New Head Coach Mega Thread

[sco]

Brett Brown - who's in?

Me! I think it's silly to blame Philly getting smoked by Boston without Simmons. Oh and while we're at it, go get me Simmons!

[bulls_troy]

Brett Brown - who's in?

Me! I think it's silly to blame Philly getting smoked by Boston without Simmons. Oh and while we're at it, go get me Simmons!

No thanks to both. And I'm Australian. Don't want neither our "star" player or our coach as part of my beloved Bulls

[Dez]

Brett Brown - who's in?

Me! I think it's silly to blame Philly getting smoked by Boston without Simmons. Oh and while we're at it, go get me Simmons!

No thanks to both. And I'm Australian. Don't want neither our "star" player or our coach as part of my beloved Bulls

Why wouldn't you want Simmons?

[holv03]

Brett Brown - who's in?

Me! I think it's silly to blame Philly getting smoked by Boston without Simmons. Oh and while we're at it, go get me Simmons!

No thanks to both. And I'm Australian. Don't want neither our "star" player or our coach as part of my beloved Bulls

Why wouldn't you want Simmons?

Why would we pay a big price for Simmons? Also I would say no to Brown as coach.

[Dez]

No thanks to both. And I'm Australian. Don't want neither our "star" player or our coach as part of my beloved Bulls

Why wouldn't you want Simmons?

Why would we pay a big price for Simmons? Also I would say no to Brown as coach.

He's at the very least an All-Star caliber player, if we could pair him with LaVine that would be a very good combination.

[nomorezorro]

i don't think brett brown is the biggest problem with the sixers, but even as someone who's defended him for a while and emphasized how awful the roster construction in philly has been, it's hard to look at their performance this year and go "yeah i want that guy coaching my team"

[Jcool0]

Bulls fans are weird. They want Kenny Atkinson but want nothing to do with Brett Brown.

[MikeDC]

No to Atkinson.

I delved into the numbers, and his track record is really marginal. People shouldn't be acting like getting 40 wins out of a middling team is anything special. And while their talent wasn't great, it wasn't terrible either. Dinwiddie, Ed Davis, DLo, Jarrett Allen, Harris, Levert, those are all solid to good players. Ceiling isn't high, but I would expect them to consistently beat the current Bulls. Usually, when a coach is hired to a second gig, it's because he showed quite a bit more success than Atkinson did. It's not a hard and fast thing, but the successful rehires tend to be guys that were .500 or above. Atkinson looks a lot more like, say, Luke Walton than those guys.

Every report I've read suggests he's more wedded to system than to playing to his player's strengths, and this is a huge red flag for me.

Likewise, I don't even like KD or Kyrie, but if you have a coach that can't even get off on the right foot with guys like that, it's also a red flag. One of the few things that AKME has really emphasized is that they want to make this a player friendly place. Hiring a guy who is most recognized for being forced out by the best players he had is working against that goal.

It's really as simple as that. Those are three strikes against him that guys like Ham, Udoka and Unseld don't have. People need to be dispassionate and look at the big picture. I wouldn't absolutely hate it if they hired him, but he doesn't seem like the best bet to me.

From my perspective the guys that we're known to be interested in are pretty solid. I want a guy with a range of experience (like... on both sides of the ball, plus development) and situations. And I want a guy that's hungry and flexible. My basic rankings are:

1. Udoka. Fits the criteria I just mentioned. The one concern I have for him is that I really don't like the system Brett Brown runs. I'd really want to look deeply into his thoughts about what's gone wrong there, and try to find out how much he's really behind it or disagrees with some of the decisions that have been made. Supposedly the Bulls have already had some "back channel" communications with him, so I think he's the favorite. Also, close with ME.
2. Unseld. I think he's the fallback guy if the favorite (Udoka) doesn't impress. Close with AK, more under the radar, but he seems to be a grinder who's but in a lot of work into everything he's ever been asked to do. And he's worked on everything and in several systems. Flexible and smart, and tight with AK via Tim Connolly. He might actually be the favorite.

I think Ham, Griffin, and Vanterpool are dark horses. Ham sounds like a smart guy, but I've seen various claims that he's not that motivated to take a head job. That gives me pause. It's took bad about Griffin, I couldn't in good conscience hire a guy with big legal/social issues if I was running a team. Vanterpool's attential to detail and development approach is really cool, but I just don't know that there's as much track record there in the other areas. I feel like I'd love to poach him as the lead assistant or primary PD coach, but I want more breadth of experience from the head coach. Because he doesn't have that, he's kind of a higher risk.

[MikeDC]

Bulls fans are weird. They want Kenny Atkinson but want nothing to do with Brett Brown.

I don't want either of them, and for pretty much the same reasons. Gotta tailor your game to the personnel, and not the other way around.

[MrSparkle]

Jimmy Butler had a pretty direct criticism about Brett Brown (Redick's podcast). As we've been saying, he's pretty much been right about every situation he ditched... so....

[nomorezorro]

this might be too simplistic, but i basically do note care about atkinson clashing with KD and kyrie because one of the tangible changes made after he was fired was putting deandre jordan into the starting lineup over jarrett allen.

superstars came in and wanted someone they could call Their Guy in charge. doesn't really say much about the coach.

i don't think atkinson is a clearly better candidate than anyone else, but no reason he shouldn't be in the mix

[moorhosj]

And while their talent wasn't great, it wasn't terrible either. Dinwiddie, Ed Davis, DLo, Jarrett Allen, Harris, Levert, those are all solid to good players.

