4/15 - Bulls (41-40) vs. Toronto (32-49) - 7 pm, CSN

David · June 9, 2008

Then why not bring someone in who you KNOW will implement the system you want, David? And one who you know is capable of implementing that system? You still haven't answered that question, and it's pretty much the whole bag of beans.

You mean the guy that told us to screw off after a little bit of heat in an interview with JR, and instead took on the mess in NY?

BTW, I'm pretty sure Paxson KNOWS what kind of system VDN plans to bring in. I'm not the one making the hire. He is. That first question is pretty irrelevant.

David · June 9, 2008

Your first sentence clearly suggests people should be OK with it because nothing is known about him.

The real fact is, even Paxson can't know nearly as much about Del Negro as he would about other candidates who have at least shown that they are coaches. It's not asking too much to hire a guy who at least has a resume.

You seem to be saying that it's not a terrible choice if we get lucky and he works out. The reality is, we shouldn't have to get lucky to find a good coach.

No, it doesn't.

Also, I didn't realize that we had to get lucky for Paxson's evaluation of the guy to be right.

There's no way Paxson's evaluation can be based on anything but "gut" because nobody's ever seen the guy coach, that's why.

You mean job interviews are worthless and mean nothing? This hiring was just based on gut?

I'm not even trying to defend the hiring. I know nothing about the guy.

When all of you know nothing about the candidate, and Paxson obviously knows enough that he took a risk on the guy, it's pretty ridiculous to think that you can deem this a bad hire on the day it's made.

I honestly don't know if it's good or not.

That said (and this isn't meant as being a defense of the Del Negro hiring), I was pretty sure Collins would be a bad hire and a terrible fit (given the system he ran and his seemingly Skiles-like reputation in terms of rubbing players the wrong way). So I'm pretty relieved about that.

Soul · June 9, 2008

Your first sentence clearly suggests people should be OK with it because nothing is known about him.

The real fact is, even Paxson can't know nearly as much about Del Negro as he would about other candidates who have at least shown that they are coaches. It's not asking too much to hire a guy who at least has a resume.

You seem to be saying that it's not a terrible choice if we get lucky and he works out. The reality is, we shouldn't have to get lucky to find a good coach.

No, it doesn't.

Also, I didn't realize that we had to get lucky for Paxson's evaluation of the guy to be right.

There's no way Paxson's evaluation can be based on anything but "gut" because nobody's ever seen the guy coach, that's why.

You mean job interviews are worthless and mean nothing? This hiring was just based on gut?

I'm not even trying to defend the hiring. I know nothing about the guy.

When all of you know nothing about the candidate, and Paxson obviously knows enough that he took a risk on the guy, it's pretty ridiculous to think that you can deem this a bad hire on the day it's made.

I honestly don't know if it's good or not.

That said (and this isn't meant as being a defense of the Del Negro hiring), I was pretty sure Collins would be a bad hire and a terrible fit (given the system he ran and his seemingly Skiles-like reputation in terms of rubbing players the wrong way). So I'm pretty relieved about that.

To be honest I'm slightly relieved at not having Collins in here too.

But I still think you are projecting out, saying if it turns out good then Pax will be a genius. Of course it will. But nobody can know that either. We're all just sitting here talking in terms of what it looks like from the outset. Plus, I can't even really say it was Pax that did this hire. Reinsdorf seems to have had his hooks in this process to a large degree. Do you trust that Jerry is able to read a no-experience coach, if it turns out it was really him making the call and not Pax?

David · June 9, 2008

Certainly, I'm not saying that this should only be looked at in hind-sight. I am saying, though, that there's plenty of information that's available to Pax right now that isn't to us. That includes interviews, word from other people that have worked with him, etc. This is information we have no access to. I mean, we literally have ZERO to judge him on (aside from a Q&A session on the Suns website that doesn't say a whole lot). This isn't the case for Paxson.

I've never been one that's huge on experience if you think the guy in question can do the job. I suppose it's similar (although for obvious reasons, it's not a perfect analogy) to my stance with players. Lots of people prefer bad veterans over younger unknowns. I don't. By the same token, I don't think a guy necessarily has to have experience to be the "right" guy to hire. I can totally understand how people would think it's generally not a good idea to hire inexperienced, and I suppose that's a valid argument. But it's the only strike I can see being put against the hiring with the information we have, and if it turns out that he does run the type of system that I want to see implemented, that totally trumps the experience factor in my mind.

As an aside, I feel like the fan outcry would be a lot less and the response much more "ho-hum" had we hired a mediocre (or even bad) coach with experience (like a Doug Collins). People really overrate experience, IMO.

