-Vinny is SOOOO gone the first time the Bulls go on a long losing streak (the circus trip?). How easy is it for the owner to say a few nice things about the coach? I seem to remember Reinsdorf always praising Skiles, and now he claims he doesn’t comment on coaches. So get ready for yet another wasted season with an interim coach.

-JR confirms that the Bulls pulled the offer to Gordon last summer. And once again, he says nothing about any “deadline.” He simply says the Bulls decided to wait and see if something else came up during the season. The Salmons deal came up, and apparently that sealed Gordon’s fate here. And I’m not even going to bother addressing the “fourth guard” comment.

-The organization seems to still be high on Deng. Reinsdorf calls him a potential All-Star; it’s been a while since I heard anyone refer to him like that. I can’t help but compare the way Deng has been treated by this franchise to the way Gordon has been treated. Gordon has been much more productive (not to mention durable) the last two years, but that doesn’t seem to matter to the front office.

Who’s the second best? I’m guessing the Chairman doesn’t watch much basketball outside of the Bulls. Then again, judging by this interview I’m not sure how much of the Bulls he watches.

A few things that stuck out to me:

- Good to hear his lack of encouragement on VDN. He’s quite a seasoned PR man.

- The Gordon stuff was a little extreme, but what Coach, Gm or Owner do you know that wouldn’t try to spin it that way?

(Side note) What it comes down to is Gordon wasn’t a great long term investment at the 2 guard for the type of money he wanted. If Detroit hadn’t come along who would’ve paid him the same money he turned down last summer? Sure, if BG gave us the same production as he did last year for the next 5 years, maybe it’s a breakeven deal. Once you account for possible injuries and a decline in skill and a decline in revenues next year and possibly beyond, I would be more upset if we had signed him for ~11 a year and it would’ve been a bad value. On the other hand, my fellow fans won’t be so bitter if we trade for Boozer or sign Wade next year and that gets us deeper into the playoffs, so I can understand all the resentment currently being posted here. Until the Bulls make a decent move everybody is going to be upset. It was similar before the excellent Miller/Salmons trade last year, everybody was harping about how we kept missing the boat on good trades and that we don’t do anything.

- I hope the Bulls do more for the community than paint some boys and girls clubs. Usually management likes to play up charity, so I hope this isn’t the most flattering thing the Bulls are doing for the community.

- Gasol is the 2nd best Laker, but JR made a decent point here in that the Lakers had a much easier decision to pursue him. Kobe (big drop) Gasol (large but not quite as big drop) Odom (drop bc of injury otherwise no drop) Bynum flanked by a seasoned vet like Fischer and up and coming players like Ariza, Farmar and a decent bench player like Walton, the Lakers are definitely worlds ahead of the Bulls. Think about what our roster would look like if we had given up Deng and/or Gordon and/or picks/young players for Gasol. We very likely would not have Rose on our roster now as well, though that pick didn’t seem to be worth so much so we wouldn’t even think twice.

- The one thing that worries is that JR might apply the same reasoning to a potential Bosh or Boozer trade. Boozer won’t come so expensive so that theory probably doesn’t apply to him, but what do you think it will take to pick up Bosh? If it includes Noah, Deng and Salmons, how happy is everybody going to be? Depending on what the trade would look like, it might be a lot to swallow and I’m worried JR will apply the same reasoning to this trade as he did with Gasol. We do have Rose now, so at least we’re not gutting our entire roster if we deal for a star, but the issue remains and it worries me a bit.

- I like the words about Deng. I know Deng didn’t fit too well right away with Rose, but if we can get a low post scorer like Boozer or Bosh, Deng would seem like a great fit on the wing at the 3 (or small lineup 4) spot. I’m more worried about Salmons and how he plays this year. We’ll need a lot of ball movement and I didn’t see much of that from him. I don’t want our iso man to be Salmons at the 2 (or 3) because I don’t feel like we can go that deep that way.

- D’antoni comments were interesting. I’m still not happy about our coaching hire in VDN, especially after watching him for a season. I hope we can turn our attention to a higher quality coach in the near future. I didn’t love him personally, but I really liked the way Avery worked with Dallas. I think he would do well for our team, particularly on defense and with Rose.

