New Head Coach Mega Thread

[imagge]

It’s official I want Kenny Smith to be the Bulls coach....He is the one....no more recycled coaches

[holv03]

It’s official I want Kenny Smith to be the Bulls coach....He is the one....no more recycled coaches

I would love to sign Kenny Smith. I am not sure if Chicago will do that but they should.

[Jcool0]

It’s official I want Kenny Smith to be the Bulls coach....He is the one....no more recycled coaches

I would love to sign Kenny Smith. I am not sure if Chicago will do that but they should.

It wont be in Chicago.

[Chi town]

Not sure i get the obsession Bulls fans have with mediocre coaches in McMillan, Joerger & Atkinson. I mean sure compared to Boylen they are upgrades, but that is a super low bar. Lets say the Bulls hire one and he succeeds, Bulls make the playoffs but get bounced in round 1 for 2-3 years. So the move is to what fire the coach and hire the next hot assistant... Hope Pop wants to still coach but SA wants to move on? I would rather just try to find the next Nick Nurse or Budenholzer now.

Well when your bar is Fred and Boylen...

[FriedRise]

Not sure i get the obsession Bulls fans have with mediocre coaches in McMillan, Joerger & Atkinson. I mean sure compared to Boylen they are upgrades, but that is a super low bar. Lets say the Bulls hire one and he succeeds, Bulls make the playoffs but get bounced in round 1 for 2-3 years. So the move is to what fire the coach and hire the next hot assistant... Hope Pop wants to still coach but SA wants to move on? I would rather just try to find the next Nick Nurse or Budenholzer now.

100% agreed, but I think that's much harder to do and those guys generally don't wanna come to a situation like Chicago where we haven't been able to win more than 27 games. I think realistically we need that in-between coach first to get us to the 40+ win range before we can attract the top proven coaches.

Nick Nurse is an interesting case because he inherited a really good team that he was an assistant coach for for several years. So Toronto knew what they had before promoting him, and he obviously knew the players. We tried to do the same with Boylen, which in hindsight is really really odd because he was probably the same way then too as Fred's assistant. You just don't double down and extend an interim head coach that the players were ready to revolt on because of his antics in his first week, but GarPax gonna GarPax. I guess in a way we should be thankful of Boylen because he did do enough damage to rid us of GarPax.

[sco]

Not sure i get the obsession Bulls fans have with mediocre coaches in McMillan, Joerger & Atkinson. I mean sure compared to Boylen they are upgrades, but that is a super low bar. Lets say the Bulls hire one and he succeeds, Bulls make the playoffs but get bounced in round 1 for 2-3 years. So the move is to what fire the coach and hire the next hot assistant... Hope Pop wants to still coach but SA wants to move on? I would rather just try to find the next Nick Nurse or Budenholzer now.

Well when your bar is Fred and Boylen...

IMO there is a multi-year learning-curve to be a HC in the NBA. I would prefer to have a guy who is down that curve than wasting another season having some untested assistant try to figure it out. For every Nick Nurse, there are 10 Jim Boylen's. Also, I think our young guys showed a lack of respect for our Fred and Jim because they were trying to figure it out on the job (sure some of it was that they weren't good), but I want a guy who can come in and know which side of the clipboard to look at. IMO this next coach should be a high floor coach, not a high ceiling prospect.

[Jcool0]

Not sure i get the obsession Bulls fans have with mediocre coaches in McMillan, Joerger & Atkinson. I mean sure compared to Boylen they are upgrades, but that is a super low bar. Lets say the Bulls hire one and he succeeds, Bulls make the playoffs but get bounced in round 1 for 2-3 years. So the move is to what fire the coach and hire the next hot assistant... Hope Pop wants to still coach but SA wants to move on? I would rather just try to find the next Nick Nurse or Budenholzer now.

Well when your bar is Fred and Boylen...

IMO there is a multi-year learning-curve to be a HC in the NBA. I would prefer to have a guy who is down that curve than wasting another season having some untested assistant try to figure it out. For every Nick Nurse, there are 10 Jim Boylen's. Also, I think our young guys showed a lack of respect for our Fred and Jim because they were trying to figure it out on the job (sure some of it was that they weren't good), but I want a guy who can come in and know which side of the clipboard to look at. IMO this next coach should be a high floor coach, not a high ceiling prospect.

So you don't trust AK to find that next good head coach?

