As you'll recall, when Floyd was asked why the Bulls drafted Fizer rather than Mike Miller, Floyd incredulously replied, "Mike Miller?!?" In this spirit of incredulousness, I ask, "Tim Floyd!?!"
Thibs is the man. The one thing that makes me worried is we don't have Mike North anymore to bully Thibs into accepting the lowball offer from Reinsdorf. And, I don't think Thibs could be bullied by North like Skiles was. I was surprised though, that Skiles was.
He was pretty successful while with us. He was desperate before getting the Bulls job, I agree, but not so much after he had been with us. But where North got him was by arguing that the Bulls had taken a chance on him when no one else would, and so Skiles was being a jerk by holding out instead of signing for pretty decent money (around 3.5 mil, as I recall). It was a weird scene.
I think after coaching the Bulls, there wasn't a huge demand for his services. Vinnie was hired faster - go figure.
Yes, but between Skiles' contract negotiations and his firing, there was a free fall in the Bulls' performance that confirmed people's fears about Skiles as a poor people-skills person. He was rather on the way up during the negotiations period (albeit, with some hanging question marks). Vinny, on the other hand, was a sympathetic figure whom Paxson had choked in a fit of rage for doing what any self-respecting coach would have done and played his best players to win the game at hand. And Charles Barkley likes him, go figure.
I like Vinnie, too. A lot. He spent 8 seasons with the Spurs. You'd think he might have learned something about coaching from one of the elite few who ever coached in the NBA. After nearly taking out the defending champ celtics in the 1st round in his first season as coach, management decimated the team. He still coached us to a 41-41 record, in spite of having nobody to play at SG but Hinrich and Salmons. His only losing season as coach was his first with the clippers. He coached them to a 46-20 record last season. Granted it's not a huge sample.
Geez, looking at that 2nd season roster - yikes. Rose, Deng, Hinrich, 33-year-old Brad Miller, Salmons (who sucked), Taj, Tyrus, Noah, Warrick, Pargo, James Johnson, Aaron Gray, Lindsey Hunter, Devin Brown, Flip Murray. Deng missed 12 game, Salmons, Gray, and Tyrus traded mid-season for scraps, NOah missed 18 games. To put winning 41 with that roster... Since MJ/PJax left, the Bulls won 41 one other time, 47, and 49. Otherwise his two 41 win seasons are among the top 5 records we had.
