Will Vinny survive the early schedule?
by your friendly BullsBlogger on Aug 4, 2009 10:56 PM CDT
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PrintI somewhat downplayed the importance of Tuesday's release of the Bulls schedule. All NBA schedules are basically the same. As Bulls Confidential noted, the only variables are whether they play non-Central Eastern Conference teams 3 or 4 times, and while they play the Celtics 4 times they only get the Magic 3 times.
There's the analyzing of how many back-to-backs, or 4 games in 5 nights, road trips, etc. But if they were better, such schedule quirks wouldn't matter. They won't be good enough to crack the elite in the conference, and won't be bad enough for a complete disaster. They just need to be good enough to have observers (and free agents) think they're on the way up, best done by making the playoffs.
But while it's true the schedule always evens out at the end, the early tough stretch (highlighted, of course, by the circus trip) may have a serious effect on the Bulls coach, Vinny Del Negro. It's not hard to envision a scenario where the Bulls stumble out of the gate in terms of record (whether they play well or not), and pressure will be on Gar Paxdorf to do something with a coach who is probably the most fireable in the entire league.
VDN won't be around when the Bulls are good again, unless he had some serious coaching improvement over the summer. It's just the way the job is, and Vinny hasn't shown to be nearly good enough to overcome that reality. Plus he has the lowest coaching salary in the NBA. So it's not a question of if, but when.
But would it really be best to fire him early in the season next year for the purpose of a 'jolt'? A new coach, combined with the relatively easier second half schedule, and it could look like a smart move.
But what Vinny at least brings is a player-friendly style that seems to have everyone behind him. And since the Bulls likely won't keep Tyrus Thomas beyond this season no matter how he plays (still hoping for a mutually benefitial break-out season, but it's tough...), there aren't even any odd rotation decisions that'll stagnate young players: Rose and Noah will play, and James Johnson has plenty of rookie contract years left.
So while I often disparage Vinny's ability and think he's completely replaceable...he'd have to be replaced with a real NBA coach. And as we know of the Bulls, their 'process' to find a real coach isn't something that can be done midseason. (And apparently not even in an offseason, but I digress...)
I doubt the in-house replacements would be any better. If Pete Myers was the guy, from what I've seen of those brief trials I think he'd almost certainly be worse. Bernie Bickerstaff has head coaching experience, but he likely is at the point in his career where he doesn't want to take a thankless interim job.
And so a bigger fear than a slow start and a VDN firing is what happens if the team doesn't regroup and instead goes further into a tailspin. Like the time of, and yes I'll dare say the words: the Jim Boylan era.
That could ruin the goal of this season, which is to make the playoffs. I don't think a slow start would jeopardize that goal, and it'd be a risky move for the Bulls to sacrifice Vinny to keep up the false pretense that they're trying to do anything more than stay average until the next round of free agency.
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my thoughts
I´m not so optimistic. I think there´s a big difference between the way we view VDN and the way management does. There´s at least a possibility they think that him making the playoffs and getting an exciting 1st round series as a rookie are signs that he´s a great up and coming coach.
If that´s the case, he´ll definitely get some breathing room this season and if he does reasonably well, we could be looking at an extension.
VDN: free agent recruitment tool?
better or worse than Benny the Bull in 2000?
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by your friendly BullsBlogger on Aug 4, 2009 11:10 PM CDT up reply actions
the way i read the tea leaves
management knows how over his head vinny is. it’s not the bulls style to just come out and rip their own players or coaches, but i’ve never heard paxson or gar or reinsdorf come out and say how much they love vinny or what a great job they think he’s doing. i think they are quietly thinking the same thing many of us are: barring some miraculous improvement as a coach, vinny is not here long term.
