Del Negro 'Loves' Coaching

With five games remaining in his first season coaching at any level and a playoff berth likely, Vinny Del Negro finally moved past the glib answers -- more gray hair, not as much sleep -- and offered substantive ones.
"I love it," Del Negro said. "It's everything I expected, even more so probably. I love the competition. I love the challenge. I love seeing the development of the young players. All of that is very fulfilling, more so than in management.

"In management you can get away from it a little bit. This is there every day and you think about it almost every minute. But that's my personality. I enjoy the work and the challenge, which is consuming and exhausting. But if you can't handle it, you shouldn't have signed up for it." -- Chicago Tribune

almost 3 years ago J Theory 15 comments 0 recs |

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To bad we don't 'Love' El Coacho

"I guess I can’t do anything if you’re just irrational, but to point it out and move on."

- fundamentallysound

by J Theory on Apr 7, 2009 8:26 AM CDT reply actions

Nice guy

bad coach. Vinny you can’t handle it, shouldn’t have signed up for it and need to stop doing it.

"The Zen philosopher Basho once wrote: 'A flute with no holes is not a flute, And a doughnut with no hole is a Danish.' He was a funny guy."

by Ugh It Live! on Apr 7, 2009 9:27 AM CDT reply actions

If only enjoyment of the job automatically lead to skill at performing it.

You suck, Vinny. Please, go away.

Fire Vinny.

by fundamentallysound on Apr 7, 2009 11:50 AM CDT reply actions

Sounds like he's trying to convince himself that he loves it

more than him actually loving it.

"It’d be ridiculous to hate someone for simply what they say in a sports blog. But I greatly dislike every syllable of your angst-filled, smarmy, nondescript, half-assed, elitist-garbage responses." –Rogerspark Kris

by bullhockey on Apr 7, 2009 12:11 PM CDT reply actions

ok

so vinny is a bad coach in terms of drawing up plays and is clueless. I thought the assistants would take care of that, but he does seem to have the bulls playing with “effort.” It might be hard to see because they aren’t very talented defensively or have major weaknesses in their defense but you can’t blame that on the coach. Its not like last year where they were getting blown out every other game, or at least thats how it felt.

I am somewhat more dissapointed at the assistants for not telling vinny what to do at the end of games or helping him out with coaching substitutions, drawing up schemes etc… As much crap as vinny gets around here, and he is a pretty bad coach if you judge him by his decision making, he has given tyrus more minutes and let him play through mistakes, played ben gordon significantly more than previous coaches and actually inserted him permanently in the line-up. Maybe over the summer he looks at some tapes and learns a few things about coaching and can become a better coach but he isn’t a scott skiles/lawrence frank type of coach in terms of play calling skills etc…

by Sambossanova on Apr 7, 2009 2:07 PM CDT reply actions

You can blame the coach on the defense.

Most of those guys out there have no excuse not to be good or at least average team defenders. Team defense has to be practiced and everyone has to buy it to it to make it work well. The decision making on the floor is something that will come much more naturally with practice too. Other teams can do it. The fact we have no with the guys out there is very troubling.

Everything I post is speculation. I have no insider information nor ideas deemed concrete enough by those who are self-elected to regulate post content.

by cranscape on Apr 7, 2009 2:40 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs

Agreed--team defense doesn't just spontaneously happen.

It has to be coached.

If you’re that talented of an offensive coach, like D’Antoni with the 2005 Suns, and you’d rather forego defensive drilling for pure offense, that’s one thing. But for everyone else, team defense is a direct reflection of the coach.

As Sam Smith points out, he doesn’t even seem to have a defensive philosophy or system. Do you switch on the pick or do you stay with your own man? If you’re not switching, do you go over the screen or under? I haven’t read one person covering the Bulls game who can figure out the system, if there is one. More often than not, writers are complaining there is no system.

I love that the Bulls have a bunch of offensively talented shot makers. But I hope that doesn’t excuse Vinny from having to learn how to actually coach.

by bullhockey on Apr 7, 2009 11:27 PM CDT up reply actions

And for some reason

they play zone more than any team in the league. (anecdotally)

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by your friendly BullsBlogger on Apr 8, 2009 1:22 PM CDT up reply actions

Ok, don't go all Stockholm Syndrome on us.

He sucks and should be fired after the season, period!

by BAB-Bass on Apr 7, 2009 2:40 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs

The Head coach is responsible for the Assistants

not the assistants responsible for the Head Coach.

Our players playing hard has nothing to do with the Coach. Let’s give credit to the players who are coaching themselves out there.

"I guess I can’t do anything if you’re just irrational, but to point it out and move on."

- fundamentallysound

by J Theory on Apr 7, 2009 3:11 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs

play calling is way down there in my list of concerns

Vinny deserves to get some time to learn how to coach, but not as head coach of the Chicago Bulls.

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by your friendly BullsBlogger on Apr 7, 2009 4:39 PM CDT up reply actions

Really?

What’s the top 5? Rotations, Substitutions, Offensive/Defensive Scheme, Player development and Strategy would be 5 I can think of off the top of my head. Substitutions sort of falls into Rotations but deserves its own category for end of game situations and the offense/defense parts of the game.

"The Zen philosopher Basho once wrote: 'A flute with no holes is not a flute, And a doughnut with no hole is a Danish.' He was a funny guy."

by Ugh It Live! on Apr 7, 2009 4:42 PM CDT up reply actions

hmm...

1. Defensive scheme
2. Offensive scheme
3. General doofusness
4. Rotations
5. Development

To be honest head coaches should be not that important and then critiqued on things like late game TOs and diagramming out-of-bounds plays. But Vinny’s so far behind what competent coaches can do (have a friggin’ plan) that it overrides the other things.

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by your friendly BullsBlogger on Apr 8, 2009 1:25 PM CDT up reply actions

I guess you can enjoy coaching without being good at it

I think it was Charles Barkley who said that two things you can enjoy without necessarily being good at them are golf and sex. So I guess we can add coaching to the list.

Why resort to name calling?
-Dionysus2.0

because I wish to insult you personally
-your friendly BullsBlogger

by Big D on Apr 7, 2009 7:43 PM CDT reply actions