This Is Very Reasonable
Rick Morrissey on intangibles:
Risin' up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night
And he's watchin' us all in the eye of the tiger
Morrissey goes on to praise Skiles for trying to slug Shaq, and yes, your Spree Co. Hypocrisy-O-Meter did just explode. There's lots more dumb in the column, but the support for Skiles because the team hasn't tuned him out is wackier than picking a fight with the Diesel.
Look, I have no idea what it means for a team to tune out its coach. I'm pretty sure no one else has a clue either. An awful record, the entire team playing like garbage, and Skiles playing A-Drain like it makes a difference is enough for me. It's not enough for other fans, John Paxson, or Sam Smith, but waiting for something (we don't know what!) to happen before reevaluating Skiles seems to be a rather lame cop-out.
A talented team is struggling badly not only because the shooting has been so horrible but because it doesn't have any player strong-minded enough to do something about this mess. It's called force of will. Hard to define it but you know it when you see it. It's a sneer if the face of hardship.It's the eye of the tiger, it's the cream of the fight
Risin' up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night
And he's watchin' us all in the eye of the tiger
Morrissey goes on to praise Skiles for trying to slug Shaq, and yes, your Spree Co. Hypocrisy-O-Meter did just explode. There's lots more dumb in the column, but the support for Skiles because the team hasn't tuned him out is wackier than picking a fight with the Diesel.
Look, I have no idea what it means for a team to tune out its coach. I'm pretty sure no one else has a clue either. An awful record, the entire team playing like garbage, and Skiles playing A-Drain like it makes a difference is enough for me. It's not enough for other fans, John Paxson, or Sam Smith, but waiting for something (we don't know what!) to happen before reevaluating Skiles seems to be a rather lame cop-out.
posted by Hot Shit College Student at 10:12 AM
6 Comments:
'04-'05, finish 45-37, start 0-9
'05-'06, finish 41-41, start 7-5
'06-'07, finish 49-33, start 3-9
Unless you have a specific coach we should hire to replace Skiles, you’re bitching is as bad as any columnist who wants to trade for Kobe, but won’t name the package of players we should offer to get him.
You want Phil back? Think we can lure Pop away from San Antonio? Coach K? Ain’t gonna happen. What good coach is sitting out there, just waiting for the Bulls to offer him a job? Laimbeer? Some up and coming NBA assistant with no head coaching experience?
Why not fire Skiles at 3-9 last year? Maybe cause he fucking led the Bulls to a 49-33 record and won a playoff series for the first time in forever.
There’s simply no way you can justify firing Skiles before the season is over.
I would just add that the A-Drain complaints seem pretty meaningless at the moment, as he's been banished to the bench, and most of his minutes came when Luol was out injured, anyhow.
I can understand being unhappy with Skiles, but I agree with the Coach--unless you've got a plan of some kind, firing him for the sake of firing him doesn't seem like it would be particularly helpful right now.
That said, if this horrific streak keeps up, you might have no choice.
Phil Jackson and Coach K? No thanks. Rick Carlisle and the cute Van Gundy are without teams at the moment, and an assistant currently with the team would be a fine replacement for now, or for the rest of the season.
Why not fire Skiles at 3-9 last year? Maybe cause he fucking led the Bulls to a 49-33 record and won a playoff series for the first time in forever.
And it looks like the Bulls are going to do the same or worse this season, without a handful of new players to blame for a slow start.
Matt stole my opinion before I could come up with it:
get in an assistant to at least play different rotations and give the team a new voice, and then between now and February there's plenty of info to glean and then deals to potentially make. This franchise is still in a good position with a lot of young talent. Lets not waste it by letting Skiles 'figure things out'.
No, Skiles' replacement won't make the Bulls shoot better, but Skiles won't either. So really what's the difference? Skiles is a good coach: I don't even mind his media mindgames with his players, and actually find his comments refreshing, honest, and funny. But while I don't care about his words, I do care about his actions, namely playing time. In that regard he hasn't seemed to have progressed with his talent, and while I still think he's quality, he's replaceable.
Replaceable like any coach. It happens when teams are this far below expectations. Do that first, and players come next. The players are more to blame, and it's not quite fair, sure, but it's not as if there's a zero-sum blame equation, and so just because the players are bad doesn't mean that Skiles isn't also bad. And it's easier to let him go first.
So wait...you want a team with major offensive problems to hire Jeff Van Gundy??!!! If there's a more Skilesque coach out there--sarcastic, hard-nosed, defensive-minded--then I don't know who it is.
I'd rather see someone like Alvin Gentry, who may have picked up a few things from D'Antoni out in Phoenix.
Van Gundy isn't going to make the offense any better, and I don't see a problem with a commitment to defense for a team that's been tops in DE. Carlisle and Van Gundy wouldn't have a scoring big to work with, so I don't see the offense slowing down with the arrival of any coach.
Bringing in the opposite of Skiles shouldn't be a priority. Bringing in a good coach should be.
If a NBA coach contributed to -our- blog, we'd probably be working harder to keep him.
TYI=ice cold.
Of course, the 'Zards seem to have crawled out of their hole...two more weeks of 0-5 quality play, and we'd be in line for a coaching change, too.
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