Wow I hadn't heard the name boylan in awhile
yuck. while vinny’s cheap, we’re still paying skiles right? to pay 3 coaches at the same time seems insane (especially if vinny does have that rumored 3 year deal). what’s interesting to me is that firing vinny really should be looked at as a fault on management (was anybody surprised vinny wouldn’t be great?), of course paxson is no longer the gm so Dorf could say there’s no one left to blame (even though Pax is still there and that Gar probably had a hand in the hiring anyway the way they talked about his involvement in the past).
its like the blame goes around in circles but never lands on anyone. except ben gordon, of course
by The90sBullsRevival on Aug 4, 2009 11:08 PM CDT reply actions
technically they paid Skiles all at once
but who knows how it was ‘budgeted’.
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by your friendly BullsBlogger on Aug 4, 2009 11:11 PM CDT up reply actions
Yeah
They probably paid him all at once, but can spread that against the books over the life of the contract. Perhaps they saved a few pennies doing it that way too.
Thurston Moore is a rock god
Who would be a good replacement?
I was thinking Eddie Jordan seeing as he had those good Washington teams with great offense. You certainly don’t want a Doug Collins or General Avery Johnson in here.
Do you like fishsticks?
Eddie's busy.
Coaching the Sixers.
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by your friendly BullsBlogger on Aug 5, 2009 12:08 AM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
Wow. Completely forgot
Now that has just completely killed my hopes for any coach replacement.
Do you like fishsticks?
Whenever has a first rate coach been hired in mid-season?
That’s why it is so imperitive to replace VDN this summer. Except that it’s not going to happen, which partly explanes my pessimism going into this season. Unless Hunter comes out of nowhere and produces a miracle.
It actually isn't imperative to replace him now.
Why pay two contracts for a year when we aren’t going to do a ton. This team is not good enough to beat Orlando-Boston-Cleveland, zero % chance.
by Super-Structure on Aug 5, 2009 1:29 AM CDT up reply actions
youre right
derrick rose isnt good enough to beat those three teams. itd be nice if we had other players
by sin on Aug 5, 2009 1:31 AM CDT up reply actions
though i dont want another year of
vinny teaching/shaping rose
by The90sBullsRevival on Aug 5, 2009 2:48 AM CDT up reply actions
And this is supposed to be a Chicago Bulls fan site?
Where’s the optimism? We’re already condemning the team to mediocrity? I realize we didn’t sign the low post scoring presence we have all wanted, but I think we’re moving in the right direction. Vinny did what he could with a roster devoid of any superstars (Rose was an unproven rookie, Gordon is a poor mans AI, and Deng is a supporting cast player). While I’m not so naive to believe we’ll be a championship contender this year, I do think we can at least equal what was accomplished last year and even improve. But for all the pessimists out there, you always have next year and what should be close to or over $40 mil under the salary cap.
Optimism is fine
But under what scenario will they be $40 million under the salary cap?
"In essence, our guys are complementary-type players. We still have to find a mix that works and is balanced."-John Paxson
Miller and James' bloated contracts will be gone next year.
If they don’t re-sign Tyrus, they will have a salary cap number of just over $31 mil. Salary cap next year should be around $70 mil next year, and that’s assuming it goes down again from $71 mil this year. If it goes up, then they’ll have over $40 mil in cap space, with Deng, Hinrich, Rose, Salmons, Noah, Johnson, and Gibson all under contract. Now tell me they couldn’t entice Wade and Bosh for $15-$20 mil a piece.
It's easy to be optimistic when you don't know what the hell you're talking about!
by Sports2 on Aug 7, 2009 7:23 PM CDT up reply actions 3 recs
Enlighten me oh wise one,
or is that the bulk of your argument?
Maybe I should clarify first,
by salary cap I am implying the luxury tax limit. Since that’s the real salary cap teams use.
well it's a soft cap, so it's understandable
once the current CBA expires, owners are going to start pushing for a hard cap.
left shark - "Kirk needs to go and join Ben Gordon and L Deng somewhere else trade Deng and Hinrich they no good"
As discussed in that Chad Ford thread...
- The best the Bulls can hope for is $32M if Salmons opts out and we dump our pick. And Tyrus. If Salmons opts in, we’re at about $38M.
