Rick Carlisle, Larry Brown and Paul Westphal will have to wait until the offseason to fight for the vacant job in Chicago, as it seems Bulls GM John Paxson is willing to give Jim Boylan an audition in an interim role for the rest of the season. Boylan was Scott Skiles' lead assistant both in Chicago and several years ago in Phoenix, so Paxson must be confident that the team needs a new voice more so than a new philosophy. How will Boylan make his mark? By apparently keeping the same whipping boy that Skiles always used. From the Chicago Sun-Times:
Among Boylan's first moves as coach will be a lineup change: Chris Duhon will replace Ben Gordon as a starting guard alongside Kirk Hinrich.Why is Gordon always the first player sent to the bench when Hinrich is the one who's been struggling the most? If Duhon is starting, he may as well take over the point since distributing and protecting the ball is really the one thing he does well. Gordon has certainly regressed this year, but not to the extent that Hinrich has. The real measuring stick Boylan will be held up against will be the development of young players like Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah, but it'd be refreshing to see the "new" regime give the veterans a clean slate and erase preconceived notions about their roles, as well.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-27-2007 @ 10:30PM
joel said...
The Bulls have no center, no power forward, a 6'1" shooting guard who can't shoot, an erratic point guard, a coach no one ever heard of and Luol Deng - overated. This team has so many missimg parts, MJ in his prime couldn't win with this bunch.
Gordon and Deng already must realize turning down 5 year $50MM was a huge mistake and that's the foundation for much of their problems this year.
Reply
12-28-2007 @ 11:11AM
RTM4199 said...
Ben Gordon is really not the problem other than that the Bulls need more size at the guard spot period. He just needs to get open off screens and shoot. His defense was improving before the team imploded because of a lack of leadership from the scoring end and Scott Skiles destructive/negative personal cutdowns in the media. I agree the Joakim Noah pick was a waste because he can't score in the post(which they deperately needed), and he can't dunk on offensive rebound putbacks or drives to the basket on opponents defensive breakdowns; instead, he constantly gets his dunk attempts blocked as do Deng, Aaron Gray, and even the 'High Flying' Tyrus Thomas. All his dunks come on the break or on a running start, not standing under the basket or driving with a contesting opponent running right with him. At the end of the day, a team without explosiveness to dunk or players who can post up or slash to the basket is a team of impotence and will never dominate but be dominated. That fault lies with G.M. John Paxson more than much with the critical/sometimes emotionally unstable Skiles(who is a hell of a good defensive coach by the way).
Reply
12-28-2007 @ 2:36PM
Blue Star LSD said...
Pax is the one GM on Earth who Zeke bettered in a deal. I bet McHale calls him 4 times an hour.
Reply
12-29-2007 @ 4:09PM
Scott said...
One of the themes that keeps coming up is this years lack of defense for the Bulls. Wonder why Gordon is going to the bench? He can not play defense. He gives up as many as he gets. Hinrich on the other hand can play defense well, and has a much better all around game ( he has a triple double this year,something you will never see from Gordon), and thus should be the 2 guard. For Ben to be a starter, he needs to be averaging in the in mid 20's on a much better shooting percentage.
Duhon and Hinrich will be a much steadier backcourt, and that should help the forwards score more. A bigger problem may be Loul Deng, who cant seem to finish a drive and is afraid of the big shot. Perhaps this is where Tyrus Thomas should be? As for Noah, what a waste of a pick- his game isnt even worthy of a draft pick let alone a top 10 in the first round. This may be the pick that brings down Paxson, as it really set the club back from where they could be.
Reply