2014-2015 NBA thread

[bmags]

Still doesn't excuse Thibs playing him when it was clearly hurting the team.

There was no reason to re-sign hinrich last year, if they didn't want him playing they should have spent that cash on an actual backup PG instead of relying on thibsdust on another 5'7 PG who can't defend.

[SexiAlexei]

Marc Stein ‏@ESPNSteinLine 48m48 minutes ago

 

Hearing that the Magic, if they have their way, will have a deal with Scott Skiles to be their new head coach by day's end

 

What is the obsession with this guy?

 

Hasn't he proven he is an average at best NBA coach who isn't going to get you where you want to go?

 

He has floated at or below 500 for almost every season he's been a coach, and has a career .506 win %. Is that good enough to keep teams knocking on your door?

[RockRaines]

What is the obsession with this guy?

 

Hasn't he proven he is an average at best NBA coach who isn't going to get you where you want to go?

 

He has floated at or below 500 for almost every season he's been a coach, and has a career .506 win %. Is that good enough to keep teams knocking on your door?

Pro sports are all very similar, retreads are hired because they have experience, even if their experience is mediocre.

[Dick Allen]

Pro sports are all very similar, retreads are hired because they have experience, even if their experience is mediocre.

Skiles does have a track record of making bad teams decent, but eventually you will fire him with at least a couple of million on his contract.

[Chisoxfn]

I want to thank Thibs for making basketball in Chicago fun for the last 5 years and wish him the best in the future. Whoever gets him is going to get a really good coach and I hope he's learned a bit from his experience here. At the same time, I hope Hoiberg is the guy that can take the Bulls to the next level and that Doug Collins will be seated next to him.

 

Reading Woj's article and who Forman wanted to hire instead of Thibs has me worried. I'd have been fine if they went with Pax's guy (Doug Collins) but if they hired Lawrence Frank or Mike Brown, oh my.

[Chisoxfn]

Skiles does have a track record of making bad teams decent, but eventually you will fire him with at least a couple of million on his contract.

He is a poor man version of Thibs and a very good guy to help change the culture of the organization. He will also be reunited with Ben Gordon, haha.

[Dick Allen]

Van Gundy chimes in. He does make some good points:

 

http://nypost.com/2015/05/28/jeff-van-gund...vicious-manner/

[bmags]

If I had a young team with discipline issues (play) I would probably take skiles for 2 years.

 

Now, how, VDN/Mike Brown/etc keep getting jobs? No idea.

[Quin]

end of the day, both sides were in the wrong, but the outcome was right.

 

This 1000 times. Thibs wouldn't budge even when players and management were asking him change / learn. Some players told Wilbon that Snell deserved to not be jerked around and that if they were expected to learn and improve, why wasn't Thibs?

 

I want to thank Thibs for making basketball in Chicago fun for the last 5 years and wish him the best in the future. Whoever gets him is going to get a really good coach and I hope he's learned a bit from his experience here. At the same time, I hope Hoiberg is the guy that can take the Bulls to the next level and that Doug Collins will be seated next to him.

 

Reading Woj's article and who Forman wanted to hire instead of Thibs has me worried. I'd have been fine if they went with Pax's guy (Doug Collins) but if they hired Lawrence Frank or Mike Brown, oh my.

 

I do love Thibs for what he's done. I want him to take a year off to go do an Eat, Pray, Love thing. Something, anything that clears his mind of basketball for a time. It's not healthy for him, let alone his players, how intense/obsessive he is. Thibs is a good dude, but he needs to learn to stop and breathe so he can understand why others need it.

 

Van Gundy chimes in. He does make some good points:

 

http://nypost.com/2015/05/28/jeff-van-gund...vicious-manner/

 

“He can walk away really proud of what he accomplished and how he conducted himself,’’ Van Gundy said. “He never got down in the muck. He never went off the record trying to hurt them like they tried to hurt him.’’

 

"Except for when he went off the record with me and I blasted them on national television which sealed his fate because it lost him Reinsdorf."

 

“This is not Hollywood, this is the NBA,’’ Van Gundy railed. “Bad people have been doing bad things to good people for a long time. Unfortunately, in this situation it impacted a great person and a great coach.’’

 

Thibs wasn't willing to hire an offensive assistant, something he desperately needed. You'd think a guy who was the best defensive assistant ever would realize the need for good assistants to help mask your weaknesses. Mark Jackson refused to allow some assistants in, clashed with the FO and was canned.