- Teams can only sign players with the amount of money they are under the real salary cap. Picture it as two different roads you could go down. If you go down the “get under the salary cap” road, you can sign players from other teams, but once you run out of cap space, you’re done. You don’t get to use a mid level exception and you don’t get to then go out and re-sign your own free agents. You have to renounce your right go over the cap to re-sign them. The other road lets you spend up to the luxury tax, but only to re-sign your own FAs and use the MLE.
I think Mr. Ford is over-estimating
I don’t see the cap going down as much as he predicts, I would even be optimistic in saying it will go back up next year. So that should still give them close to $20 mil under the soft cap. Still enough I believe to have a chance to sign both Wade and Bosh, and that’s even with Salmons staying on board.
Any evidence to back up your claim that the cap will swing back up
Is it the fact that half the teams in the NBA took out loans this season, or that several teams are dying financially?
The Chicago Bulls.....the more profitable Los Angeles Clippers.
by Ozzie Montana on Aug 8, 2009 4:11 PM CDT up reply actions
I said I was optimistic, I didn't say it would happen.
And those teams that took out loans, and are dying financially, were doing so before the recession hit. But that’s due to poor management, not the economy.
while it's not imperative to replace him now
i think it is imperative to (again, this is assuming VDN doesn’t show some miraculous improvement as a coach) have the coaching situation figured out by july 1 next year; i don’t see us attracting a max free agent without a coach, and knowing how slow the last coaching search went, this is a legit concern
Skiles was hired midseason
Forget about how bad the ending was and remember what a terrific job he did for 3 seasons.
We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look.
Ronald Reagan
If Tyrus averages...
14-8-2.5-1 in 32mpg, do you think the Bulls would sign him if the market puts him at around 7-8 million per year?
no way.
and their excuse is going to be “we were focused on trying to sign lbj dwade bosh no one this summer”
by sin on Aug 5, 2009 3:29 AM CDT up reply actions
um, it's called 'flexibility'...
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by your friendly BullsBlogger on Aug 5, 2009 8:19 AM CDT up reply actions 2 recs
I was being sarcastic.
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by your friendly BullsBlogger on Aug 5, 2009 10:07 AM CDT up reply actions
damnit
I failed that one :)
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by your friendly BullsBlogger on Aug 5, 2009 11:27 AM CDT up reply actions
At least the owner is behind Vinny . . . oh wait, never mind
Why resort to name calling?
-Dionysus2.0
because I wish to insult you personally
-your friendly BullsBlogger
by Big D on Aug 5, 2009 3:11 AM CDT reply actions 3 recs
Vinny gone sooner than later?
He’s the lowest paid coach because the ownership is cheap. You think they’ll fire him so then they can pay two coaches? Seems unlikely.
That's never stopped the Bulls from firing coaches in the past
They fired Skiles and Cartwright when both had multiple years left on their contracts (and maybe Floyd – he officially “resigned,” but there were rumors he was really fired, and I don’t remember if he got paid or not).
Why resort to name calling?
-Dionysus2.0
because I wish to insult you personally
-your friendly BullsBlogger
I think the Boylanesque tailspin isn't gonna happen
Basically, VDN’s saving grace is everyone seemed to play pretty hard for him, so I have have a hard time seeing them just lay down like they did under that stupid fuckwad.
I think the only way they’re really terrible is injuries. I suppose it’s also possible if we pull a White Sox style mid-season forfeiture and trade guys like Kirk or Salmons for guys who can’t play at all, that might be enough to make everyone get mad and quit too.
I don't think so either
I was suggesting they’re more likely to go into a Boylanesque tailspin if they had a Boylanesque interim coach.
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by your friendly BullsBlogger on Aug 5, 2009 8:20 AM CDT up reply actions
My bad, for a minute I thought you were one on those guys upset about losing Richard,
who will never be better than a no 3 starter.
To explain: Sports2 was talking about a trade in an earlier season, not the Peavy trade.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Flag_Trade
Vinny Del Negro: Possibly the most unintentionally irritating last name in the history of last names [Hint: I can't for the life of me pronounce it correctly].
