Report says D'Antoni hire is imminent, but wait

That Hilarious, because they are reporting that Scott Skiles may be the new Hire out here in Phoenix!!!

This is very 'Celestine Prophesy'

I can't see how a deal would be imminent without Paxson interviewing Avery Johnson yet. The last news I've read on Avery Johnson is that he is headed to New York to speak to Donnie Walsh. Chances are that this story drags on for another week and more. I still won't believe D'Antoni or Avery hired as Bulls coach until I see it because you know doggone well that salary will be an issue here. That obstacle was already mentioned as a sticking point in the ESPN article.

In either event, it doesn't make sense for Pax to suddenly cave in to D'Antoni's all-offensive philosophies because it totally contradicts plenty of what Paxson said he is looking for in a coach (not that this would be the first time Pax contradicted himself). But just by perception alone, Pax would be making himself look desperate if the rumors about an imminent hiring is true. I guess it would be hard to deny the kind of excitement that a D'Antoni-coached Bulls team would bring to the city. For casual Bulls fans (which far weigh more than die hard Bulls fans because this is more a football town), this would be a good hire, but I want more than just a 1st and 2nd round playoffs for my Bulls team. For now, I'll take it because I want this player roster changed up significantly already, but 2 or 3 years from now, we'll all want more again, I'm sure of it.

Just like he does with his trades I bet Paxson Whiff's on signing D'Antoni. Even if the bumbling Paxson managed to decide D'Antoni was his guy Reinsdoof wouldn't cough up the dough to bring him in. I would be shocked if they brought in D'Antoni I think he is the best coach availible and is exceptional at bringing the most out of his players. Although Paxson doesn't have the stones to bring in the stars he would desire.

Draft Russ Westbrook.

Unless Pax was blown away with the interview with D'Antoni, I think he will talk to Avery. I am not worried about defense/offense. Each guy can commit to bringing in a specialist to fix the skills needed for a well rounded team. Paxson will make sure we have a balanced team. I would rather have D'Antoni because I like his style. It will be interesting with personnel and what they think of NBA players that are available.

As Chris Paul is showing us - a point guard and a star - makes a GREAT difference. Paul is making Pargo and Chandler and David West look like ballers. This is the most crucial position on the team. It HAS to be addressed before we go anywhere. Skip Kirk Hinrich. SKIP HIM. We need more than scrappy play. Even Bibby has Atlanta in good shape. Bulls need Derrick Rose. That covers two needs. A star and a point guard. I would trade Kirk and the picks for a shot at Rose. And I would keep Duhon. He is going to be our Pargo when we get a bonefide star in here. The east is all grown up now. Everyone but the Knicks have vastly improved. Time for Pax to gamble like Phoenix did. I think Phoenix is going to go to the finals next year and win.

I've said it before so I'll say it again. Noah is the only decent defensive player on this team. The rest are either just avg or below avg. A slow methodical defensive minded approach won't work with these players.

Play to their strengths.

Agree with Keith 100% (except about Phoenix to the Finals next year), especially if D'Antoni is the man for the Bulls. Juan is also correct in having the Bulls play to their strengths, especially if no changes will be made to the roster. The point guard IS the key to a high octane offense like D'Antoni's. Sorry Ricky, I don't think Russ Westbrook is the answer. Rose absolutely ate him up in their matchup during the NCAA tournament. He might develop into a nice NBA player because he has good size for a combo guard, but he's not a star. I always said over this decade of Bulls first round draft picks that they totally got screwed by Jay Williams crashing on his motorcycle. Talk about a waste of a #2 overall draft pick. He was the real key to the Paxson era. He had star point guard written all over him, but now we'll never know and he became another casualty in the long list of Duke player busts in the NBA. Same goes with Eddy Curry at #4 overall. The Bulls absolutely cannot misfire in these drafts again because this is really the only source that they build the team on.

But this is all talk for another topic thread. We're just talking coaches here. Come on Pax, get this over with already....

Culzie are they still using the pony express in AZ? Skiles has already been hired by the Bucks!
Keith get real, Shaq's window of opportunity is now the size of a speakeasy peep-hole!
Rather than trying to analyze the reported candidates aat this point I am content to allow the process to play itself out and and then see just how serious the Bulls management is about getting back to being a legitimate contender.
Meanwhile back in the play-offs I would like to see the Hornets take it all just so Pax can be reminded not to give up on young raw talent (Thomas) like he did with Chandler.

