Bulls Deny Knicks’ Request to Interview Billy Donovan

[The Box Office]

AKME is officially worse than John Paxson. They're asleep at the wheel quietly collecting big checks.

[kodo]

I'm not sure which organization is worse, the org that wants to win a championship and hires Billy over Thibs, or the org that turn them down.

[Andi Obst]

I'm not sure which organization is worse, the org that wants to win a championship and hires Billy over Thibs, or the org that turn them down.

Allowing the Knicks to interview Billy only makes sense if you plan to fire him anyway. You don't do that when you're confindent he's the right coach for you.

This only makes the Knicks look bad, IMO.

[Red Larrivee]

I'm not sure which organization is worse, the org that wants to win a championship and hires Billy over Thibs, or the org that turn them down.

I would imagine that there are a lot of teams who would do this.

[DuckIII]

So we may have been able to get some small compensation for Billy and then could have turned around and hired Thibs May have even had the Knicks pay part of his salary! That would have been a come up and the type of shrewd move that is needed from this FO.

Jerry Reinsdorf, who usually hangs onto employees too long, released a public statement when Thibs was fired that was essentially a not-veiled-at-all accusation that Thibs was a toxic, terrible human being to have inside the walls.

There is no way in hell he ever coaches in Chicago again.

[ShadyMoney]

I would trade Billy for a draft pick?

Knicks don’t have any draft picks.

They have a WIZ first round pick

[ShadyMoney]

So we may have been able to get some small compensation for Billy and then could have turned around and hired Thibs May have even had the Knicks pay part of his salary! That would have been a come up and the type of shrewd move that is needed from this FO.

Jerry Reinsdorf, who is usually hangs onto employees too long, released a public statement when Thibs was fired that was essentially a not-veiled-at-all accusation that Thibs was a toxic, terrible human being to have inside the walls.

There is no way in hell he ever coaches in Chicago again.

You think Micheal has big balls or small balls to defi his father?

[DuckIII]

So we may have been able to get some small compensation for Billy and then could have turned around and hired Thibs May have even had the Knicks pay part of his salary! That would have been a come up and the type of shrewd move that is needed from this FO.

Jerry Reinsdorf, who is usually hangs onto employees too long, released a public statement when Thibs was fired that was essentially a not-veiled-at-all accusation that Thibs was a toxic, terrible human being to have inside the walls.

There is no way in hell he ever coaches in Chicago again.

You think Micheal has big balls or small balls to defi his father?

I think it’s most likely that he agrees with his father.

[sco]

I'm not sure which organization is worse, the org that wants to win a championship and hires Billy over Thibs, or the org that turn them down.

Allowing the Knicks to interview Billy only makes sense if you plan to fire him anyway. You don't do that when you're confindent he's the right coach for you.

This only makes the Knicks look bad, IMO.

IMO, Billy is valued by AK because he's good enough to not have additional criticism heaped upon AK for having a bad coach. Also, Billy seems very adept at keeping players, both vets and rooks, from mutinying, even through years of mediocrity. Finally, IMO, Billy seems able to handle the years of mediocrity himself without clashing with the FO. In other words, Billy doesn't suck, but he seems content when not winning.

[Indomitable]

I'm not sure which organization is worse, the org that wants to win a championship and hires Billy over Thibs, or the org that turn them down.

Allowing the Knicks to interview Billy only makes sense if you plan to fire him anyway. You don't do that when you're confindent he's the right coach for you.

This only makes the Knicks look bad, IMO.

They look chaotic.

[ChettheJet]

I would say that it should be flattering to both Billy and the Bulls that the Knicks would call, except it seems like they called about a lot of coaches currently employed by other teams. That's a sad commentary on the NYK organization that they fired Thbs without a genuine plan to replace him. To that point, if I'm an exec at any other team, I'm ready to make them trade offers to steal what I can before they get somebody competent in the FO.

For the Bulls. If you want to believe Billy is replaceable and think you know who would provide the actual improvement, you might as well be running the NYK because you have no clue.

[Ice Man]

Per Bill James's analysis of successful coaching changes, hiring Billy would make some sense. Bill found that with baseball managers, teams often did well by alternating tough-guy/tactical coaches (Thibs) with players' coaches (Billy). Each style of coaching has its stengths and weaknesses, so if a team is exposed to both approaches within a short time it can benefit.

[meekrab]

I'm not sure which organization is worse, the org that wants to win a championship and hires Billy over Thibs, or the org that turn them down.

Allowing the Knicks to interview Billy only makes sense if you plan to fire him anyway. You don't do that when you're confindent he's the right coach for you.

This only makes the Knicks look bad, IMO.

They look chaotic.

They fired Thibs like 3 days after they were eliminated with no idea who to replace him with, yeah. Surely they could've taken a week or two? Go on vacation, cool off after the sting of defeat and see what his plans to improve next playoffs are?

[drosestruts]

To me there's no upside in granting them permission.

Options following the interview would be:

1. Knicks want Billy and offer Bulls assets in a trade the Bulls agree to

2. Knicks wants Billy but Bulls reject compensation offer from Knicks leading to a weird situation where it's publicly known we were willing to move on from our coach

3. Knicks interview Billy, but decide he's not for them. Billy is now a lame duck coach


We have a good coach, I don't see a better available option. The easy decision is to simply keep our coach.

[jnrjr79]

To me there's no upside in granting them permission.

Options following the interview would be:

1. Knicks want Billy and offer Bulls assets in a trade the Bulls agree to

2. Knicks wants Billy but Bulls reject compensation offer from Knicks leading to a weird situation where it's publicly known we were willing to move on from our coach

3. Knicks interview Billy, but decide he's not for them. Billy is now a lame duck coach


We have a good coach, I don't see a better available option. The easy decision is to simply keep our coach.

There is certainly upside. What you would do is negotiate the compensation before you agree to let him interview, to at least remove that part of it. On ESPN yesterday, they were saying that these sort of "interview requests" are really not that - they don't happen unless the acquiring team would actually pull the trigger. Perhaps that's wrong, but I can see that being the trust from a practical perspective, because as you note, it'd be pretty awkward to let him interview and then have the Knicks say "we don't want to hire him, as it turns out."

[ChettheJet]

With Taylor Jenkins Mike Brown names coming up in NYK. The thing about the Knicks job Leon Rose is looking for a coach to take over the team he built but if there isn't a big successful run to the Finals, he also needs somebody he can blame and fire to make room for the next guy to take over the new team Rose assembles.

[DuckIII]

AKME is officially worse than John Paxson. They're asleep at the wheel quietly collecting big checks.

That was locked in 3 seasons ago.

[HomoSapien]

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[kyrv]

I'm not sure which organization is worse, the org that wants to win a championship and hires Billy over Thibs, or the org that turn them down.

Allowing the Knicks to interview Billy only makes sense if you plan to fire him anyway. You don't do that when you're confindent he's the right coach for you.

This only makes the Knicks look bad, IMO.

I agree, and the fact that Knicks keeps striking out with talking to coaches is icing on the cake. I don't think any of the teams that denied the Knicks look bad at all, just the opposite.

[Red8911]

Do teams actually ask for permission to just talk to coaches under contract ? You would think that if the Knicks formally asked for permission then most likely there’s already a mutual agreement in place between Donovan/Knicks but have to figure it out with the Bulls to make it happen since he’s still under contract.

Apparently Knicks might revisit Billy and Kidd. There’s still some hope but most likely Billy will be back, Bulls are in love with this guy so much for some reason even if he went 0-82 he would still keep his job. It’s always everyone else’s fault never his.