how to push their buttons. JVG knew how to yell at his players and yet still get his players to play hard for him, he knew which ones to treat with kid gloves (TMac) and which to be harsher on (the rest of the team). Not saying JVG should be the next Bulls coach, just that Skiles isn't as good as JVG on the mind games.
Totally agree. A disciplinarian like that only has the respect of the players when the team is winning. When the team isn't playing well it isn't nearly as easy for players to put up with a guy who micromanages like Skiles did.
I never thought he was much of a coach to begin with. He played college ball at Michigan State. My brother went there while he was playing. During that time, Skiles got busted for blow. Ever since then, my brother and his friends from college have called him "Snortin' Scottie Skiles".
Man I would really hate to be a fan of a team who's coached by LB.. no matter what team I'm cheering for. I think LB is good for no more than 2 years on a really good team to push them over the edge. Other than that, he'd probably quit on them before all is said and done. I've always thought that he was way too old to be going through with the amount of work and stress an 82-game season gives you.
Stein has a decent write-up. Paxson is sitting in the hot grease now that Skiles is finally gone. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&id=3167996 Monday, December 24, 2007 Bull's-eye on Paxson now By Marc Stein ESPN.com It's not quite a Christmas Eve tradition in Chicago, but Scott Skiles isn't the first Bulls coach to leave his post on Dec. 24. Tim Floyd, remember, resigned as Bulls coach on Christmas Eve 2001. There are two big differences, though. No. 1: Floyd resigned and Skiles was axed. No. 2: Floyd managed to generate at least a little sympathy when he trudged away after posting a 49-190 record in his never-had-a-chance attempt to follow Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan. That exit was a somber scene. This time? Don't expect much of that PC stuff you'd normally hear about how sad it is that this happened on a family holiday. There won't be any such outcry coming from the Bulls' locker room. Scott Skiles' Bulls got off to another terrible start. The Bulls' players and coaching staff simply weren't family anymore … if they ever were. It wasn't just Ben Wallace and Tyrus Thomas constantly clashing with Skiles; Bulls sources say that two of the foreigners we don't hear much from in the domestic media -- Andres Nocioni and Thabo Sefolosha -- were equally miserable with Skiles always grinding on them, just to name two. Not to suggest that this was anything new. In Phoenix and then Chicago, Skiles has always coached the same way. Yet that approach, as everyone knows, can last for only so long. You have to credit Skiles for getting so much scrappy play out of players who have always chafed under him, but asking the Bulls to dig their way out of a third miserable start in four seasons proved one huge request too many. In 2004-05, Skiles' Bulls went from 0-9 to 47-35. In 2006-07, Chicago zoomed from 3-9 to 49-33. But it became increasingly clear, with flat-line performances like Saturday's 18-point home loss to a Houston team in its own funk, that this was going to be a lasting crisis. Turns out that the constant Kobe Bryant trade speculation in November and the "Ko-be, Ko-be, Ko-be" chants from frustrated fans at the United Center were a secondary distraction to the tension between coach and players. These Bulls, who rely so much on effort and energy to offset their lack of an All-Star closer, simply weren't going to muster the fire to rally again. Not if Skiles stayed. That's why the Bulls, after sending out repeated signals privately in recent weeks that they wouldn't even consider a coaching change until the offseason, did it now without a proven replacement lined up. At 9-16, Bulls management finally realized it could no longer wait if this group hopes to at least reach the playoffs in a season when so much more was expected. It probably would have happened sooner, actually, if Skiles didn't have one more season after this one on his contract from an owner (Jerry Reinsdorf) never fond of paying guys not to work. Bulls assistant Jim Boylan, I'm told, is likely to replace Skiles as interim coach. But the one to really watch from here is Bulls general manager John Paxson. It was natural in troubled times for the media to focus, until now, on Skiles and the perpetually iffy state of his relationships with players. But that buffer is gone for the GM. Unless there's a sudden turnaround in the standings or a high-profile hire like Rick Carlisle, Pax will be hearing more and more about the Bulls' ongoing failure to trade for a low-post scorer … and how Wallace is aging so quickly while Tyson Chandler flourishes in New Orleans … and how much more LaMarcus Aldridge could have helped this team than Thomas after the Bulls chose Thomas over Aldridge in the draft. Changing coaches on Christmas Eve (or whenever) won't magically fix all of the above. Which means Paxson will wake up Christmas morning wearing Skiles' old bull's-eye. Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here.
Precisely why they've been so bad this year. I can't find their numbers for last year (Knickerblogger doesn't have them, assuming that's where you got this year's numbers from), but the times I've watched them, it's a thing of beauty when they kick the ball around and ends up in a wide-open shooter's hands. I was referring to that one year during JVG's tenure where the Rockets played exciting offensive basketball, which is when Sura, Barry, Wesley etc were here. We had a lot of kick-outs and quick ball movement to find the open shooter then. And the players ran it instinctively. The other seasons though, were mostly mired in missed shots or 1-on-1 play. I believe partly because of the personnel we had - Sura and Barry alone provide more offensive firepower than say, Rafer and Shane - and also partly because I think the offense then was spruced up by swashbuckling guys like Barry who ran at every opportunity and was insane enough to pull up at the 3-point line on a 1-on-1 break and good enough to make a high percentage of those shots. Not sure if JVG would be a good fit there. Skiles is in the same mould, maybe even more intense than JVG. If the players could tune him out, I'm not sure if they will take to JVG's similar style as well. Maybe they could use Adelman? Lol.
Certainly true in terms of style. But one thing JVG does well is relate to players who are willing to work. While media and fans tend to get tired of his grumpiness, most of his ex-players have nothing bad to say about him and often say he was their best coach. I think behind the scenes he's probably very different from the public persona that we get to see.