Thanks for posting this, it was a good read.

The Gordon comment was hilarious. Oh no, here comes Pargo…and Salmons….yep there were no available minutes for our best scoring guard.

JR is a joke…he couldn’t even spin it right. Everyone knows Ben wasn’t worth all that money but make it seem like he contributed something…made Ben look like a D-Leaguer.

God help us all.

The Hawks have been better than us. Their coach is not as bad as ours. They have more overall talent from top to bottom.

They let BG go because he didn’t accept their offer like a good troop. You’re going to let Salmons (did he play in the playoffs?) get minutes ahead of BG? They got nothing for him because of their arrogance and stupidity. This guy runs the team and “John and Gar” take orders. “John and Gar” supposedly made a lot of decisions which left us one ping pong ball short of last place. They are portraying Deng like some sort of near all-star while his contributions have been negligble. We’ll be better because Salmons and Miller will be with us for a full year. PLEASE. Better than whom? Providence?

Now they’ll ride Rose as our savior and you all will keep the United Center full because of MJ’s success 10-15 years ago!

There really isn’t any hope here….

I might need a break from watching the Bulls.

He just leaves at the end of the first half. That’s why he thinks Deng is still a potential All-Star, and Kirk Hinrich is still good.

Deng….shot 30.8% from the field in clutch situations last year (last 5 minutes of regulation and OT with the lead being +/-5 points)….and did not score a single unassisted field goal in clutch situations all season! All-Star, really? He’s more like a current version of Bill Cartwright…get 80% of your scoring done in the first half when the teams are settling in, and then disappear.

Hinrich….shot 30% in clutch situations last year, at least that’s up from 14% the season before. I think the layup against the Celtics pretty much sums up his play in crucial situations.

Jerry let Ben go so these guys could get more court time? The Bulls are screwed. Thanks for the 45 minutes, Jerry. Now you can go back to counting your money.

The owner obviously has no confidence in him. Vinny’s got to be on the hottest seat of any coach in the NBA. He’s so low-paid that the owner wouldn’t even have to eat much money if he’s fired. Why wait until a month or two into the season to fire him, when they can bring in a new coach now and let him get a full training camp under his belt with the team? Unless you’re looking forward to “interim coach Pete Myers.”

in some weird round about fashion?

The team went from having a lot of young promising guys that any team would love to have or trade for to bad contract after bad contract and cap concerns in a short period of time.

Still wondering why the team didn’t dump Hinrich last year. Maybe there were really no takers and the Minnesota or Portland rumors were just that…planted rumors?

…

The only thing I can say in Jerry’s defense is that he might have thought last year that he had a 50-50 chance of signing Gordon to a long-term deal for maybe $7M a year. But fantastic playoff series enticed Detroit enough to pay him.

I’ve never seen an owner talk this bad about a player HIS organization drafted. If u draft B.G. at number 3 because he is a scorer why did they always seem to complain about him shooting as much as he did? Why not pay him to do what he does best…score. Why let him walk for nothing? B.G. has always been a scorer and always will be, why wouldnt he get the most minutes at the position that is supose to shoot the ball, SHOOTING GUARD, not defending guard. This is puzzleing to me and makes me think twice about their intentions to really win a championship. He said it himself He “lucked up on Michael Jordan”

Dejuan Fucking Blair averaged 16.3 points and 8.7 rebounds in 25 minutes in the summer league. Bite me.

Kirk can shoot a little. Not consistently and he can’t shoot anything contested. Can nail the open 3 and some pull up Js but overall he’s not that great of a shooter. Decent but I go off watching the games not all these stupid Hollinger stats.

Lies, lies and damned statistics…

Kirk can shoot. But not well enough to justify him being a starting SG. Shooting guard. He can hit the open three but do you honestly think Kirk shoots well enough consistently be play extended minutes at the 2. I don’t.

I like Kirk. If his contract was for like 6 million, I would love Kirk. He’s a smart player who does a lot of little things well, will body anybody up on D, doesn’t make many mistakes. There are good qualities to his game. I just don’t like his contract and I wouldn’t like him as a SG on a regular basis.