-Brandon Jennings: PG of the future!
This post underscores what a precarious position we could be in next summer
If VDN survives this season without any marked improvements as a coach, will we really be able to attract a max fre agent next summer with a coach whose rep around the league is so poor? I realize he is a players coach, but I get the feeling that a lot of people in the league realize what a joke VDN was last season. If VDN doesn’t survive the year, will we be good enough to attract a max free agent? And if he either a) doesn’t survive the year or b) gets canned at the end of the season, will we have a coach in place by July 1? I imagine it would be awfully difficult to attract big time free agents without a freaking coach.
I think we should be rooting for Vinnie to kick ass
I think Vinnie started the season as a joke (and often coached like it), and was a joke for most of the season. But by the end of the season and through the playoffs, I didn’t see any national level guys going on about how he sucked anymore.
I think the “consensus” (as it almost always does), did pretty much a 180 when we ended the season hot and took the Celtics to 7 games in the playoffs. Suddenly Vinnie become a guy that “got his legs under him” but who “never lost his team” and had them “fighting to the end”. And he’s got a system (such as it is) that allows scorers some amount of freedom.
I have no idea if players feel this way or not, but that’s the sense I get from reading folks outside of Chicago. As for Chicago players, I don’t see anyone complaining about him the way they pretty openly did about Boylan, who was obviously ludicrous to the end.
None of this means he’s great, but in the context of attracting a FA, he’s probably the best alternative. What are the alternatives.
- Vinnie and the Bulls do well this season. I don’t think a coach with two years experience and an ok record is a negative when attracting a free agent. He’s not a positive in the mold of Phil Jackson or Pat Riley, but I don’t think he’s much of a negative.
- Vinnie and the Bulls do poorly this season, Vinnie gets axed at the end. Team is in disarray, and it’s not obvious who they hire. To really make a splash with FAs, they’d need to go out and spend on a big name guy (Avery Johnson, I guess?). Not even sure that’d be an unmitigated positive, since some players might not like the big name guy’s style. If they’ve got another unheralded guy, he’s got all the drawbacks of Vinnie, and without any positive track record.
- Vinnie gets the axe in the middle of the season. Well, I suppose it depends who we hire, but limping through the year with an interim coach would seem to be pose all the problems of hiring one at the end of the season, but even more uncertainty and lack of track record to boot.
So I think clearly the best situation we can create is for Vinnie to do well. The top free agents want to come to stable and improving situations. The more stable and improving our situation is, the more continuity we have, the better. .
by Sports2 on Aug 5, 2009 9:00 AM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
Don't get me wrong
I’m rooting for that to happen as well and I agree that it’s the best possible outcome; I’m just not sold on it actually happening. For better or worse the players at least seem to like (although I’m not sure about Tyrus, especially how he stormed off the court after game 7 against Boston due to his inexplicable benching for the final 18 minutes) Vinny and they for the most part always played hard for him. I do think he improved as a coach throughout the year, but that’s really only because he was at rock bottom early in the season and had nowhere to go but up; his schemes were still basically non-existent at season’s end, he just learned what players to actually play.
I also agree that the national Vinny bashing has subsided, but that’s mainly just because the Bulls inexplicably got this “young up and coming team” label after the Boston series. If we start out poorly next season, I think people will quickly forget how young and exciting they thought we were last May, and they’ll see a poorly coached team that made no offseason improvements to a team that couldn’t get by the injury ravaged Celtics who were giving Brian Scalabrine big minutes in the frontcourt. Plus, we’re on national TV a lot early in the year, so a few poor showings there could really hurt Vinny too.
It's really hard to say. I think you're right that if we get clobbered repeatedly, it doesn't help us
but I think we get some stigma attached to us if we get clobbered with an interim coach too.
I think the only solution is to not get clobbered. :)
Win and everyone will kiss our ass. Lose and it won’t matter who’s coaching.
hmmm
maybe I’m wrong, but I definitely seem to remember Doug Collins and JVG questioning a few of Vinny’s moves during a broadcast.
left shark - "Kirk needs to go and join Ben Gordon and L Deng somewhere else trade Deng and Hinrich they no good"
"Why would you use a timeout here?"