To be fair, you are looking at those players after working with Atkinson and saying they are "solid to good". A few of those guys were not expected to have the careers they've managed. Dinwiddie was cut multiple times before getting to Brooklyn, Allen has outperformed his #22 pick status, LaVert has well outplayed his #20 pick status, Joe Harris was a second round pick who barely saw the court for 2 years in Cleveland before getting to Brooklyn.

Whether those are attributable to Atkinson or not is an entirely different question.

[patryk7754]

The top choice is clearly Kenny Atkinson. He's one of the top developmental coaches in the NBA and that's our number one need as of right now. On top of that, he puts together a capable gameplan. He'll take White's and LaVine's games to the next level and he can salvage Markk's career. Cater, I think sucks, so I'd be surprised if he becomes a starting level center under Atkinson. Unfortunately, I think he'll go to the Pelicans.

[MikeDC]

this might be too simplistic, but i basically do note care about atkinson clashing with KD and kyrie because one of the tangible changes made after he was fired was putting deandre jordan into the starting lineup over jarrett allen.

superstars came in and wanted someone they could call Their Guy in charge. doesn't really say much about the coach.

i don't think atkinson is a clearly better candidate than anyone else, but no reason he shouldn't be in the mix

Yeah, I think that's too simplistic. Just saying that they wanted "Their Guy" is giving away the point though. The coach needs to figure out how to make the stars buy in. He needs to be "Their Guy" while also managing the other million things coaches need to manage.

This, by the way, is why the Bulls have almost always had these sorts of adversarial relationships. They keep putting people into positions of power (being coach or GM or both) who see these dynamics through a lens of insecurity. There's often an undertone that the players should be put (or kept) in their place, and that's not a healthy one for an NBA team. The Bulls, because of this history, really need to be running away from that.

[nomorezorro]

i'm all for having a player friendly guy and i think i'm pretty much on the same page as you as far as coach/player dynamics. but i think there's a gigantic difference between losing a normal team and losing a team where two incredibly powerful players come in — both of whom have questionable reputations within a team dynamic — and seemingly lobby for changes that include benching a productive young player for an aging veteran who is probably not an upgrade at the position.

as far as i know, players not liking atkinson was not a thing before this season. the nets this year were an incredibly unusual situation that almost certainly will not be replicated in chicago. (and if we do get a star that clashes with atkinson, then we can just fire him and be happy that we have a star player!)

[DuckIII]

this might be too simplistic, but i basically do note care about atkinson clashing with KD and kyrie because one of the tangible changes made after he was fired was putting deandre jordan into the starting lineup over jarrett allen.

superstars came in and wanted someone they could call Their Guy in charge. doesn't really say much about the coach.

i don't think atkinson is a clearly better candidate than anyone else, but no reason he shouldn't be in the mix

Yeah, I think that's too simplistic. Just saying that they wanted "Their Guy" is giving away the point though. The coach needs to figure out how to make the stars buy in. He needs to be "Their Guy" while also managing the other million things coaches need to manage.

This, by the way, is why the Bulls have almost always had these sorts of adversarial relationships. They keep putting people into positions of power (being coach or GM or both) who see these dynamics through a lens of insecurity. There's often an undertone that the players should be put (or kept) in their place, and that's not a healthy one for an NBA team. The Bulls, because of this history, really need to be running away from that.

I don’t disagree as a general point, and Atkinson is not on my list. But you aren’t just talking about random stars here. You are talking about two complete headcases. Given who these two specific stars happen to be, I don’t consider this a strike against Atkinson.

[PrimzyBulls81]

Brett Brown - who's in?

Me! I think it's silly to blame Philly getting smoked by Boston without Simmons. Oh and while we're at it, go get me Simmons!

HELL NO for Brown!

[MrSparkle]

So... how about D’Antoni?

[MikeDC]

this might be too simplistic, but i basically do note care about atkinson clashing with KD and kyrie because one of the tangible changes made after he was fired was putting deandre jordan into the starting lineup over jarrett allen.

superstars came in and wanted someone they could call Their Guy in charge. doesn't really say much about the coach.

i don't think atkinson is a clearly better candidate than anyone else, but no reason he shouldn't be in the mix

Yeah, I think that's too simplistic. Just saying that they wanted "Their Guy" is giving away the point though. The coach needs to figure out how to make the stars buy in. He needs to be "Their Guy" while also managing the other million things coaches need to manage.

This, by the way, is why the Bulls have almost always had these sorts of adversarial relationships. They keep putting people into positions of power (being coach or GM or both) who see these dynamics through a lens of insecurity. There's often an undertone that the players should be put (or kept) in their place, and that's not a healthy one for an NBA team. The Bulls, because of this history, really need to be running away from that.

I don’t disagree as a general point, and Atkinson is not on my list. But you aren’t just talking about random stars here. You are talking about two complete headcases. Given who these two specific stars happen to be, I don’t consider this a strike against Atkinson.

They're also not "random" in the sense that Durant is a league MVP and 2-time finals MVP. Irving probably should have been the finals MVP the year the Cavs won with him.

When you come down to talking about the top 10-15 players in the league, they are pretty frequently going to be "headcases". Irving looks like he has a bi-polar disorder to me, but that's neither here nor there. The point is the alpha dogs of the NBA almost by definition are going to have difficult personalities, and dealing with them successfully is a part of the job. Having them basically take one look at you and say, "Nope", well, that's not a good thing.

[Jcool0]

So... how about D’Antoni?

He knows how to max out guards. So Lavine and White would probably be a pretty good combo with him as coach.