D’Antoni, Kerr, Riley, Sarver, and Arison have tossed the story back and forth like a hot potato all trying to dodge responsibility. Kerr says D’Antoni came to him with the idea of adding Shaq. Sarver says Mickey Arison called him about trading Shaq to Phoenix. D’Antoni has said he wanted Shaq.

Frankly, I wouldn’t want to stick around Phoenix for another season if I were D’Antoni. Shaq’s an immense liability. Popovich just replayed for the entire league what Phil Jackson showed the league as the Bulls coach. Hack-a-Shaq works because he sucks at making free throws. Do it when you’re in the lead and it’s even more effective.

...but just someone he’s mentioned multiple times since Skiles was fired as a good head-coaching candidate for the Bulls.

all of these options, it does seem like the Bulls are lucky to be getting a larger pool to pick from than they would have had in previous years. Waiting might not be such a bad idea.

Hasn’t anyone seen him getting outcoached in 3 consecutive playoff series?

This thread is to jabber about both being available and how they’d be fits for the Bulls (or not). E-Bucher reports are just window dressing.

he’s like a less accomplished larry brown. I’m sure he’s a nice guy, but who has he ever coached up?

(and I think you’d agree)

Especially when you’re talking on the difference between Karl, D’Antoni and Avery. The systems and types of teams they run can be vastly different (e.g. D’Antoni compared to Carlisle), but I think we’d all agree that Ray Allen, Sam Cassell, Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Marcus Camby, Amare Stoudamire, Steve Nash, Shawn Marion, Dirk Nowitski, Josh Howard, Jason Terry… had more to do with the teams winning than the coaches.

The only thing I’m worried about from a coach is making the players the Bulls have better. D’Antoni (more than the others?) took over with a somewhat young, undeveloped team and has developed very good players. Of course, that could (probably?) be the work of Steve Nash on the court, and the aforementioned Phil Weber off the court.

I personally think the best approach is to get the coach wanting to prove himself that also has a dedication to maximizing the players’ abilities. Give him a 3-year deal and evaluate the X’s and O’s along the way. If I was Paxson, I’d take that risk and go that way.

sorry, exult.

I don’t know why McCallum is soft on D’Antoni to the Raptors. Why wouldn’t the Raptors be interested? Mitchell is basically using the D’Antoni system, but if you can get the real thing why not?

Paxson doesn’t speak up with input on the roster anyway. Or come up with a list of possible coaches. Or even coaching styles….

that Amare also doesn’t play defense.

you’d hope Chicago would have some sort of ‘big-market’ advantage, if anything.

“I’m going on vacation, and when I return I’ll wait until I see how things play out, and then at that point I’ll shorten the lists of candidates. Afterwards after I have meetings with Jerry and my staff we’ll review all of the candidates and see if any others are available that we missed. No promises, but before the start of the 2008-09 season we should have a new coach”

Surely, you jest. Do you think Toronto would trade Calderon for Deng? Or even Ben Gordon? Or Noah? Or Kirk? Or Tyrus? Or, dare I say it, Gooden? In a New York (Toronto) minute.

When is the last time the Bulls hired someone in the offseason? Maybe they aren’t familiar with the concept.

So that should be the timetable. Of course, Pax said he doesn’t believe in one….but he’s possibly lying to make himself look stupid, and doing a good job at it.

Maybe one road playoff victory? He hasn’t one on the road in the playoffs since game 7 of the 2006 WCF.

His name was Scott Skiles, and it did not end well.

That sounds more like an insult than a bus company.

i hate reading columns/blogs after a team is eliminated or loses an important game…of course everything the coach has done in the present and past is going to look bad. After reading that you would think he’s even worse than Boylan.

who does more than yell, and there’s a North Carolina connection (my insiders tell me that).

Reinsdorf said during the season that he wanted a coach who stressed both ball and player movement on offense as well as D.

Lets keep in mind that the d’antoni style of play only works with steve nash, its just the way it is. Its always been a question if d’antoni created that method of play, or rather built that mehtod of play to revolve around steve nash. I mean many teams have tried to emulate it, but they just end up creating a fast break running team, however, the suns were different in that they sort of attacked from all different angles, and i think that only works with steve nash’s incredible court vision and flashy passes.

I suppose d’antoni would be able to, however, create the style of play that ive been waiting for….defense leading to turnover leading to fast break “score before they d up” style of play. I can sort of see d’antoni teaching kirk some special ways to play hard d, run the floor and set up the other players….and moreso i would like to see kirk and tyrus emulate some nash and stoudemire pick and roll plays….but i guess my point is, can d’antoni actually create a style of play with our roster and without steve nash? If we get him, he better have thought up the style and told pax about it in his interview

Kerr telling him to coach defense, how will he react to the franchise built around a defense-first image?

Will the words be less offensive coming from Jerry Reinsdorf or Pax?

As for Kirk, I believe he can be much more of a D’Antoni-style point guard, even if he never quite becomes a Steve Nash clone.

But let’s say that D’Antoni can somehow keep his free-flowing offensive principles AND he’ll allow an assistant coach to preach strong defense. The Bulls’ young legs, combined with hopefully better attitudes across the board could make the Bulls perennial contenders for years to come under this kind of a coaching scenario.

sure it was sort of a love-fest, but the book ”:07 or less” made the staff seem actually interested and invested in developing young players like Barbosa (though besides him and Diaw it was pretty much a veteran team)

I’m excited too… I think he’s not so great on defense, but maybe D’Antoni could make of hinrich a little steve nash. No that guy to be a 2 time mvp, but a guy who can run the offense like nash and also score some important points… I just hope Pax won’t let this chance run away… This could be the most important decision he is going to make on his career…