Bulls rumored to be waiting until there's no jobs left for Tom Thibodeau?

The latest Bulls coaching rumors from the weekend, reported by Adrian Wojnarowski as well as Marc Stein, is that the Bulls are playing the waiting game when it comes to their current coach.

What both reporters are 'hearing' is that the Bulls aren't confident another team will offer compensation to hire Thibs from them (and really, why would they), and thus they'll simply wait until all of the remaining coaching vacancies are filled before outright firing him.

So, like...out of spite? Maybe! The Orlando Magic job is reportedly close to being filled by old friend Scott Skiles, and the only officially open jobs remaining are in New Orleans and Denver.

But it doesn't quite make sense for the Bulls to want Thibs to not coach anywhere in 2015. If they fire him they'll owe the approximately $9m left on the 2 years of his contract. However, even without draft pick (or other) compensation, Thibodeau being hired elsewhere at least means the money he's owed by the Bulls will be offset by the money he's earning on whatever new contract he receives. Thibs sitting at home (or working as a TV analyst) does nothing to help Jerry Reinsdorf's bottom line, and isn't that what's of most importance? Why would he throw away money to let his goofy underlings, who are running out a successful coach in the first place, do so in a matter that costs more money.

And, thus, it's probably just posturing: one last effort to get a team to panic and offer something to hire Thibs, where they can't wait for him to be sprung free while their own coaching position remains vacant. The Bulls will then have their own vacancy to fill, though while waiting means they could lose out on Alvin Gentry, it wouldn't have any bearing on Gar Forman's friend in Iowa.