Who will coach the Bulls next year?
By Michael Gibbons ,
It is widely assumed that the Bulls will be in the market for a new coach again this offseason.
After two straight playoff appearances Vinny Del Negro is expected to be fired after the recent run in he had is his office with vice president John Paxson.
It's no secret Vinny wasn't Pax's first choice. Owner Jerry Reinsdorf balked at Mike D'Antoni's asking price and didn't want to eventually fire good friend Doug Collins again so left Pax with very few choices but to go with the first time head coach.
So who will be the head coach next season? I kept it to five. But feel free to suggest any of the guys out of work or working on TV
Check out all my thoughts on the Bulls and possible coaches at www.dachicagofan.com
The current Boston Celtics coach is a Chicago guy and reports have started to leak that he might want to spend more time with his family.
But we have heard that before
Current Magic coach and former Heat coach Stan Van Gundy used the same excuse when Pat Reilly forced him to step down so he could lead the Heat to a championship.
Maybe the family excuse might be an escape clause for Rivers to leave Boston before the ship sinks.
Would it really be so bad if Vinny was brought back for one more year?
He has lead the Bulls to back to back playoff appearances. He has to get some credit for the development of Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah as well as the play of rookie Taj Gibson.
Even after losing leading scorer Ben Gordon in the offseason and then trading away John Salmons he still lead a team that suffered greatly from injuries into the playoffs and only one game force then last season.
I have to attempt he has improved his game management this season. Remember last year when he ran out of timeouts several times? I don't recall that happening once this year . He still doesn't know how to use a bench but maybe that is something he will improve on next year
Lawrence Frank would be my first choice of all the coaches you were fired during the season that included Byron Scott. Both have experience coaching great guards with Chris Paul and Jason Kidd. But Franks reminds me of Scott Skiles who should have never been let go by the Bulls.
Franks is a good coach who took over for Scott in New Jersey who was unfairly fired when he was given an extremely bad roster. He lost Kidd, Richard Jefferson and Vince Carter all because they wanted to clear cap space. What did they think they could do with Lopez and Harris
In the NBA this happens all the time.
The GM will come down and coach the team. Kind of you made this mess now fix it.
Except this is a good mess. He has put together a solid team and has cleared cap room to sign a big time free agent.
Phil Jackson brought Pax onto his staff with the Bulls after he retired from playing and tried to keep him on before he went into broadcasting. If he is healthy and has no family issues maybe it is time for Pax to run everything. It would sure eliminate him having to give another coach permission to play an hurt player.
The current Hawks coach is not under contract for next season and might be the biggest free agent coach on the market. I wrote a great article detailing why Woodson should come to the Bulls and why they should sign him quickly but here is the recap:
Improved from 13 wins to a 50+ team
played under Bob Knight and coached alongside Larry Brown
from Indy, his one daughter is currently attending IU and his second daughter is expected to attend next year
For more exact details here is a link to the article http://bleacherreport.com/articles/376819-the-plan-da-bulls-should-follow