June 9, 2008

Wow, David got jumped on for saying that you don't know it's a bad hire, not that it's a good hire. Kind of like you can't judge a draft on draft day and expect to be right.

I don't like hiring a coach who has no bench experience, like Tyrant said.

David · June 9, 2008

An interesting note - over the past few years, the Suns were said to have coveted a few of the players the Bulls had drafted (Thabo immediately comes to mind). Considering Del Negro's position with the team, he may have had something to do with that.

Soul · June 9, 2008

I agree experience is overrated, but I also think there's a difference between overrating experience, and hiring say a Business major to engineer the next fighter jet.

hawkeyecub · June 10, 2008

As Dan Bernstine said, you fired Scott Skiles on Christmas Eve to wait nearly 6 months to hire a guy with no formal coaching experience. You can't say it will be a terrible hire already, but it certainly is odd.

Flames24Rulz · June 10, 2008

As Dan Bernstine said, you fired Scott Skiles on Christmas Eve to wait nearly 6 months to hire a guy with no formal coaching experience. You can't say it will be a terrible hire already, but it certainly is odd.

I'll be ignorant and say it's a terrible hire now.

Out of all the coaches out there, we take a guy that had zero coaching experience. The team he worked for didn't even interview him for their head coaching vacancy. What does that tell you? This is quite embarrassing, but I'll let it play out since I have no other choice. Hopefully Pax and Del Negro prove me wrong.

RedFlash · June 10, 2008

As Dan Bernstine said, you fired Scott Skiles on Christmas Eve to wait nearly 6 months to hire a guy with no formal coaching experience. You can't say it will be a terrible hire already, but it certainly is odd.

I agree. You can't call Vinny a turrible hire, yet. What you can do is call it a turrible process to get to this point. You have 6 months to find the coach, not to mention you have an owner who has no clue on how to run an organization, overstepping his boundries in the coaching hire. I understand it is JR's team (he should sell the dang team) and he should have a say in matter, but he should trust Paxson decision. And seeing as he overturn Paxson twice in this process, leads me to believe that JR wanted a CHEAP coach. And what else would you call whiffing on DA/Collins and signing Vinny?

IMO, Paxson is nothing more then a figurehead with no real authority in the organization.

David · June 10, 2008

As Dan Bernstine said, you fired Scott Skiles on Christmas Eve to wait nearly 6 months to hire a guy with no formal coaching experience. You can't say it will be a terrible hire already, but it certainly is odd.

I'll be ignorant and say it's a terrible hire now.

Out of all the coaches out there, we take a guy that had zero coaching experience. The team he worked for didn't even interview him for their head coaching vacancy. What does that tell you? This is quite embarrassing, but I'll let it play out since I have no other choice. Hopefully Pax and Del Negro prove me wrong.

I think this has more to do with the fact that they're a veteran team on their last couple seasons than anything else. It's not a good match to bring in a young coach with guys like Shaq and even Nash, IMO.

Once again, I'll wait till I hear about what he intends to implement before I pass judgment.

hawkeyecub · June 10, 2008

As Dan Bernstine said, you fired Scott Skiles on Christmas Eve to wait nearly 6 months to hire a guy with no formal coaching experience. You can't say it will be a terrible hire already, but it certainly is odd.

I'll be ignorant and say it's a terrible hire now.

Out of all the coaches out there, we take a guy that had zero coaching experience. The team he worked for didn't even interview him for their head coaching vacancy. What does that tell you? This is quite embarrassing, but I'll let it play out since I have no other choice. Hopefully Pax and Del Negro prove me wrong.

I think this has more to do with the fact that they're a veteran team on their last couple seasons than anything else. It's not a good match to bring in a young coach with guys like Shaq and even Nash, IMO.

Once again, I'll wait till I hear about what he intends to implement before I pass judgment.

I wouldn't pass too much judgment based on what he says he intends to implement. Most coaches sound great in the press conference and can get you excited. They intend to outwork everyone else, be smarter, high scoring, hard nose defense, play as a team, etc. Even if he says he's going to be implementing D'Antoni's system it doesn't mean it will be implemented successfully.

Derwood · June 10, 2008

I agree. You can't call Vinny a turrible hire, yet. What you can do is call it a turrible process to get to this point. You have 6 months to find the coach, not to mention you have an owner who has no clue on how to run an organization, overstepping his boundries in the coaching hire. I understand it is JR's team (he should sell the dang team) and he should have a say in matter, but he should trust Paxson decision.

you're hilarious. sell the most profitable team in the league? yeah, that's a great business decision

Keener98 · June 10, 2008

You guys complaining about Del Negro having no coaching experience, do realize that one of the coaches in the NBA Finals had no coaching experience when he got his first job, right?