[Magilla_Gorilla]

McMillan is out - so I have no favorites. I'd love for it to be a former player though - especially if that guy can still lace them up and occasionally embarrass some of these guys in practice...

[sco]

Well when your bar is Fred and Boylen...

IMO there is a multi-year learning-curve to be a HC in the NBA. I would prefer to have a guy who is down that curve than wasting another season having some untested assistant try to figure it out. For every Nick Nurse, there are 10 Jim Boylen's. Also, I think our young guys showed a lack of respect for our Fred and Jim because they were trying to figure it out on the job (sure some of it was that they weren't good), but I want a guy who can come in and know which side of the clipboard to look at. IMO this next coach should be a high floor coach, not a high ceiling prospect.

So you don't trust AK to find that next good head coach?

I'll say I hope AK can find the best experienced HC for the Bulls. I don't trust that any rookie will be a good solution.

[Andi Obst]

IMO there is a multi-year learning-curve to be a HC in the NBA. I would prefer to have a guy who is down that curve than wasting another season having some untested assistant try to figure it out. For every Nick Nurse, there are 10 Jim Boylen's. Also, I think our young guys showed a lack of respect for our Fred and Jim because they were trying to figure it out on the job (sure some of it was that they weren't good), but I want a guy who can come in and know which side of the clipboard to look at. IMO this next coach should be a high floor coach, not a high ceiling prospect.

So you don't trust AK to find that next good head coach?

I'll say I hope AK can find the best experienced HC for the Bulls. I don't trust that any rookie will be a good solution.

I will never understand that point of view. Never. Trust AK on this. Good FOs find good coaches, rookies or not.

[drosestruts]

My unrealistic dream is for Doc Rivers to be our coach

My veteran coach choice pick is Stan Van Gundy

My up and comer pick is Darren Erman

[Jcool0]

My unrealistic dream is for Doc Rivers to be our coach

My veteran coach choice pick is Stan Van Gundy

My up and comer pick is Darren Erman

Yeah i cant see the Bulls going with Erman...

"On April 6, 2014 it was announced the Warriors had decided to part ways with Erman citing a "violation of company policy" for having secretly recorded conversations between players, coaches, and front office staff."

[drosestruts]

My unrealistic dream is for Doc Rivers to be our coach

My veteran coach choice pick is Stan Van Gundy

My up and comer pick is Darren Erman

Yeah i cant see the Bulls going with Erman...

"On April 6, 2014 it was announced the Warriors had decided to part ways with Erman citing a "violation of company policy" for having secretly recorded conversations between players, coaches, and front office staff."

I think there's some context missing there, he was recording the lies Mark Jackson was spreading between players, coaches, etc.

Either way for those unfamiliar with him here's a recent article - https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/celtics/2019/09/15/year-after-coaching-anthony-davis-darren-erman-leading-red-claws-and-can-wait/2VisclvEW6ip7wSkZ3a0KI/story.html

and another - http://www.thepostgame.com/darren-erman-lawyer-coach-pelicans-warriors-celtics

[dougthonus]

It’s official I want Kenny Smith to be the Bulls coach....He is the one....no more recycled coaches

I would love to sign Kenny Smith. I am not sure if Chicago will do that but they should.

I love him on TV, he would probably connect well with players, but he has no assistant coaching or pro coaching experience, and his playing days were 20 years ago when the game was radically different.

Obviously in his job, he's well ware of the revolution of the game and has kept abreast of what is going on. I wouldn't rule him out as a candidate, but he'd really have to sell me hard in an interview process. He's been living a cushy broadcasting life making big bucks on very few hours of work for the past 20 years. I'm not sure anyone that's living that lifestyle for so long wants to go on a grind that involves constant travel and super long days.

[dougthonus]

Not sure i get the obsession Bulls fans have with mediocre coaches in McMillan, Joerger & Atkinson. I mean sure compared to Boylen they are upgrades, but that is a super low bar. Lets say the Bulls hire one and he succeeds, Bulls make the playoffs but get bounced in round 1 for 2-3 years. So the move is to what fire the coach and hire the next hot assistant... Hope Pop wants to still coach but SA wants to move on? I would rather just try to find the next Nick Nurse or Budenholzer now.

