Like some of the upside of VDN vs Skiles and especially he who must never be mention B%#$! . I mean Vinny has done the following something we’d have never seen from the last 2 coaches: Played Rose 35+ minutes out of the gate and kept him in through mistakes…, played our 2nd best player Ben Gordon as a starter…..played Tyrus and Noah and sat them to work on their preparadness even though he and we knew they were FAR MORE TALENTED than Stay Puff (Gray).

He gave the talented but me oriented Hughes the shot his $12.6M and 13.5M contracts would indicate he needs and took the balls to sit him out of the game in lieu again of the far better BG and Hinrich and even THabo (Thabo’s not better than Hughes, but doesn’t have the bad rap either, so in that regard he’s more tradable—not to mention he makes 1/12th of Hughes’s salary).

He also has worked on the team chemistry quite a bit….this was a team that was far more known for the locker room dramas the past year (headbandgate, Noah incident, whining, crying, not playing hard)….since VDN’s been here, they’ve played more as a unit and played hard (Finding ways to lose due to the weird rookie coaching errors than just losing cuz they were disinterested—what we saw from B and more so actually from the end of Skiles….

So I know B cannot be compared to because he was perhaps the single worst coach in the history of the NBA (he was to coaching what than I think Jonathan Quinn guy was to QB’ing…hope I got that name right), so I am not comparing him….but as to comparisons of Skiles. Sure Skiles was more experienced, but Skiles wanted to be the team’s leader from the sidelines, he wanted to play the energy guys (Hinrich-Noc-Duhon-Malik Allen-Adrian Griffin, etc his guys over the far better upside/better players Gordon, Gordon, Gordon, TYrus THomas, oh yeah Ben Gordon again)…..Skiles also seemed to want to be the team’s leader, pulling guys after every misstep instantly, running 3 plays (barring a timeout) which were virtually the same play just changing the 2 other guys involved…..

We were a tired team.

Under Vinny we’ve seen many missteps, we’ve seen us lose close games (which are pure coaching errors) but we also have seen a team finding an identity, working together on the court, featuring the youngest, highest upside and most talented lineups mostly rather than the nice energy smarter but without that upside guys, and it seems the team has continued to play hard mostly and is coming together. THe offense has flowed a bit and shown some identity of late (whereas early it was more give the ball to Rose and let him create, now it seems we’re running plays and they aren’t the pure 2 man Skiles game play). Our defense was horrendous earlier in the season, but has come around a bit of late….VDN began employing the zone, then it seems with tape sessions taught the young bigs and really Luol (who forgot he was a good team defnder in his earlier days, as he only remembered the man to man defense) to move…..we’ve got a flow to our team again.

Now the sub woes and the losing close games is annoying, but he’s a rookie coach, and it seemed he was a rookie coach with little input for a while from Harris and Bickerstafff, and now it seems all are coming around a bit more.

THe crap you hear about our offense being pedestrian is pure b.s. What do you expect, we haven’t had the talented on O bigs to really make a difference down low.

I’m giving Vinny a B- so far this season…..granted our record indicates otherwise, but we now at least are a team again, not a complete laughing stock chock full of very talented pieces who can win a game based on their talent alone…..now we seem to be a team who has a hope of finding an identity even amidst the never ending trade rumours…..

I would have thought our record would be better, but then again Vinny had a D going into the last month and seems to be turning things around a bit on the fly. I wonder if he was given the Phx job what he could have done with a real roster full of mature, veteran talent…..I’d believe given how we’ve dramaticaly improved from Nov even if the record doesn’t quite indicate it, that he’d have done far better than Terry Porter.

Let’s see what happens with the trade deadline…..give the guy the full year and reevaluate afterwards…..I know our talent is decent, but the chemistry after last year was completely ruined, completely ruined, and Vinny’s done a good job of trying to work in th eleaders and their influence ont he court (obviously Rose, but Kirks’ been more a leader this year than he was all of last year), Vinny’s allowed Luol to play through the horrendous stretches to start the year (unfortunately he also let Noc play through a very horrendous stretch too) and ultimately it seems with the chemistry on the court that the new big 3 (Since BG’s one foot out the door) that Rose-Noah-Tyrus are building a chemistry…..I know that that is somehting waying on Pax’s mind with the deadline too, but it’s been Vinny’s influence shaping this team.

I mean imagine if we had Scott as our coach still, Rose misses his man defensively and seeing as he was the #1 pick, Skiles would let it go twice maybe 3 times, but after that we would have seen Lindsey, Lindsey Lindsey out there, and would have been killed by 30 more often than we would have won and lost very close, but highly competitive games.

I think Vinny’s had room to improve, but as a 100% rookie coach, I like what I’ve seen. Not great, but given the experience level, the horrible chemistry woes that made our team an embarrassment last year, the gluttony of guards, the lack of experienced and in-shape big men (Something even He who must not be named didn’t have with Noah in considerably better rookie shape) and the fact that Vinny’s trying to keep the players’s identity on the court rather than with him (The lack of public criticisms, constant public criticisms of guy’s deficiencies are replaced with a focus on the positives of what they brought individually and then rather than say Derrick sucks at defense, he says well we need to be better at this and we need to work more on that).

It’s a bit refreshing. Minor steps sure, but all on here have to know despite what we wanted to think that our team was a mess last year.

Now would I have preferred D’Antoni, absolutely. I was all over that and would not have been happied with a Mike D’Antoni signing…..but overall given that Vinny’s a rookie coach, I like the positivies……if he doesn’t improve I’ll be screaming fire his ass, but having him hit that low with the 5 game losing streak, I think he’s improved…..and the team’s improved. It’s not all because of the players….I know Derrick adds something to the team (A big something) but I think these minor steps are building a chemistry really this team never had. We relied on Skiles to dictate the team, and when the guys got tired of his rule, they fell apart, and the less talented (Hinrich, Noc, hell even Deng to a degree were 100% exposed), the one trick Pony became known more for his one trick (but he’s one helluva one trick pony guy, and our team suffered miserably—I can’t believe he wasn’t part of the 3 pt shootout….I heard Kenny and them ponder for Ray Allen, but come on BG’s just as good a 3 pt shooter (Actually better statistically, but shoots a bit less) and I think the Bulls were so underrepresented in the all star weekend not just htis year but the past 4-5 years that it would have made sense…..surely BG’s as worthy if not more so than champion Daquan Cook or Jason Kapono—maybe he turned it down….who knows).

Let’s just hope we do better in the second half and that VDN improves a bit so I don’t look like a freaking idiot more than I do by backing one of our team’s guys…

that was really WAY off.