Paxson met with Jim Boylan, Skiles' top assistant, in Deerfield on Wednesday about taking over the team and no decision was reached. Pete Myers was the interim coach for Wednesday's night's 94-79 loss here against the Spurs and he said he hasn't been told whether he will serve in that role any longer.Paxson declined to discuss his intentions, though team sources said he doesn't feel pressured to make any immediate decision and likely will meet with Myers and Boylan again Thursday when the Bulls practice at the Berto Center. The club hosts the Bucks on Friday night. Hmmm... I wonder how that conversation went: Pax: OK, Jim, how'd you like to be the head coach? Boylan: Err... maybe, you know you just fired my bro, right? Pax: Yeah, but you get a chance to run the show Boylan: OK, here's the rotation I'd start to put together... Pax (breaking in): Hold your horses there tiger! I've been doing some thinking about the rotation, and, well... do you carry a cell phone on the sideline? Boylan: Um... it's getting late and I have to wash my hair tonight, can we talk about this in the morning?
I agree with Pax. Really, why rush a judgment? There's still another two months before training camp opens up, and so any choice will have more than enough time to evaluate his roster and put a rotation in place. That's why you make these kind of coaching changes in the off-season.
LOL, Pax actually seems to be authoring some coaching moves but I don't think he wants to get out there in true accountability land.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Fred @ Dec 27 2007, 10:46 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>no rush at this point. i'd rather have them take their time and get someone good.</div> Dude, they're not going to hire a big name guy. I'd be pretty surprised if they did, in fact, go out of the organization. They're looking for an inexpensive caretaker to finish out the year.
I probably said something similar in the game thread or elsewhere... but... I really liked the way Myers used the players last night. First Gordon and then Hinrich drew 2nd fouls early in the first quarter. He had no choice but to bring in Duhon and then Griffin to replace them. Otherwise he basically played our best players as many minutes as they could handle up until garbage time. I remarked in the game thread that Myers had played our starters from the start of Q3 to nearly the end of Q3, during which time we cut the lead from 18 to 8 or so. About the only nit one might have with his use of the players was playing Gray so much and so early in the game, but Gray is the only guy resembling a post player we have and you call that guy's number when you need that kind of player.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MikeDC @ Dec 27 2007, 08:20 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Fred @ Dec 27 2007, 10:46 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>no rush at this point. i'd rather have them take their time and get someone good.</div> Dude, they're not going to hire a big name guy. I'd be pretty surprised if they did, in fact, go out of the organization. They're looking for an inexpensive caretaker to finish out the year. </div> Why do they want an inexpensive caretaker to finish out the year? When Pax fired Cartwright, during the season, he was replaced by Skiles who ended up the long-term solution (4 years).
One can only hope that with Boylan not being hired, Paxson is starting to think about guys like Carlisle, Brown, Van Gundy, etc. Gray's time in the game was a waste last night. We only went into the post with him like once or twice. He scored on the half hook the one time. I'd like to see more Thomas over Ben Wallace, even Noah over Wallace. Wallace sucks hard.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Denny Crane @ Dec 27 2007, 11:29 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MikeDC @ Dec 27 2007, 08:20 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Fred @ Dec 27 2007, 10:46 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>no rush at this point. i'd rather have them take their time and get someone good.</div> Dude, they're not going to hire a big name guy. I'd be pretty surprised if they did, in fact, go out of the organization. They're looking for an inexpensive caretaker to finish out the year. </div> Why do they want an inexpensive caretaker to finish out the year? When Pax fired Cartwright, during the season, he was replaced by Skiles who ended up the long-term solution (4 years). </div> I think we're operating under different assumptions. I think, by reading your posts, you think the Bulls want to play their best guys as much as they can, win as much as possible, and make the playoffs. Tell me if I'm wrong, but under that scheme, their priorities seem to be 1) Win now and make the playoffs. 2) Get their money's worth out of their sunk costs. 3) Play the younger guys more consistently, although they're not yet consistent players. If you believe those are the priorities, you'd go out and get the best coach possible and tell him to do whatever he thinks makes the most sense to do. I think the Bulls' priorities are something like 1) Play the younger guys more consistently, although they're not yet consistent players. In all the interviews I've read that Pax and various other Bulls sources have given, all of them have pointed to this. Pax has said point blank he's going to have a hand in coaching (by dictating the younger guys play more) 2) Get their money's worth out of their sunk costs. Skiles is a sunk cost as are his assistants. I haven't heard anything that suggests the Bulls want to go outside the org to get a new coach. Doing so would be fairly expensive relative to having Meyers or Boylan. Plus it's going to be fairly difficult to find a top flight coach to come into a situation where the usage of his players is being dictated to him. 3) Win
I think there are only two real possibilities: 1) Pax is on the hot seat and it may be up to the next GM to sign the long-term coach, or 2) They want to write off this season and use the remaining games to develop the players who need it. I would think that if Pax has full support of Reinsdorf and is going to be GM for longer than the rest of the season (guaranteed), he'd be interviewing coaches for the long-haul while specifying what his expectations are for this year and going forward. That Pax seemingly is going to call the coaching shots, remote-control, indicates #1.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Denny Crane @ Dec 27 2007, 01:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I think there are only two real possibilities: 1) Pax is on the hot seat and it may be up to the next GM to sign the long-term coach, or 2) They want to write off this season and use the remaining games to develop the players who need it. I would think that if Pax has full support of Reinsdorf and is going to be GM for longer than the rest of the season (guaranteed), he'd be interviewing coaches for the long-haul while specifying what his expectations are for this year and going forward. That Pax seemingly is going to call the coaching shots, remote-control, indicates #1.</div> Well, it's OBE since Boylan finally get the nod today, but I would think that Pax calling the coaching shots, remote control, could also indicate #2. I could be wrong, but I just don't think that many coaches would be cool coming into a situation in which they aren't given the freedom to try and win games with the best combinations of players they think they have. The coach isn't going to get much credit for playing the players the GM wants to see play if the result is losing.
