Until now, I've taken the Bulls annual early-season nose dive with a grain of salt. I chalked it up to the heavy reliance of jump-shooting combined with November rust, topped off with a crippling stretch of road games to accommodate a traveling sideshow. The past three years, the Bulls started off 9-16, 12-19, 3-9. We've been down this road before.

I shrugged it off and casually said to the man they call Basketbawful, "If the Bulls are still under .500 in January, Skiles might be in trouble". In retrospect, that statement isn't entirely wrong. The Bulls are looking down the barrel of a sub-.500 December, and are coming off back-to-back losses by nearly 20 points. A 14-win January? Were the 2007 playoffs that long ago?

The question: Is Scott Skiles responsible for Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich, and Ben Wallace devolving into Juan Dixon, Steve Blake, and Michael Cage? Is Skiles accountable for the Kwame Brown-like work ethic of Tyrus Thomas? Was Skiles the one that dealt LaMarcus Aldridge for this guy?

To some people, the answer is yes. Scott Skiles is canned and there will be a little more bourbon in his egg nog tonight. That sound you hear is Isiah Thomas laughing. At all of us. Again. Happy Holidays!

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3 Comments:
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Not cool Basketbawful, not cool.

Anonymous Anonymous said...
I think people are missing the big picture here. Skiles was never meant to be the permanent solution as head coach. Rather, he was Paxson's choice to help develop the young core (Kirk, BG, Deng) into solid players, which he has. However, his abrasive coaching style, and the way he treats his players wears thin pretty quickly. He's not Sloan or Pop where his demeanor is laughed off because he has the resume to back it up. In fact, Skiles was fired from the Suns for this exact same reason, the players just tuned him out. Skiles personality clahsed with Tyson Chandler before and he publicly stated he didn't work hard enough, which led to him being traded. Guess how that worked out? So yeah, the Bulls players are in a mad funk, but I fully expect them to rise up now that Skiles is gone. If they continue to suck, well then at least they're better than the Heat.

Blogger ChrisH said...
right, skiles got us from point a (a team of diarrhea) to point b (best defense in the league, and the only team ever to make the playoffs 3 years in a row without an all star). but you know he was too much of a yeller so we need to find a "players coach" to get us to point C (champion). just like we did when we fired Collins and PJ stepped in and elevated the players. Because right now we have a bunch of guys like PIP, MJ, and Horace who have stuck at point B but are ready to be unleashed! Oh wait, we really have a couple of BJs (starting backcourt), a suped up cliff levingston (noc), jumpier version of Jason Caffey (TT) and a less jumpy, poor mans pippen (deng), combined with a rapidly aging and very short center. Maybe we were lucky to be at point B with this midget team lacking any superlatives except for effort.