Oh … … I would say good times. Let me just say “times” instead.
…
Vinny Del Negro: Possibly the most unintentionally irritating last name in the history of last names [Hint: I can't for the life of me pronounce it correctly].
-Brandon Jennings: PG of the future!
by Prevenge on Aug 5, 2009 1:13 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
Maybe we can use having no coach as a drawing card?
Stars do like firing coaches, how about hiring them?
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by your friendly BullsBlogger on Aug 5, 2009 9:25 AM CDT up reply actions
Really year one
THe only really good thing about Vinny is it seems he brought the team back together and the guys seemed to actually have fun on the court (for the first time since that Heat series). They continually played hard “through thick and thin” in a crazy year with a bunch of injuries, a bunch of quirky coach moves, especially early on, a terrible roster, etc.
Vinny also made a few nifty little play calls at the end of the year out of timeouts…..but yes he spent too much letting guys just run iso after iso after iso and drive and kick, didn’t seem to get Tyrus into a spot to maximize Tyrus’s athletic ability (that MIGHT be on Tyrus though), and well at times was lost.
I do think he improved though, and well I just kind of like his demeanor (especially when players were constantly asked about whether they liked Vinny, and they never really indicated they did not; and when the sportscasters complained to Vinny about this or that and he stood up and said “I’m the Coach”. I like that….shows he’s not just some typical JR yes man….
I think he improved a lot as the year went on (from godawful to acceptable). This year he has to prove he’s ready to be an NBA coach though.
It is frustrating that he’s been given an opportunity to learn on the job for a team and a job that a lot of guys would die for. But I THINK considering all the many many strikes he had coming in (a bad roster, 2 high profile coaches talked and linked for the role in the media to turn it down, a #1 overall pick, a feeling that last year we were still that on the rise 2nd round playoff team (ignoring the complete mess of 2007-2008 altogether, etc. that he did a good enough job.
I think we’ll be ok. I think we have a lot of talent and it’ll be tough for Vinny to muck it up. I also don’t think Vinny’s been the worst coach out there…..
But this year is totally the make or break Vinny year, and with our tough circus trip we’ll know pretty soon if it’s break or not.
I do like him and think if he doesn’t pan out here, he’ll get a role elsewhere eventually though, I just wish he had a few assistant years under his belt first, or head coaching in the development leagues or Europe…
Thurston Moore is a rock god
I know alot of people
wont agree with this but i think Avery Johnson would do wonders for this team right now. VDN is to loosy goosy and just doesnt have the knowledge to coach an NBA team.. The Bulls gave him a shot and thats cool but enough is enough. This guy is an amatuer. He cant coach. AJ would instill some tough defense on this group (just what DR, TT, LD need) and would actually be able to run an offense not just ISO and P/R. See VDN doesnt have BG to bail his ass out this year dropping ISO Bombs on people. This could end up being a painful year to watch. i think he’s fired right around the All Star break if were anything under 500.
It seemed to me that Avery brought scores down
mostly by slowing the game to crawl on offense and calling in every play. I’d like to see attention to defense, but not at the cause of taking our offense’s strengths away. The Bulls are best as a running team, in my opinion, and will have more success playing a fast pace.
I believe (and really hope) that Vinny is going to surprise most of us this year
He made a lot of shit last year and we lost a lot of games because of his mistakes. Hopefully, he learned from them and this season he will make a better job. I don’t forget that Noah had a very awfull start and improved as a player through the season with Vinny. Not saying that Vinny deserves all the credit for that, but at least some… On the other hand, the fact that he didn’t play Tyrus a lot during crunch time concerns me… Maybe is this lack of faith in Tyrus that is making the Bulls shopping him.