 

“I look back at the pattern,’’ Van Gundy said on Stephen A. Smith’s SiriusXM show. “It’s his first head-coaching job. He has no pattern of friction with anybody. The pattern of friction comes from the Bulls side. There’s a long history [in Chicago] of contentious management/coaching relationships and this turned out no different.

 

 

Isola said he had a good relationship with Barry Watkins, the team's former head of public relations, but it has been a different story with Jonathan Supranowitz, who assumed the post in 2006. "I haven't spoken to the guy in four years," Isola said. "First of all, because he's evil. And he's a bad guy. Supranowitz. He's the worst."

 

He blames Supranowitz for the ouster of former Knicks assistant coach Tom Thibodeau, who is now the head coach of the Chicago Bulls.

 

"I've known Tom Thibodeau for 15, 16 years," Isola said. "He has never once given me a story. We were just very friendly. Whenever I used to get a story, he used to accuse Tom Thibodeau. Here's a guy who might be coach of the year, but they wanted to run him out of the organization not because he didn't do his job well—he was great at his job. They thought he was leaking stuff to me. This is how dangerous some of the people are in this organization. Tom is the most loyal employee you'll find, and these knuckleheads ran him out because they thought he was telling me stuff. I mean, give me a break."

 

(Supranowitz did not reply to an emailed request for comment.)

 

http://deadspin.com/how-frank-isola-became...on-sq-478620919

 

Considering Isola knows that the coaching staff wanted Draymond Green...Thibs talks to him.

 

“When you coach five years in one place, you have really done a great job of getting a lot of time in. Very few get to five years. It’s not the firing, it’s all the stuff that leads up to a change in direction they want. It’s unbecoming to try to uplift yourself by diminishing someone else.

 

He did a great job. He didn't win a ring or ever come close. He didn't adapt. It wasn't working. Also, Van Gundy has been trying to uplift Thibs since January by diminishing the entire organization which is why Thibs got fired.

 

Van Gundy is s***. I feel bad for Thibs, but he's not a saint because no one can reasonably be expected to be a saint. The problem is he let stuff get to the loudmouth blowhard that is Jeff Van Gundy.

[Buehrle>Wood]

end of the day, both sides were in the wrong, but the outcome was right.

Not at all. Garpax still have their jobs.

[Soxfest]

Not at all. Garpax still have their jobs.

Reminds me of another JR owned team.

[Balta1701]

Not at all. Garpax still have their jobs.

Without knowing exactly how the player decisions went down the last few years, they should probably count as "on notice". They won't because that's how Reinsdorf franchises run, but they should be.

[Dick Allen]

I doubt there are many coaches or managers that appreciate meddling from the GM and president of the team. If Hoiberg is going to be a yes man, I hope the Bulls higher ups have GarPax on notice that if the results are the same, it isn't the coach.

[Jenksismyhero]

I doubt there are many coaches or managers that appreciate meddling from the GM and president of the team. If Hoiberg is going to be a yes man, I hope the Bulls higher ups have GarPax on notice that if the results are the same, it isn't the coach.

 

Yeah, it's relying on a glass figurine as your superstar.

[Heads22]

@cyclonefanatic: SOURCE: Fred Hoiberg to the Chicago #Bulls is not a “done deal.” Details here. #Cyclones http://t.co/CEvA4jUJft

[Dick Allen]

@cyclonefanatic: SOURCE: Fred Hoiberg to the Chicago #Bulls is not a “done deal.” Details here. #Cyclones http://t.co/CEvA4jUJft

I still think if he has his pick of NBA jobs, picking the Bulls job is kind of crazy. One report I did read was that if the Mayor said no, Gentry would be the second choice, if he went somewhere else, Adrian Griffin would be the new head coach.

[Quin]

I doubt there are many coaches or managers that appreciate meddling from the GM and president of the team. If Hoiberg is going to be a yes man, I hope the Bulls higher ups have GarPax on notice that if the results are the same, it isn't the coach.

 

Don't the GM and president meddle by nature...? They build the roster.

 

We've seen the opposite. When coaches get to meddle in GM affairs like Ozzie getting Kotsay over Thome.

 

Supposedly Thibs was the biggest supporter of drafting McDermott as well.

[Chisoxfn]

Don't the GM and president meddle by nature...? They build the roster.

 

We've seen the opposite. When coaches get to meddle in GM affairs like Ozzie getting Kotsay over Thome.

 

Supposedly Thibs was the biggest supporter of drafting McDermott as well.

I think the key from Reinsdor's message was in his eye, the coach and GM each have say in their world but they have to be able to work together as well. Any good organization has strong cross functional relationships built and the Bulls were lacking that. I presume Hoiberg has enough clout that he isn't taking a job to be a "yes" man, rather he is taking a job with a great roster with the chance to take this team to the next level and has a comfort that he can work well with the front office and communicate, etc.