Soul · June 10, 2008

You guys complaining about Del Negro having no coaching experience, do realize that one of the coaches in the NBA Finals had no coaching experience when he got his first job, right?

Doc Rivers? Give the Bulls Garnett, Pierce, and Ray Ray and you can bring in one of the janitors to coach.

Keener98 · June 10, 2008

You guys complaining about Del Negro having no coaching experience, do realize that one of the coaches in the NBA Finals had no coaching experience when he got his first job, right?

Doc Rivers? Give the Bulls Garnett, Pierce, and Ray Ray and you can bring in one of the janitors to coach.

Well you just proved my own point for me. The NBA is more about the players than it is the coach. You have to have talent. By the way, Doc Rivers won Coach of the Year without Garnett, Pierce, and Ray Ray, with no prior experience.

Tyrant · June 10, 2008

You guys complaining about Del Negro having no coaching experience, do realize that one of the coaches in the NBA Finals had no coaching experience when he got his first job, right?

Doc Rivers? Give the Bulls Garnett, Pierce, and Ray Ray and you can bring in one of the janitors to coach.

Well you just proved my own point for me. The NBA is more about the players than it is the coach. You have to have talent. By the way, Doc Rivers won Coach of the Year without Garnett, Pierce, and Ray Ray, with no prior experience.

Doc Rivers is a terrible coach.

wolf stansson · June 10, 2008

So I guess I'm the only one who supports this move solely because he has an awesome name.

Soul · June 10, 2008

You guys complaining about Del Negro having no coaching experience, do realize that one of the coaches in the NBA Finals had no coaching experience when he got his first job, right?

Doc Rivers? Give the Bulls Garnett, Pierce, and Ray Ray and you can bring in one of the janitors to coach.

Well you just proved my own point for me. The NBA is more about the players than it is the coach. You have to have talent. By the way, Doc Rivers won Coach of the Year without Garnett, Pierce, and Ray Ray, with no prior experience.

He also never got out of the first round until he was handed a ready-made championship roster. I think if you're going to make this argument you should find a better example.

I definitely agree the NBA is more about the players than the coach. But we're in a much different situation than the Celtics. And again -- I'm hoping Del Negro succeeds as much as the next guy. The question is whether sitting here, not knowing how anything will turn out, was there really no better option out there than Vinny?

GoCubsGo1679625768 · June 10, 2008

You guys complaining about Del Negro having no coaching experience, do realize that one of the coaches in the NBA Finals had no coaching experience when he got his first job, right?

Doc Rivers? Give the Bulls Garnett, Pierce, and Ray Ray and you can bring in one of the janitors to coach.

Well you just proved my own point for me. The NBA is more about the players than it is the coach. You have to have talent. By the way, Doc Rivers won Coach of the Year without Garnett, Pierce, and Ray Ray, with no prior experience.

Doc Rivers is a terrible coach.

Keener98 · June 12, 2008

You guys complaining about Del Negro having no coaching experience, do realize that one of the coaches in the NBA Finals had no coaching experience when he got his first job, right?

Doc Rivers? Give the Bulls Garnett, Pierce, and Ray Ray and you can bring in one of the janitors to coach.

Well you just proved my own point for me. The NBA is more about the players than it is the coach. You have to have talent. By the way, Doc Rivers won Coach of the Year without Garnett, Pierce, and Ray Ray, with no prior experience.

He also never got out of the first round until he was handed a ready-made championship roster. I think if you're going to make this argument you should find a better example.

I definitely agree the NBA is more about the players than the coach. But we're in a much different situation than the Celtics. And again -- I'm hoping Del Negro succeeds as much as the next guy. The question is whether sitting here, not knowing how anything will turn out, was there really no better option out there than Vinny?

Better examples huh? How bout Larry Bird, Pat Riley had very very very little experience coaching(like a half season at the most), and Phil Jackson certainly wasnt Mr Experience.

Keener98 · July 4, 2008

Ok Ill post this here since I found the thread, Duhon has apparently signed with the Knicks.

RonnieWooWooSanto · July 4, 2008

Ok Ill post this here since I found the thread, Duhon has apparently signed with the Knicks.

Duhon agreed to a two-year, $6.5 million deal with the Knicks on Friday, ending his four-year run with the Bulls.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/cs-080704-chris-duhon-chicago-bulls-knicks,0,5977948.story

YearofDaCubs · July 5, 2008

I'm glad to see Duhon officially gone. He got overpaid no doubt about it.

Wilson A2000 · July 5, 2008

New York said that they might move Marbury and give Duhon a chance at starting. Ouch, but they had to be lying to him. I thought Isaiah's insanity left when he was fired.