Worst NBA Coaching Staff

Have you ever been to a beauty contest where there were only two contestants? As a guy, you maybe go to a contest like that and think that you’d like to be dating one of the two, but you end up with the third one? That’s exactly what an NBA team did this past off-season.

When you watch an NBA game do you just watch the game or are you a more critical viewer and watch substitutions and time outs? What about when a team comes back from a time out, what are you expecting, or maybe an inbounds play. What you should expect when a team comes out of a time out late in a game? 

You also need to understand that every team knows every other teams plays. They have a scouting report that lists every players tendencies and what every play they have is. I have actually seen one. One of our players left one in a restaurant before a pre-season game, and I grabbed it. Very interesting reading.

I live in Oklahoma City and I think our coaching staff now is pretty good! When I watch NBA games and as I’ve said in the past I watch a LOT of out of market NBA games, the team that seems to have the worst coaching staff is the Chicago Bulls.

I’m not just saying Vinny Del Negro, their rookie head coach. I’m including the assistant coaches who are on the bench for every game.

One of their assistant coaches is Bernie Bickerstaff. When he was at Charlotte, I’d hear announcers talk about how he had no idea how to use his time outs, or what plays to call in a critical situation. A couple of announcers all but called him clueless. Watching his teams play I agree!

So why would you hire an assistant coach who was so inept at handling his own team, as a mentor type for a rookie head coach? Latest reports out of Chicago say that Bickerstaff now has “quit” on Del Negro and is just collecting a paycheck.

Ask the people of Charlotte, they thought it was all he was doing there for a couple of years. According to the people (especially the media types) he’s worthless.

Their other main assistant coach is Del Harris. He has been around for a while and been an ok head coach, but supposedly a good assistant coach.  I don’ see it at all. Their third assistant is a guy named Bob Oceipka, who I don’t know anything about.

A little over a week ago team owner Jerry Reinsdorf first called out his head coach as being bad, but then amended his words to be directed at his assistant coaches. This is the same owner who stalled when it came time to give Mike D’Antoni a contract, and D’Antoni saw the writing on the wall and bolted for the Knicks who were holding their checkbook out for him to take, and he did for $24 million over four years.

Then when the Bulls talked to Doug Collins and by all reports offered him the job and were ready to do the deal, Reinsdorf again balked at paying all that cash to a coach and told Collins that he was too good of a friend to have to think about firing him again.

Do you remember the reports of when Collins was fired by the Bulls and Phil Jackson was hired? Collins was reportedly having an affair with one of the Bulls Co-Owners female relatives. It was never made clear if that relative was a wife, daughter or “other relative” but that was the rumor at the time.

Another report said that Reinsdorf just did not want to enter into another large dollar multi-year contract with a coach, just after he had to pay off Scott Skiles to the tune of about $5 million. No matter, he went int o a delay game with D’Antoni and then told Collins that he was hired, and then decided against it.

So now John Paxson is left scrambling to find a third choice at that two person beauty contest. His first two were really good. Think about getting married and trying your first choice and getting a yes, but your Dad says NO. Then your second choice comes along and she’s darn pretty and will be a wonderful partner for your life, and your Dad again says NO. Now you have to go to your third choice and I can tell you.. that won’t be a pretty sight today or 5 years from now.

That’s just where the Bulls find themselves, with the third choice in a two person beauty contest. Third place gets you disorganized and with a few knives going into people’s backs. Bad place to be, and the Bulls fans are tired of it.

Well Bulls fans, stop blaming John Paxson for this particular mess and put the blame right where it belongs on the owners desk. He forced this hand and needs to own up to it. Stop blaming your coaching staff. You brought this all on yourself. Not anyone else.

You have a rookie head coach who is getting little to no help from his assistants and need LOTS of help. You wonder if Bickerstaff is hoping Del Negro will get fired and he will get the head coaching job. It sure looks like that’s what he wants, but it won’t happen.

He’s a disaster and my money says that Paxson knows that much.

Al