as well.

One of the things that made Skiles so great with a young roster (before he sucked with an old starting lineup, before it became young again) was his willingness to go so deep into his bench on a regular basis. D’Antoni seemed to want to tighten his rotation more and more, and you wonder if this became an over-reliance on Nash at the expense of Nash’s ability to endure, and at the expense of keeping bench guys involved.

Another weird thought was, what if D’Antoni requires that the Bulls have a decent backup PG to entice him to come to Chicago, and what if that means keeping Chris Duhon? That would be awkward, given that he’s been written off as “gone” since Hughes came to town.

And what the hell would D’Antoni do with Hughes anyway? His system calls for a lot of shooting, but it has only succeeded with players who were generally smarter and/or better shooters than Hughes. I mean, is it conceiveable that he turns Hughes into less of a liability (while keeping him in the game)?

And how will the youth of the Bulls affect the whole process? D’Antoni is credited with developing Diaw, Barbosa and to some extent Joe Johnson, but he’s had one of the more veteran teams the last few years. Hopefully Noah, Thomas and (if he’s on the team) Duhon won’t act like children with D’Antoni and his staff.

but not because teams knew the Bulls plays. I think a lot of the teams in the league run the same stuff. According to Larry Hughes, when he got here, a lot of the plays were the same, just the calls were different. I remember hearing Jason Kidd say the same thing after his trade to Dallas (I’m too lazy to look for the articles).

Hughes seems to have play-call-stealing, down to an art…

All your friends are jealous of you and if s/he is also smart and fun to hang out with, you feel like you’ve won the lottery. If s/he turns out to be lame and boring, the fact that your friends are envious keeps you with her/him for at least a little while. You might eventually break up but will still remember all the good parts later on. You think Nick Lachey has any regrets about his marriage to Jessica Simpson?

I mean, why the hell not go for D’Antoni? We know he’s going to reinvigorate our guys and bring some excitement back to Chicago. The worst case scenario is that we find out he can’t adapt his style, at which point he’ll be fired and one of his promising assistants will step in. What else is there to be scared of? More rebuilding? Let’s face it: this team is ok, but there are no guarantees that it’s even close to championship caliber. Going after D’Antoni at least give us a chance to find out.

really? I don’t think that way at all. Jason Kidd doesn’t count. Heck, Avery probably did a good enough job just be keeping his players focused enough to ignore the owner.

has the exact same weakness as the Bulls version. If you don’t make 60% of your shots with the small ball lineup or rebound at a higher rate than the 5 man would otherwise rebound then you’re sunk. Furthermore, if you use small ball you have to use it effectively as a scheme against an opponent that isn’t going to the low block on every possession until you substitute the bigger body back into the game. The Spurs and Mavs both schemed against this very well to defeat the Suns in the last few postseasons.

Right now, I think the ideal potential candidate is George Karl, but it sounds like he’s not going anywhere

Marc Stein’s sources, though, seem to think he’s going to find his own way out.

He was very successful in Seattle with a loaded team. He was successful in Milwaukee with a team that couldn’t play D. He’s done well in Denver despite numerous injuries to key players and total indifference to D from his 2 stars. His style fits better to this team than any other coach mentioned. His teams play a highly uptempo game while still playing above average to fantastic D (except Milwaukee). That’s exactly what this team as currently constructed needs. He could easily return these Bulls to the top of the Defensive Efficiency rankings. Yes, he’s had several personality conflicts with players and burned himself out at one point in his career. Still, he’s done well with every job he’s had since his first with Golden State. He’s not your typical retread, he actually has a winning track record.

but interesting nonetheless:

Donnie Nelson will nonetheless be charged with assembling a virtually all-new bench, for starters, after the Mavs got such a limited contribution from a few free agents handpicked by Johnson (Eddie Jones, Devean George and Juwan Howard) and longtime Avery favorite Jerry Stackhouse.

How Skilesian.

I thought this counter-argument was 100% correct.

Given the raw materials on D’Antoni’s bench, benching Amare and/or Diaw would have been a laughable show, not a credible threat. Certainly they teach you military types that only credible, communicable threats count?
For example, when Scott Skiles had similar motivation problems with his players, he would bench the whole frickin lineup and play scrubs who weren’t half as good. The players learned nothing except that Skiles is an @$$4073, and within the season Skiles was out of a job. Sounds like you are in the hunt to bring Scott Skiles back to the valley. LOL.
That’s also the problem with guys like Avery Johnson – they push so hard all the time that players eventually tune them out. You want these players to die on the court in November? It’s funny, Pop benches players in November for the exact opposite reason.
Finally, consider the Zen Master. When Kobe was mailing in and sulking through games in the loser years, did Phil Jackson bench him as he should have in your estimation? No. Seek and ye may find the answer as to why.

Yes, there was actually the suggestion that D’Antoni should’ve benched Stoudamire and Diaw for low energy levels.

http://www.blogabull.com/2008/4/30/470330/let-s-get-d-antoni#5610998...not actual figures, but the part about tampering and Kerr giving permission

Oh well. you can see it here

In other words, the Bulls are going to have to violate the NBA’s tampering rules or D’Antoni’s going to have to resign.

Sure, it’s an off the cuff response, but what a horrible answer.

First of all, it’s not clear that the players bailed on Skiles; there’s some substantial writing out there implying that the reverse happened. And that’s not even approaching the question of whether Pax even put them in a position to succeed this season.

Second, the guy first in line as far as bailing was Ben Wallace, and he’s gone. What, are you going to tell me that Gooden, Hughes, Simmons, Brown and/or whoever else the Bulls pick up this preseason don’t deserve a great coach? Or that Noah doesn’t deserve a great coach? Or how about the franchise, or the fans? They don’t deserve a great coach because of some lame-ass karmic retribution for dropping from 8 games over .500 to 8 games under .500?

Who appointed Adande God’s deputy on earth to enforce a good attitudes among players who weren’t prepared to play hardball with their GM in contract negotiations?

And most importantly of all, where’s their karmic reward for having to put up with the worst coach in the fanchise’s history?