BC, what are you talking about? And why didn't anyone else take the time to correct you? Scott Skiles was hired to be the Bucks head coach several weeks ago. Maybe you were on your honeymoon at the time, but you should be caught up by now! And he hired Jim Boylan as an assistant. Oh, and it's "prophecy."

Pax knows defense wins championships,
D'Antoni does not know denfense.
Bulls should take a pass on him

This is a very interesting story. I have to say I like the idea of having an up tempo offense. If you look at the Bulls roster they are a team built to run. Hinrich, Gordon, Larry Hughes, Sefelosha, Deng, Gooden, and Noah can run up and down the court. It would really bring some excitement to the games instead of watching more 85-80 games. The one thing I don't like about D'Antoni is he rarely plays anyone off the bunch. Two guys get the majority of the bench minutes and maybe a third will be 10 minutes. The starters really log some heavy minutes. I think over the long NBA season that can really burn out the starters. Avery Johnson has some good points, but he really has been out coached in the playoff's. Reilly and Nelson outcoached badly and he never made the necessary adjustments when he clearly had the better team in both of those series. This past year the Jason Kidd trade did that team in and they were outclassed by New Orleans. I like Rick Carlisle, but if he is a lot like Skiles is that going to work with a bunch or players that quit on him? Paxton has made some big roster mistakes in the past like signing Ben Wallace and letting go Tyson Chandler, and not keeping LeMarcus Aldridge. He can't afford to miss on this one.

It always comes down to money when you're talking about teams in Chicago. I thought we were in a "major" market? Pony up the dough and bring some offensive excitement to Chicago. See if he will coach the Bears offense while you're at it!

Paxson will blow this deals like he blows all deals put on his table. The Bulls NEED a new GM and coach.

What is the Date? What year is this??

The Bulls need to get D'Antoni. They need a new offensive style. They have enough players that already are good defenders (Hinrich, Noah, Sefolosha) or have the potetnial to be great defenders (Thomas) that they should be better defensively than the Suns have been -- even with a switch to a more uptempo style.

I personally think Hinrich could be quite good in this style as the PG. One of his best games this season came rgiht after the Wallace trade, when they dropped 135 points on the Nuggets, with Hinrich (16 pts., 14 asst) doing a great job orchestrating the runnign game. He's not going to be Steve Nash, but then, neither is neither anyone else other than Nash himself.

i agree dantoni would be a good coach for the bulls, but avery also would be a good coach. win win situation. i also agree that the bulls would be a good candidate for dantoni's "special offense" plus they have a better defense than the suns had, all they would have to do is hire a defensive specialist to help out dantoni and we have ourselves a contender.

People who think Hinrich can't be a Steve Nash type of player in D'Antoni's system don't know what they're talking about. Not only has Nash said publicly that Hinrich reminds him a lot of himself as a young player, but their career #'s over their first 4-5 years are very similar as well. Remember, when Nash went to Phoenix to play under D'Antoni's system is when he really blew up. I see Hinrich as a younger, bigger and stronger version of Nash who actually can play some defense. No wonder D'Antoni wants to come to Chicago... he knows something that you Hinrich bashers don't!
Hinrich has been set up to fail by Pax and Skiles from day one. He's had to guard the opposing team's best player every night AND try and run the team at the same time. That's a pretty tough task for a young kid. With D'Antoni, that won't be a problem because he will put Kirk in positions to flourish at the point and have Thabo and Larry Hughes guard the 2 guards like he does with Raja Bell. Gordon would be used like Barbosa is in Phoenix, an offensive spark off the bench. I think D'Antoni's philosophy will work the most wonders with this team, especially Kirk, Gordon, Thabo and Tyrus. The latter two would thrive in D'Antoni's system with their length and athleticism. Don't forget Duhon, who had the best game of his career playing against a run and gun Warriors team this year. If you watched the 3 Bulls games against Golden State, Denver and Milaukee you saw that this teams' only chance, as it stands now, is to run & gun. With that being said, I think Pax will try and get Avery Johnson first, because he won't have to give Dallas anything to hire him and I think Avery's philosophy fits Pax's overall philosophy better than D'Antoni's. If Avery declines Pax's offer and says he wants a year off, then it's gotta be D'Antoni. I think either coach will be good for the Bulls, but in my opinion, D'Antoni will get more from the players than Avery will. Because the players will be having fun again, which last time I checked, is the object of playing a game in the first place.
Also, the Bulls should draft Nicolas Batum from France with their first pick. He's the closest thing to Scottie Pippen I've seen in a long time.