Anyway, Vinny surpass my expectations last year getting the team in to the playoffs and fighting hard in that series against Boston. I didn’t expected any of that, since he was a rookie and we had a rookie PG. In the end, all went well. So maybe, just maybe, this year will end up well too and we end up winning games against some of the best teams of the league. I just ask for the playoffs. Nothing more. I don’t mind we end 6th, 7th or 8th in the conference. Another year of playoff experience would be good for him and Rose. Who knows, maybe he ends up being a nice coach.
Oh, and for those who say that Vinny is not going to survive our difficult start, let me remind you that he got the second best record during the circus trip since 2003
2008/09Coach: Vinny del Negro
Record: 3-4
2007/08
Coach: Scott Skiles
Record: 1-5
2006/07
Coach: Scott Skiles
Record: 1-6
2005/06
Coach: Scott Skiles
Record: 3-3
2004/05
Coach: Scott Skiles
Record: 1-6
2003/04
Coach: Scott Skiles
Record: 0-5
2002/03
Coach: Bill Cartwright
Record 0-6
But let me remind you that it’s not important how we start, but how we end.
I'm thinking the Bulls will believe it's important how we start
further feeding the lie that it’s important how this year goes at all ;-p
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by your friendly BullsBlogger on Aug 5, 2009 11:29 AM CDT up reply actions
IMO
I think Noah came into the season badly out of shape and with some off the court baggage. I’m not ready to give credit to VDN for Noah at all. Noah was always a good player it just took him a while to get acclimated to the NBA. If anything VDN was stunting his growth by running old man Brad out there for 48mpg or at the end of games when he was gassed.
IMO Noah should have started a little better than his rookie year...
After all, it was his second year…
I agree
im just saying VDN doesnt deserve any credit for whats going on with him. Your right though thats totally on Noah.
Maybe you're right and Vinny doesn't deserve any credit for Noah
I don’t care if I am the only one that is taking this position, but after what we achieved last year, I’m willing to give Vinny a chance (I bet I will insult Vinny after the first couple of games, though LOL)
I'm on board
I just dont think VDN is a very good coach. I’m willing to give him a little more time to figure it out but at some point i just dont think its going to work out. This is the Chicago Bulls we’re talknig about here. We deserve a real freaking coach. No more Boylans, VDN’s, Cartrights, Floyds. I mean shit we had Phill freaking Jackson and Doug Collins. How do you go from PJ to Tim Floyd. We’re getting jobbed here.. We as fans desrve better. The guy has ZERO Exp. I mean you gotta have a real short leash with a guy like that. Thats why i think he gets the hook around mid season if things arent going well..
Yes, they started somewhere as assistants
Why resort to name calling?
-Dionysus2.0
because I wish to insult you personally
-your friendly BullsBlogger
Does
Vinny deservere credit for anything good that happened, or just blame for things that went wrong?
Personally, i’m not sold either way on how good a coach he is or can be, but I think it’s ridiculous that people will assign him responsibility for only one side of things. It’s not just you, but someone said the same thing about Rose also.
The general feeling seems to be that anything good would have happened anyway. Everything bad is because Vinny screwed up.
yeah, pretty much
that and nothing that good really happened.
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by your friendly BullsBlogger on Aug 5, 2009 3:36 PM CDT up reply actions
I mean
for a first year guy with no exp. yeah VDN desrves credit your right.
Thats about it man and it wasnt pretty and like yfb says below or above nothing that good really happened.
Vinny probably cost the Bulls
between 5-10 games last year on his coaching blunders alone last year.
Random thoughts
“It’d be a risky move for the Bulls to sacrifice Vinny to keep
up the false pretense that they’re trying to do anything more
than stay average until…” the end of all times.
“VDN won’t be around when the Bulls are good again, unless he
had some serious coaching improvement over the summer”
and some better players would definitely help too?
Who knows if any of us will be around, Surely Dorf has a grandson who
idiolizes GrandPa … and with Captain Kirk as the next GM (< 10 years).
"I tried being reasonable, I didn't like it."
"Go ahead, make my day"
"We boil at different degrees"
"A good man always knows his limitations"
"You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk?"
