I know it is too easy to throw out the "fire Skiles" nuclear option but there is good reason to think firing Skiles is the appropriate move to make outside of the Bulls record. The best reasons to fire Skiles is because he's unable to get the most of the talent on his roster. I believe this is due to his intense autocratic style. In other words, he is too inflexible.

Skiles wants you to be a certain kind of player to get minutes for him. This has its positives in that he likes guys who play smart and aggressive on D. But Skiles also has little patience for guys who make mistakes even if they are putting in the requisite effort (see Gordon, Ben). This also manifested itself in his refusal to use Tim Thomas last season. Thomas was effective later in the season for the Suns, especially in the playoffs. This year it shows up in his use of Thabo and Tyrus Thomas. Those two guys are young, going to make mistakes and Skiles does not have the patience for it.

Skiles is like a charismatic leader who starts a military coup appealling to oppressed people and then once he is in power becomes a nutball fascist dictator. The military coup was 04-05 when Skiles took a team that was going nowhere stockpiling lottery picks for no gain and made the playoffs. He took a young team got them fired up to play good defense and was successful. Two years later he cannot deal with the changing face of the Bulls roster. Not only that but he cannot deal with a roster that Paxson has constructed with Skiles' style in mind.

Skiles is still giving Duhon too much PT, still yo-yoing Gordon in and out the starting lineup, still being incredibly impatient with certain players and now he's not getting results anymore either despite addding one of the best defenders in the league (who Skiles is not getting a lot out of). You can blame the young players for not developing enough or Wallace for not being the guy we paid for or the lack of a low post scoring threat. You could also look at the situation from the perspective that Skiles is not utilizing the talent on hand properly. I think there is a lot of talent on hand and it is more than likely Skiles' fault the team is in the position it's in now, off to a terrible start.

One of the things that concerned me most was sending away J.R. Smith for nothing. The NBA has changed a lot, with the draft getting younger and younger we've seen a lot of players come out too early struggle for a few years and eventually put it together on their second team. Jermaine O'Neal is the first example of this this type of player. We get a young guy that another team has prematurely given up on because he did not live up to first round pick expectations, the obvious thing to do is give him away for nothing because the coach won't like him before he ever suits up. Smith facing us was like putting Barry Bonds in a room with a group of sports writers and telling him he can do whatever he wants with no legal repercussions.

Dictator coaches like Skiles tend to have a short shelf life. They start out as inspiring hardass drill sargeants and over the years the palyers get tired of it. Skiles may have been the man in 04-05 but organizations change and different groups of players need different things to be inspired or to maximize the talent on hand. Some coaches are better at rebuilding, others are guys to lead you to a title. Much like Doug Collins, Scott Skiles is not going to be the guy who leads the Bulls to their next title.