There is an easy way to fix any defensive liability on D'Antoni's part. Before hire him gauge how he feels about a defensive assistant running the defense. Then he and Pax together interview and hire a defensive guru. This way he feels part of the process and not like he was forced to have an assistant he didn't want. He is absolutely the best option for getting this team to play good, exciting basketball. For all of you people hating Hinrich right now. If D'Antoni is hired you will all be thanking god Hinrich is still the point guard. I predict he can and will thrive under D'Antoni if given a chance.

Is he bring Shaq-Diesel with? Because lil' penny has informed me that his gran ma'ma told him that D'Antoni is as over as the 90's.

I'd even take Isaiah over Boylan right now. D'antoni will teach them how to play O, like Skiles taught them how to play D. The problem is, when will we actually get a star player or 3?

Oh, and Culz, can't believe you blew that one, man. That was as bad as one of Orton's passes.

FF draft? Cool!

Call me Neckbeard Jr.

First of all, I haven't read that many posts that have bashed Hinrich as a player (and certainly not as much as Rex Grossman and Cedric Benson as players for the Bears), so the notion that many Bulls fans hate Hinrich is false. As a matter of fact, Ben Gordon receives more criticism than Hinrich, so really, please stop calling people Hinrich haters. He has plenty of fans who respect his game.

Bottom line though, Hinrich is not a star caliber point guard and he's not the next coming of Steve Nash. He's been in the league long enough already to properly assess how good of an NBA player he is. Will he thrive under D'Antoni? Yes, probably because of the system, but Hinrich is NOT going to all of a sudden become a 2-time MVP of the NBA. Let's not get delusional here.

Now as for the suggestions that the Bulls can just simply hire a defensive specialist-type of asst. coach to help out D'Antoni, you have to remember that D'Antoni has a PROVEN track record of emphasizing offense and ignoring defense. Look at what he is doing now with Phoenix, he is still under contract, BUT he would rather change head coaching jobs instead of changing his philosophy. He's not going to bring in "defensive specialists", he will bring in offensive gurus for second opinions. He is famous for hanging up a slogan in his coach's office that reads, "At the end of the game, the best defensive team is the one with the most points."

Like I said before, he would bring excitement back to basketball in the City of Chicago and the state of Illinois, which would be great obviously, but he won't bring Championship/s. Hey, I'm all for run 'n gun style of fast break dunks and 3 point shots, but in the end, I'd like for us to win it all, not heartache disappointments in game 7 playoff series every year. That's fuel for more blog post discussions.

Don't let hitman start singing his new song without culzandchuck. Hope they get someone in here to develop this talent, wish it was Johnson, but I'd rather se Mike D. than the others.

Good post Edgar, I normally don't comment about Hinrich, because I am oblivious to his game(if that's what you call it.) The 20 foot crossover, and free throws are about it.

I expect more from Ben, so I comment more. Keith yells at me sometimes but I can take it. His non-desire to play D baffles me, he could be an all-star if he just stuck his nose in there on D, and drove to the bucket more to finish instead of expecting to get a call.

Hey, we have a 6'1' Dirk Nowitzki on our team. Hope this gets better soon.

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Great.
Let me know when this sorry team gives me any reason to care again.

Well...there is always the Draft!!!

Quote "Well...there is always the Draft!!!

Why? Does Joakim Noah have a brother that Paxson loves?

Where did you get this report from?

Same guy who said Kobe would be traded by Christmas I bet...(oh wait..no i dont bet).

Way to go, Paxson and Reinsdorf. They blew it again and are now the laughingstock of not only the NBA, but now basically no one in Chicago cares about their coaching search (based on the latest Sun-Times voting poll posted) anymore. It's unbelievable that they couldn't even make an offer or a counteroffer, whatever the real story is, for D'Antoni. While I never thought D'Antoni would bring us Championships, the point I've always made was to get this coach hiring process over with quickly so that Pax and the new coach work on the bigger issues on the team regarding the player roster and establishing a new identity. Instead they’re losing candidates left and right and will soon be left to roll the dice with an uproven and rookie head coach. Even in the face of an obvious crisis within the entire team, what a cheap franchise they continue to prove to be. And why only Jay Marriotti (and I'm not a big fan of his) is the only writer who ever seems to acknowledge this and call out the Bulls in the newspapers is beyond me. Never a peep about this from the Chicago beat writers, always excuses and believing whatever story the Bulls management team tells them. A stronger message needs to be heard or read from the writers in this town. Reinsdorf and his puppets are too arrogant to listen to whiny fans, even the die hard paying customers.