I can get that with McMillan (to a degree anyway), there's a huge volume of information on him as a coach, but it's mostly all positive and he's, IMO, overachieved with his talent in all his stops. He hasn't won the big one and has been exposed in the playoffs, but he's never lost a series he should have definitively won. He's lost two series that were toss ups, won one where he was the favorite, and lost a bunch where he was a major underdog. That record isn't great in the playoffs but it isn't damning.

Joerger and Atkinson don't have particularly long resumes. I'm not a huge fan of either guy necessarily (particularly Atkinson), but someone like Doc Rivers wasn't a huge success in his first job. Rick Carlisle was seen as a journeyman coach at one point. A lot of whether these guys are good or not is kind of known through reputation around the league when people talk. It can be really tough, IMO, to fairly analyze a coach without inside information.

[Chi town]

IMO there is a multi-year learning-curve to be a HC in the NBA. I would prefer to have a guy who is down that curve than wasting another season having some untested assistant try to figure it out. For every Nick Nurse, there are 10 Jim Boylen's. Also, I think our young guys showed a lack of respect for our Fred and Jim because they were trying to figure it out on the job (sure some of it was that they weren't good), but I want a guy who can come in and know which side of the clipboard to look at. IMO this next coach should be a high floor coach, not a high ceiling prospect.

So you don't trust AK to find that next good head coach?

I'll say I hope AK can find the best experienced HC for the Bulls. I don't trust that any rookie will be a good solution.

Jimmy disrespected Fred.
Jimbo did everything to himself.

A rookie HC can be better than McMillan.
AK’s rookie HC even if he’s a miss will be way better than Boylen.

[Deadbat]

I have not been through the whole thread so apologies if he has been mentioned already. I saw Sam Smith briefly mention him due to links with AK from Houston and Denver.

Chris Finch, lead assistant at New Orleans

He has never been an NBA head coach but this guy is not a Boylen mark my words and will be a head coach in this league very soon.

He is a players coach who build a relationships and plays a high octane funky offence. He has been lead assistant at Houston, Denver and the last few years New Orleans. He was considered for a few lead jobs but the same recycled guys got the nod...think he interviewed for the T Wolves job last summer and was very close to getting it.

I know of his bona fides as a character and coach as I have followed him closely from when he came to the United Kingdom as a player in 1992. He became head coach of my local team, Sheffield and we had incredible success. He seemed light years ahead of everyone in the UK including the coach of the main rivals, a certain Nick Nurse who was his assistant later on when he coached the Great Britain national team. He won everything in the UK as young coach over a 5 year period before heading overseas.

He has coached in Germany, Belgium and then was in the NBA D League winning the title etc (like Nurse). He has been a head coach for 15 years before he has been an assistant for the later period. Nurse was interviewed recently and said he can't understand why he has not been hired. If he does not get a job this summer, New Orleans want to keep him but not sure they will make him head coach as are being linked with others but reckon Nurse would put him on His staff tomorrow if he could. Nurse was his assistant a few times so that's how good he is but has just not got the breakthrough yet.

His teams traditionally play great D, get up and down and are encouraged to shoot. His offences are quite quirky but the Bulls team would be exciting watch again under him. He gets the best out of players too. I think he has been a bit frustrated at New Orleans as to my mind he would have done a much better job than Alvin Gentry.

He is a fantastic guy though. Yes I am biased having had dealings with him 20 years ago! However he wont suffer fools either. If you play hard and improve you get minutes. If you don't you wont.

I get people wanting experience and can see why Brown, Atkinson, McMillan are getting linked but I'd take Finch over Ham, Idoka and any of the other rookie possibles.

Id love him to be given a shot if we go down a new, innovative approach rather than tired old names. Granted we've been down this route before but not sure this team is going to be s top teams in the East for a few years yet so I am not sure it would be that much of a gamble.

[holv03]

I believe that the Bulls will be hiring Ime Udoka if he doesn't get the head coaching position in Philadelphia. I hope the guy we pick ends up creating a great atmosphere and chemistry with the players.

[Chi town]

I believe that the Bulls will be hiring Ime Udoka if he doesn't get the head coaching position in Philadelphia. I hope the guy we pick ends up creating a great atmosphere and chemistry with the players.

Yep. I’d assume Udoka or Unseld from Den. AK and Evs last stops colleagues.

[patryk7754]

If the Nuggets got blown-out I think at the very least they will listen to trade offers for Mike Malone. What do you think would be good value for him. I'd say most I'd give up is a top 20 protected pick