What really matters?
If “getting a big name free agent” (summer 2010)
is in a similiar category as this (summer 2009 priority)
“top priority is signing Ben Gordon”
Tune out Paxson and Gar, and how much do you hear from Reinsdorf concerning getting
a big name free agent. He’ll probably sign/trade for big name former star like Rasheed Wallace, or something similiar with a Pargo “1 year” contract.
How well Vinny does or doesn’t do, does it really matter based on Reinsdorf true priorities?
"I tried being reasonable, I didn't like it."
"Go ahead, make my day"
"We boil at different degrees"
"A good man always knows his limitations"
"You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk?"
I don't buy that
The Bulls have not had a great start since the Jordan era. I don’t see them firing Vinny over a tough start as long as they aren’t getting clobbered every single game. A losing record is pretty much expected early on with that dreaded circus trip in the beginning of every season. As long as they are competitive (which I think they will be since so many people have things to prove Deng, TT, Hinrich, even Salmons), I don’t see that happening.
"In essence, our guys are complementary-type players. We still have to find a mix that works and is balanced."-John Paxson
they've fired 2 coaches on christmas eve.
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by your friendly BullsBlogger on Aug 5, 2009 12:51 PM CDT up reply actions
True
but the just hired him last year and his team made the playoffs. That’s an awfully quick trigger. Those coaches had more than one year at that point.
"In essence, our guys are complementary-type players. We still have to find a mix that works and is balanced."-John Paxson
Who did they fire on X-Mas eve besides Skiles? (I didn’t put anything in bold, don’t call me a douche yfbb, I am asking a serious question because I don’t know)
" I've looked at these numbers and decided the #1 problem
is that Ben Gordon is selfish..." -your friendly bulls blogger
floyd.
best christmas present ever, and i don’t celebrate christmas. :D
"They should. They better. I'm Vinny Del Negro!"
I know how I forgot that...
I tend to block out those years of my fanhood…he was just bad.
" I've looked at these numbers and decided the #1 problem
is that Ben Gordon is selfish..." -your friendly bulls blogger
I love how you didn't use a subject heading, that made me laugh
I don’t think anyone can honestly remember happy things from Tim Floyd’s tenure. There isn’t a single memorable highlight, at least Cartwright had them running around like crazy.
The Chicago Bulls.....the more profitable Los Angeles Clippers.
by Ozzie Montana on Aug 6, 2009 11:11 AM CDT up reply actions
Depends what you mean by "tough start," really.
If they play poorly during the circus trip, that’s still extremely early, so I doubt that they would fire him at that point. However, if we have a losing record and are not in the top 8 in the East come Christmas season, then it would seem that the Bulls haven’t made progress since Vinny’s appointment, and since that would be about a year and a half, I would definitely assume that Reinsdorf would seriously consider axing him. Others have already pointed out Jerry’s apparent lack of faith in Del Negro.
That being said, I think the players will continue to play hard because, although Vinny’s a dumbass, he seems to be able to motivate his players for the most part. They didn’t seem to have the chemistry issues they had the year before, and while they may have been mediocre, they were putting in the effort by the end of the season.
Still, if the team sucks around the holiday season, I say can him.
You want to root for Vinny to succeed, but man he made so many stupid mistakes last year
I guess I’m supposed to give the coach as much slack as the rookie PG.
If the Bulls are legitimately playing hard through December, Vinny is safe no matter what their record is. Also, the rest of the team can suck, but if Rose continues to steadily improve, Vinny will be given a lot of credit, and I’m not sure how willing a 21 year old Derrick would be to throw the coach under the bus.
The Chicago Bulls.....the more profitable Los Angeles Clippers.
it also really doesn't help
that Vinny also looks and sounds like a dope. Not that I know he is a dope, but the public face doesn’t give me confidence otherwise.
USE THE SOFTWARE. Actions-> Rec/Flag. Reply to comments with the reply button. Rec good fanposts/fanshots so the crud gets pushed down.
by your friendly BullsBlogger on Aug 5, 2009 12:52 PM CDT up reply actions
This year defense is the point of emphasis.
