FanHouse VinnyDelNegro

SACRAMENTO -- Vinny Del Negro is 10 games into his second season as the coach of the Chicago Bulls. He was hired in June 2009, despite never having been a head coach on any level. FanHouse caught up with Del Negro before Chicago's 101-87 win over the Kings on Tuesday night and talked to him about the challenges of his unique situation.

CHICAGO -- To all the prejudices and biases that complicate our tangled world, today we add "oafism." Rajon Rondo, as you probably know, all but defaced Brad Miller in the final frenetic seconds of Game 5 in the Best NBA First-Round Series Ever Played. Rondo leaped, popped him in the mouth, drew blood when Miller's tooth cut his lip, forced him to get a stitch job and left him so woozy that his eyeballs were peeking out of his eardrums.

CHICAGO -- The calendar says late April. Paul Pierce's body language Sunday -- watery eyes, scratchy voice, tired bones, irritable scowl -- suggested June. Last we saw him this out of sorts, he was being carted to the locker room in an NBA Finals drama that became a rallying force. Should another wheelchair be summoned, if only for the man's shaken psyche?

"This was a tough one to swallow," Pierce said Sunday, visibly irked by the wild proceedings in the United Center. "I'm very disappointed that we lost and very disappointed in the way I played. Little things can kill you in the playoffs ... like me not covering the three when Ben Gordon was coming off the flare."

He won't find an annoyed soul in New England who disagrees today. How in the name of Celtic Pride and 17 championship banners could Gordon, bothered by a strained left hamstring that will require an MRI, shake off Pierce with 4.5 seconds left in the first overtime and nail a three-pointer that tied the game? How could the defending champions not listen to their coach, do the smart thing and foul someone -- anyone wearing red and white -- in that situation?

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CHICAGO -- And to think we were concerned about gummy bears. The gooey globs symbolized Derrick Rose's youth, not to mention his fetish for junk food and other health-unconscious slop devoured by teenagers. How long would he need to break away from just being a kid, particularly in a hometown that demanded him to be an instant cornerstone at an arena where a certain Michael Jordan is cast outside in bronze?

Oh, about one season. That's all the time Rose required to grow up, eat right, stare down the NBA with those fierce eyeballs and high cheekbones and become the face of Chicago's stirring sports renaissance.

Now that we've got some NBA playoff games under our belts, how about a few observations:

-- You've got to say, Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro has done a nice job in his first year. And it bears repeating: First year as a coach on any level.

If you watched the Bulls earlier this season, and caught Del Negro on the sidelines, you saw someone wound up on nearly every possession. There was a lot of throwing up of the hands and shaking of the head with him. It was easy to see his displeasure with the team at times.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

Vinny Del Negro needs to stop watching X-Files before games. How little does the Notorious V.D.N. trust his bench? He basically played a six-man rotation Tuesday against the Pistons, with seventh man Lindsey Hunter and burning man Tim Thomas each getting four minutes off the bench beyond Brad Miller's 23.

Derrick Rose missed his first game of the season with a bruised wrist. Kirk Hinrich filled in well, scoring 24 points (on 23 FGAs) and totaling eight assists. Tyrus Thomas was a beast for Chicago, with 18 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, a block and a steal.

The Bulls have a big week ahead, being featured players in just about every rumored scenario regarding a cadre of players (their own and otherwise). A few independent reports (via TSB) have made the whole run-up to the Thursday deadline more interesting for Chicago: both Peter (groan) Vescey of the New York Post and the Chicago Sun-Times report John Paxson will resign as Bulls GM after the deadline.

However, Mike McGraw of the Arlington Heights Daily Herald has a source denying the rumor. And Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf put out a statement basically calling Vescey a liar. So here we are.

If Vinny Del Negro hasn't completely lost the Bulls locker room yet, well, he's misplacing bits and pieces every day. The latest example? He was the target of a profanity-laced explosion by one of the team's elder statesmen in full view of the media following yesterday's practice.

Ben Gordon was recently late for a team flight and was angry about being fined. Instead of airing his grievances to Del Negro in private, he did so in front of the prying eyes of the local beat reporters, virtually guaranteeing it would become public news. Was it a deliberate attempt to embarrass the rookie head coach? No one is accusing Gordon of being that conniving, but it's certainly a symptom that everything isn't right in Chicago.

The Nets and Bulls are discussing a trade that would send Larry Hughes to New Jersey, according to two published reports. The Bulls would receive Bobby Simmons in return, with little-used Maurice Ager included to make the salaries match.

Hughes has been disappointed about his lack of playing time in Chicago, especially since Kirk Hinrich returned from injury. It's not clear how much more time he could expect to see in New Jersey behind Devin Harris and Vince Carter (especially with Keyon Dooling playing well off the bench), but sometimes a move simply for the sake of a change of scenery is a good thing.

I have some information which may be new to you.

The Bulls are dysfunctional.

Color me shocked, as the circumstances of a Friday spat between Andres Nocioni and Joakim Noah come to public attention. According to Mike McGraw of the Arlington Heights Daily Herald, Noah admonished Nocioni for missing a defensive assignment for the second time in two games. Nocioni didn't like the criticism. Ergo, battle!

More embarrassing is Vinny Del Negro's crusade against pre-game snacks in the locker room. Such a scourge, those ... um ... peanut butter sandwiches? Discipline can be counted as an important piece of build a winner out of a bunch of kids. But you don't have to be a librarian to get people in line. Even worse, Hoopsworld's Bill Ingram considers it evidence of further straw-grasping by Del Negro.

The team spun its U-turn away from the Skiles era so hard it has wound up back in the same position as before, with the players apparently hating the coach and each other. So much for the hope of the No. 1 pick.