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I think the Bulls should fire Boylan, even though it's unusual for a club to fire two coaches in same season.

My reasons:

1. The team has regressed defensively since he took over. Blown defensive rotations and general confusion on defense are a staple of the Bulls since Boylan took over. Until tonight, I hadn't heard him say one thing about needing to work on defense -- he was always talking about the offense.

2. His rotations stink. He refuses to play Tyrus Thomas, who is the team's best interior defender and one of their best rebounders. He benches Hinrich for quarters or entire halfs for no reason other than the fact he has picked up a couple of cheap fouls. Such was the case again tonight. Instead of playing Hinrich in the 4th quarter, he plays Larry Hughes the ENTIRE 2nd half and watches as Rip Hamilton constantly blows by Hughes late in the game for easy baskets while Billups torches Ben Gordon. He plays Nocioni at power forward for long stretches despite the fact that this usually causes the team to be badly outrebounded and leads to defensive mismatches. Boylan also seems unable and/or unwilling to make any in-game adjustments, often leaving the same guys out on the floor for far too long.

3. He refuses to take any blame for the team's poor play. Instead, he continually throws the players under the bus. It appears he's decided to try and make Hinrich the primary scapegoat, although he isn't adverse to throwing other guys under the bus, either.

4. His players are acting out left and right. Thomas got suspended 2 games for blowing off practice, allegedly because he's tired of seeing Boylan jerk around with his PT. Aaron Gray yelled at Boylan the other night after being yanked. Chris Duhon didn't bother to get permission to go to the UNC-Duke game, then overslept and missed the team shootaround (he was quoted as saying he didn't really care he wasn't going to be allowed to play Sunday, and was being fined, basically saying what he did didn't matter since he doesn't play anyway)

5. He seems unwilling or unable to develop the younger players' skills. The Bulls finally hired a big man coach, but it's unclear how much he is actually allowed to work with them. What is clear is that Boylan prefers playing the vets and giving some of these guys minutes they really haven't earned.


The organization, which was being praised just last season, is now turned into a leaguewide joke. If the Bulls are to salvage anything from this mess and move forward in a productive way they need to get rid of the entire coaching staff and start over from scratch. They will also needs to move some of the players (which ones can always be debated) -- but they need to change the image of this organization (and of its coaches) in a hurry if they want to ever be able to attract big name stars in free agency down the road and keep the young players they are trying to develop when they enter free agency>

Isn't he just an interim head coach? Wouldn't the Bulls just not pick up his contract?

Yea its not worth it to fire him. We'd only get yet another interim coach for the last 19 games. The only scenario I could see him being let go is if Paxson was willing to take over the coaching duties, which won't happen.

We'll either make the playoffs despite him or get another lottery pick because of him. Its just the way it is. They're are positives and negatives to each scenario. Either way I have faith he won't be back next year. So it matters very little to me.

He's just an interim head coach, finish the season off then look for a new coach. I don't see the Bulls making the playoffs so he'll help land you guys a lottery pick.

The Bulls should hire Rick Carlisle. He's a great defensive coach as well as a very good offensive coach.

Do you still think Tyrus Thomas is your best interior defender even though you have had 2 coaches not play him, he just seems like he has a very low IQ, hes a good reactionary player but he often blows a defensive assignment for easy points.

Nocioni is currently that teams best PF and thats where he plays his best basketball. The Bulls team is in shambles right now and a coaching change wont fix it, egos have gotten in the way of the team, and in my opinion Paxson should deffinitly be on the chopping block because of what he was handed (two top 5 draft picks and young players, short contracts) and what he has made of it, the Chandler trade was a terrible move which created even more bad moves, and now they arent in a great position with the cap and they have alot of unhappy players that are ready to bolt as soon as they can (its reported that Gordon will play with them next year so they cant match any offer and he can sign with another team without the risk of the Bulls matching). Paxson should be fired at the end of the season along with Boylan.

Some of the players are acting like jerks because they know he's a lame duck coach. If I'm Paxson I'm keeping track of who is trying to make the best of the situation and those that have basically given up.

The Bulls must have a real comedian on the team because Hinrich was yucking it up on the bench last night (Pistons) like he heard the funniest joke ever told. This was at the end of the game when the Bulls were headed to defeat.

That team is a mess. I agree with what was mentioned above, Paxson should also lose his job along with the coach and half the players on the team.

They need to blow up that whole operation. Coaches, players, maybe even the front office. I never thought I'd see a team that was as bad as the Knicks .. the Bulls might actually be worse. And it has nothing to do with their talent level. That team has the talent of a playoff team. Back in the day when they used to actually listen to Scott Skiles, they got the best out of that talent and made an impressive playoff run.

Now they have no leadership, no responsibility, no discipline of any kind, no respect, it's just a disaster. You have Duhon flying all the way to North Carolina to watch Duke when they have a road game the next day, drinking late into the night and then sleeping through shootaround. And during the game he's sitting behind the bench cracking jokes while his team is getting beat. You have second round rookies like Aaron Gray yelling at his coach because of a substitution (and he actually still got to play in garbage time. Amazing.) The first round rookie Noah is regularly late for practice, late for the team bus, late for everything. The last time I remember anyone being late for a Rockets practice was back when they had Stromile Swift, and the result was an automatic suspension. At some point Adrian Griffin had to call a players meeting to ban Noah for a couple of weeks -- apparently that didn't work and now that Griffin is gone, there are no veterans left to put the kids in their place. Tyrus Thomas joking with his teammates on the eve of his 2 game suspension, "See you guys Thursday". Guys like Ben Gordon and Luol Deng refusing contract extensions so they can chuck it like it's a contract year and sign with someone else in the offseason.

I don't know how it all fell apart so quickly, but man. This team is a disaster. They need to just blow it all up.

paxson needs to be taken out

KB20 wrote:The Bulls should hire Rick Carlisle. He's a great defensive coach as well as a very good offensive coach.

What?


Rick Carlisle is known as an offensive guru, famous for having by far the thickest playbook in the league. The guy is definitely not a defensive coach.

BUT

He typically has fairly strong defensive assistants (Mike Brown, Kevin O'Neill, etc) and he often will go to the concept of limiting possessions to minimize mistakes and opportunities for the other team to beat you.

Would Chicago be a good place for Carlisle? Yeah, probably. I think just about any team would benefit from a guy like Rick. He'd definitely be the opposite of Skiles -- Rick is much more of a politician in the press; rarely if ever throws players under the bus. So if you buy the "we just had this type so lets do the opposite" Rick works. Also, he's already coached Detroit and Indiana, why not coach every Central team?

Paxson does not deserve the chopping block after one bad season. Luckily JR only cares about the bottom line so Paxson will receive another chance to make the playoffs next season, which he will do.

This team isn't in shambles.

The leadership thing is overblown. The last time we had a true veteran leader was Antonio Davis.

We just need a real NBA coach (Skiles was but the wore out his time here, Boylan isn't) and a shortened rotation that includes a star.

Changes will be coming. The Bulls have a lot of great trade assets.

Paxson will have a busy off-season trying to find a head coach and decide how much money he's going to spend to re-sign Deng and Gordon

I'll give Pax another season, he's just had a series of bad luck and a cheap owner. He has an iterim coach who is trying to make the playoffs so another team will pick him up next season, Boylan knows he is not going to be here next season. Tyrus is getting frustrated because his talent alone deserves playing time, but Boylan sticks it out with Gooden regardless of his mistakes. Tyrus has his flaws but he can really change a game out there. Put Paxson on the Knicks and he'll make a hell of a GM because he won't have a cheap boss.