The Next Coach of the Chicago Bulls: Mike D'Antoni or Avery Johnson

With all the talk in the media lately it appears that the Chicago Bulls have come down to two choices for who will be their next head coach (21st in the franchise, including interim coaches), either Mike D'Antoni or Avery Johnson.  Which is kind of laughable in itself since D'Antoni still hasn't been fired from his current job as Head Coach of the Phoenix Suns.  Plus after all the attention the Bulls and Knicks have given D'Antoni, if I were the Suns I would keep him, but that's neither here nor there, lets look at both the team and the coaches.

The team as it currently stands is coming after a very disappointing season in which they failed to reach the play-offs for the first time in four years.  And especially disappointing as the players began to rebel against then head coach Scott Skiles at the beginning of the season and followed that pattern when Skiles was replaced by Jim Boylan.  Frustration is one thing, but outright rebellion against a coach is another and this team seems like a bunch of undisciplined babies.  Which leads to the point that yes they are a very young team, but they were an even younger team the previous three years when they were in the play-offs so that is no longer an excuse. 

Now you have a coach being thrust into the fray that is forced to work with a team that finished 18th in PPG, followed up by 16th in points allowed per game, that's not a good statistic.  After all they gave up 100.4 ppg this year, anytime you give up over 100 a game, you are bound to have a losing record and most of all it means that you aren't playing defense.

Well, lets look at the two candidates now.  D'Antoni has the experience factor having coached more seasons than Johnson in the NBA plus a few seasons overseas.  D'Antoni also has an ex-factor in that he has coached losing teams before and know how to change a culture, his first year with the Sun they finished 6th in their division and missed the play-offs the next season they were in 1st.  Johnson had the benefit of taking over a very talented team from Don Nelson.  As for discipline, I haven't heard too much on the negative side off the court for either team in the two coaches tenures so we will say that that one is a wash.  Obviously we know D'Antoni's teams always put up points, but don't play much defense, on the other hand Johnson caused his team's ppg to decline slightly but got them playing considerably better defense.  I think that category is going to have to go to Johnson. The other problem being with D'Antoni is that he is still under contract to the Sun and the Knicks are supposedly going to drop a huge offer in his lap to become their next head coach.

Judging and sifting through all that information, I think to get a better bargain and not get involved in a bidding war, and with most of the head to head situations coming out a wash that Avery Johnson might be a better fit for the Chicago Bulls.  He was a great leader when he played and believe he can do the same again as a coach.  After all, he had the best first 82 games of any coach in league history.  So I say take a chance Bulls and go for Johnson.