For me the test will be: has the defense improved? I think that will be Pax’ yardstick also. We ought to know fairly quickly if VDN can pull that off
by hlac on Aug 5, 2009 1:01 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs
Word
In my mind it was the inability to make stops down the stretch that cost us >10 games last year. Part of that comes down to player acumen and effort, part of that comes down to coaching emphasis. If we show legitimate progress on defense (and stay relatively healthy) I see our win totals in the high 40s with a very young pg as our only elite player. Vinny will keep his job and I see Chicago as an attractive destination for a top FA. If our defense sucks again we’ll be mediocre again and VDN will be on the rocks.
More than anything I think we’ll be a fun team to watch, and for me that’s what being a fan is about. I can’t wait til the season starts so we can end all of this speculative bellyaching and start arguing about what happens on the court.
I’m bored!
How can you call VDN a dope?
Based on the sophistication of his offensive and defensive sets along with his game management skills it shouldn’t be surprising he got a vote for COY. I was impressed and also confused until I realized the person who voted for him as COY didn’t realize it meant Coach of the Year.
After watching Vinny in action last season he mistakenly and logically assumed it was an acronym for Completely Overmatched Yokel. (Yokel defined as a not too bright person, a somewhat slow thinker).
If you can't answer a man's arguments, all is not lost. You can still call him vile names.
Elbert Hubbard
Can we start calling Vinny 'Cletus' now?
Vinny Del Negro: Possibly the most unintentionally irritating last name in the history of last names [Hint: I can't for the life of me pronounce it correctly].
-Brandon Jennings: PG of the future!
The Chairman on Vinny Del Negro:
What did you think of Vinny Del Negro’s first season?
It was an exciting season, but as far as grading a coach, that’s something you have to get from [vice president basketball operations] John [Paxson] or [general manager] Gar [Forman].
But your frustration level was evident when you went on with Mike [North and Dan Jiggets on Comcast SportsNet in January] and said what you said [calling season an embarrassment]?
I wasn’t talking about Vinny that day. It got totally misinterpreted. What I was trying to say — and I shouldn’t have even gotten into it — was I felt the staff wasn’t structured the way it should be structured. Now you can see what we’ve done and we have one more announcement to make in bringing in a big man coach. (Editor’s note: The Tribune reported last month it will be Sidney Green.)
You say you don’t grade coaches, but surely you have an opinion of how the coach of your franchise performed?
I absolutely have opinions. But I give them to Gar and to John. They can share them with you if they want to.
Some might read you not sharing your opinions as a lack of a vote of confidence.
I don’t give votes of confidence.
What did you think Vinny did well last season?
It’s not something for me to talk about. That’s for John and Gar. Go ask them what they think.
Yeah, Vinny’s gone.
Why resort to name calling?
-Dionysus2.0
because I wish to insult you personally
-your friendly BullsBlogger
by Big D on Aug 5, 2009 1:53 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs
few teams have won a championship with a rookie or second year coach
so give him a chance, although I think vinny will wind up like the vinny from american choppers thanks to these fans who are out for his throat . Who can motivate multi millionare players in todays game?
take it easy
why care about a bloggers grammar
no matter how much you hate me you still read and comment me
As much as Jerry hates Vinny
The question is who is out there to replace him? Our team is far away from contending for anything other then the final playoff spot in the East. My guess is he makes it through next season and we do a coach search behind the scenes, then can him once we have a solid replacement.
He doesn't have to replace him with a new coach, Bernie Bickerstaff will just become the interim coach
He’s a guy with experience, so technically they wouldn’t even have to go out and hire a new guy. Scary, but it could happen.
The Chicago Bulls.....the more profitable Los Angeles Clippers.
by Ozzie Montana on Aug 6, 2009 11:13 AM CDT up reply actions
Derrick will take care of vinny
The curious case of Benjamin Gordon
by broseleay301 on Aug 6, 2009 7:15 PM CDT reply actions
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