Lunartic wrote:His mismanagement of timeouts and challenges literally costing the Bulls games should be reason enough to not extend.
Why keep him? What strengths does he have that make you say "damn, I want him coaching my team in a high-stakes playoffs game!
The Bull's aren't getting some top-tier elite FA - the only way to improve is around the margins. And Billy isn't good enough to retain his position on a consistently losing team.
Is the offense being maximized? Is the defense as good as it can be? Do the Bulls ever win games they shouldn't based on intelligent reads or tactics? Or do they rely on miraculous shots?
Has Billy ever drawn up a out of a timeout play that wowed you?.
I agree. I know some people push back on this, but I absolutely think he’s a “good” coach who fumbles in-game management, pretty consistently.
The number of games blown in 22/23 speaks for itself. That was better than a 40Wteam in a bad conference, and they needed that Beverley boost. And the thing is the team had a #5 def rating and #13 net rating. All he had to do was close with Drummond and/or DJJ more often, instead of DNPing them every other night for PWilly and more Vuc.
To me, the Beverley pickup was apparent that Billy needs a strong confrontational voice in the locker-room to make up for the lack of his. I really think the head coaching job is small-part intangibles, more-part personal assertion and influence.
Also- just kind of predictable? The number of times his clutch calls (on both ends) didn’t even generate an attempt (or gave up an easy layup)? It grew tiring hearing the “doesn’t have a PG excuse.” Yeah, I’m sure between Demar, Zach and Vuc, nobody could generate a shot.
I was too young to remember Doug Collins’ Bulls stint, but from descriptions, old tape, his Sixers gig… I find him an eerily close comp to Billy. Seems to go laissez-faire on whoever has an all-star reputation, nitpicks the **** out of young/emerging roleplayers and complimentary scorers, and favors his high-motor defenders despite horrible offensive or net-rating metrics.
I don’t find issue so much with the principles, except if the goal was clearly to atleast win more than 1 playoff game in 5 years, and he’s won 1 (in an otherwise ugly blowout of a series)… while having fairly decent talent… I have a hard time seeing why he gets extended. Doesn’t seem like a “life time” coach like Pop, Spo, Riley, Phil, Sloan… who at the end of the day, knew you simply couldn’t get any more juice or wins out the lineup.
Look at Lue, who makes do with his top 2 star options often injured. No excuses there! Making playoff runs with our giveaways Dunn and DJJ.
It’s even worse that we gave up the 2 lotto picks. Knew we had no FRP coming in, and still fumbled in a weak conference with a fairly healthy veteran roster (sans Lonzo). It’s appalling TBH.
