May 2008 Archive

Bad hire, Pax

by Ricky O'Donnell on May 30 at 12:05AM

Yep, that’s where I’m at now after thinking and reading about this for a day. The Hollinger article did it for me: Doug Collins wasn’t the right hire. I don’t agree with all of Hollinger’s arguments (we’ll get to that in a second), but has Paxson even earned the benefit of the doubt? I say no.

Hollinger presents three problems with hiring Collins: a) his pace is way too slow, b) he’s bad at handling youth, and c) his style is dangerously close to Skiles’, which the players may soon tune out.

OK, so, where to begin? Let’s start off with where I disagree: I think Collins will do a swell job handling young players. Skiles was crazy. A solid coach, but insane. One of those “do all the little things right or you’ll be benched immediately while multiple veins pop out of my hairless head” type of guys. And that’s fine when it’s applied to some guys. But it’s not fine for others. Like Tyrus Thomas, who Skiles repeatedly threw under the bus in the media and surely rode harder than any other Bulls player. Tyrus could totally kick ass in one game, and then the next night miss one defensive rotation and Skiles would yank him. You can’t do that. Not when you invested the #2 overall pick in a guy over Brandon Roy and Rudy Gay. Not when he was so effective for certain stretches. It wasn’t just Tyrus: Skiles couldn’t coach anyone who didn’t share his same blue collar personality. And it hurt the Bulls roster because Pax wouldn’t go get any guys that were like that (with the exception of Tyrus. Why did they draft him again?) If a player was from Kansas or Duke, sure, he may flourish. Unfortunately, the NBA isn’t full of try-hard, do-gooders. It’s got a lot of dudes who ~~smoke tons of weed~~ may not go all out on every possession of a season that’s really long. Alienating those guys isn’t the way to win games.

Basketball, you know, is a game where stars win. Sometimes it can’t be all “play defense or don’t play”. That’s what Skiles was like (who, again, was still a good coach), and that’s what Hollinger fears Collins will be like. I disagree. Skiles was a complete nutcase, I don’t think Collins will be nearly as intense. Maybe some of it’s because he’s older, and he’s more established. But I think Collins will aim to teach, not to say “do it this way or don’t do it at all”. After all, Collins wasn’t going to take the job before the Bulls won the lottery. He knows they are taking one of two 19-year olds, so he knows what he’s getting himself into. I actually think Collins will do nice job with the young guys.

The deal breaker is his slow pace. The Bulls have to score more if they’ll be good. Doug Collins? Yeah, that’s not so much his game:

Collins might be the most extreme slow-pace coach in the past quarter century. I'm amazed nobody has brought this up yet -- the guy makes Jeff Van Gundy look like Paul Westhead.

His Bulls were the league's slowest-paced team in 1986-87 and 1987-88, even with Michael Jordan at the peak of his athleticism. Scottie Pippen became a starter in 1988-89, yet Collins had the Bulls playing at the third-slowest pace in the NBA.

His Pistons, with a young Grant Hill, were the league's second-slowest team in both seasons Collins coached in Detroit. And his Wizards were 26th and 27th out of 29 teams in his two years at the helm in Washington.

Not good. I feel like most know my basketball philosophies already after all the D’Antoni stuff I did, but, basically, you have to score. The Bulls are built to run, that’s what they should do. It won’t happen with Collins. Again, the Bulls are going to grind out games. That isn’t how it should be. That’s not how the roster is built.

This is made particularly ‘not good’ when you consider that Derrick Rose would be downright amazing in an uptempo system. It’s not like the Bulls have a low post scorer anyways (are you nervous yet? We both know where this is going). Get the ball, push it and score. That’s how the Bulls should play. Sure defensive is important. Of course it is. But so is offense. People forget that.

Whenever I read about the scene that took place between Reinsdorf and D’Antoni, I cringe. Basically, it was this:

D’Antoni: Great talk, I’d love to be the next head coach of the Bulls.

JR: Just remember, you’ll have to play defense. That’s how I won six titles.

D’Antoni: Screw you, I’m taking the Knicks money.

First to JR’s defense. You won with defense? No. You won with the best athlete the world has ever produced. That’s why you won. Cause MJ wouldn’t let you lose. Don’t forget that you also had the best offensive system in the history of basketball. You know, that little thing Tex Winter designed? Yeah, the triangle. So sure, defense was big part. But so was offense. The audacity of Reinsdorf. Telling the league’s best coach without a title and certainly it’s most exciting that if he wants the honor of coaching the Bulls, he better be ready to stress defense. What a moron.

So here comes another stickler of a coach, exactly the type of guy that 20-year old kids who just got rich out of nowhere don’t want to listen to. That’s doesn’t mean the kids are right, of course. But if you are going to win, you may as well get your best players to like you. Like I said above, Collins will be more understanding than Skiles. But grinding out offensive possessions? Why!? You have Derrick Rose, Tyrus Thomas, Luol Deng and Ben Gordon. Noah is athletic too. They’re all athletic. Go ahead, trade Deng and/or Gordon for a legit scorer. That’s what you do. Run. Score. But no. Once again, I fear the Bulls screwed this up.

So now the question becomes: how does this hiring effect the draft pick. I hate to say it, but I think it gives an advantage to Beasley. If the Bulls aren’t going to run, they got to score somehow. Beasley can do that. Rose, eh, not so much. I hate Paxson already, if he takes Beasley, that would be the last straw. Seriously.

It all goes back to the moronic organization philosophy of “we won six titles this way”. Yeah, you also catered to your best player a little. You know, the best athlete ever. He could score at any time, in any situation that he wanted to. You don’t have that now. Instead, you have Kirk Hinrich. Good luck with that one, Doug.

***
Now, of course, there is a chance Collins does exactly what he did here 20 years ago: take the Bulls from point C to point B. Like I said in the previous post, they are definitely at point C right now. If Collins does that, and another guy comes in and takes them all the way- great. The headline of this post is probably a little too strong, but all I wanted from my Bulls was an exciting form of basketball (and Rose). That isn't going to happen with Collins.

May 2008 Archive

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