[Dick Allen]

Don't the GM and president meddle by nature...? They build the roster.

 

We've seen the opposite. When coaches get to meddle in GM affairs like Ozzie getting Kotsay over Thome.

 

Supposedly Thibs was the biggest supporter of drafting McDermott as well.

 

 

Coaches should coach. GMs should GM. That's how I see it. The Bulls PR department is doing a good job making Thibs the bad guy here, but if he was so horrible and played guys too much, why did he last 5 seasons? Why did he get a very lucrative contract extension which still has 2 years to go? You yourself are using a quote from a writer that stated he never got any info from Thibs as proof Thibs gave him info. Isn't it at least slightly possible the Van Gundy comments weren't coming from Thibs? He was speaking from common knowledge. We all knew the stories. The fact is GarPax hasn't yet shown they are any better at their jobs than the guys they fired. I hope someone with the Bulls realizes that.

[BigHurt3515]

Some mocks say Cameron Payne could drop to the Bulls. I like him but the fact he played no good teams in college is a red flag.

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Balta1701]

Coaches should coach. GMs should GM. That's how I see it. The Bulls PR department is doing a good job making Thibs the bad guy here, but if he was so horrible and played guys too much, why did he last 5 seasons? Why did he get a very lucrative contract extension which still has 2 years to go? You yourself are using a quote from a writer that stated he never got any info from Thibs as proof Thibs gave him info. Isn't it at least slightly possible the Van Gundy comments weren't coming from Thibs? He was speaking from common knowledge. We all knew the stories. The fact is GarPax hasn't yet shown they are any better at their jobs than the guys they fired. I hope someone with the Bulls realizes that.

Some of that is just having a deeper roster this year that wasn't as injury-depleted and refusing to use it.

 

I can't be mad when Hinrich and Nate Robinson have to split time at PG because Rose is out. I can be more annoyed with Hinrich getting 20 minutes when there are other PG and Snell on the bench who have been moved out of the rotation. I can be annoyed when Mirotic starts off the playoffs completely out of the rotation for some reason we still can't explain.

[2nd_city_saint787]

I've always, ALWAYS, heard it's important for the GM and coach to have a good relationship.

[Dick Allen]

Some of that is just having a deeper roster this year that wasn't as injury-depleted and refusing to use it.

 

I can't be mad when Hinrich and Nate Robinson have to split time at PG because Rose is out. I can be more annoyed with Hinrich getting 20 minutes when there are other PG and Snell on the bench who have been moved out of the rotation. I can be annoyed when Mirotic starts off the playoffs completely out of the rotation for some reason we still can't explain.

A GM shouldn't fire a coach for using the players he provided. Maybe it was a blessing but the Bulls struck out on Carmelo. They struck out on LeBron. They have basically struck out on every max contract free agent they went after. They got Pau. They also got Boozer.

 

Also Mirotic was not 100% physically. He was really banged up.

[Chisoxfn]

Coaches should coach. GMs should GM. That's how I see it. The Bulls PR department is doing a good job making Thibs the bad guy here, but if he was so horrible and played guys too much, why did he last 5 seasons? Why did he get a very lucrative contract extension which still has 2 years to go? You yourself are using a quote from a writer that stated he never got any info from Thibs as proof Thibs gave him info. Isn't it at least slightly possible the Van Gundy comments weren't coming from Thibs? He was speaking from common knowledge. We all knew the stories. The fact is GarPax hasn't yet shown they are any better at their jobs than the guys they fired. I hope someone with the Bulls realizes that.

I think the problem is the Bulls had one of the best front offices in the league at collecting talent and one of the best coaching staffs in the league as well. Blowing both of those up would be the bigger mistake as it would leave you starting 100% from scratch. Clearly this got bad enough that JR, who was one of Tom's staunches advocates, even got off the bandwagon and decided it was time. It seems like the reality was JR would have allowed the issues to continue to go together if things were kept internally better and probably more importantly if the players didn't start to grow weary of Tom.

[Dick Allen]

I've always, ALWAYS, heard it's important for the GM and coach to have a good relationship.

 

Probably true, but how many times when that relationship goes sour, is it the coach that gets the boot? The Bulls won plenty when Phil and Krause didn't have a relationship. The roster will trump that. There was an article out today that said GarPax didn't like the idea of Thibs getting all the credit he was getting, and that is what ruined the relationship. If that's the case, and we will probably never know, perhaps the wrong party was asked to clean out their desks.