The Bulls could get Mike D'Antoni

Marc Stein better not be yankin’ my chain with this one. Mike D’Antoni looks like he’s on his way out of Phoenix and is reportedly targeting Chicago. If you would have asked me at any point since Skiles was fired who I wanted to coach the Bulls if I could pick any coach in the league, D’Antoni always would have been the answer. It’s the perfect hire for John Paxson, and would finally get the Bulls away from the no-nonsense, self-accountability, defense-first style that a lot of today’s NBA players hate dealing with.

Let’s start this off by saying I’m not totally sure D’Antoni will leave Phoenix. That team has taken on his personality 100% over the last few years, and with one more good year of Shaq (if you can call it good), and about two more great ones left from Nash, I wouldn’t be surprised if he stuck it out.

But, if D’Antoni is on the open market, Pax should throw the kitchen sink at him. You know the Knicks and Raps and maybe even the Mavs will come after him hard, so Pax can’t fool around.

I’d first wonder if D’Antoni would even be interested because the Bulls don’t really have an ideal roster for the type of game he plays. They were built for the Skiles-Avery Johnson approach, but things could work out here with a little tweaking. Two players would become vital: Tyrus Thomas and Ben Gordon.

When Tyrus was coming out in the 06 draft, the player he most often drew comparisons to was Shawn Marion. “The Shawn Marion position” is the one that makes the D’Antoni offense go. Tyrus could play that role. Sure, Marion was a far more established player than Tyrus currently is when D’Antoni first took over in Phoenix. Marion is also a lot better shooter and ball handler. But you know what? Shawn Marion is terrible shooter. Jacking up all those threes did nothing but hurt the Suns’ offense. All you need the player in that role to do is run and jump. Tyrus Thomas, yeah, he’s good at that stuff.

That brings us to Gordon whom I despise. But in D’Antoni’s offense, I think he could be great. First thing you do: move BG to point and ship out Kirk for whatever. Pair Gordon with Thabo and have Hughes come off the bench. Another guard will need to be added, hopefully someone like OJ Mayo but I doubt he’ll be available, but those three are a good start. With Deng at small forward, Tyrus at power forward, Noah at center, and Gooden and Noce off the bench, that’s a decent crew right there. There’s obviously still no superstar, but whatever. I think you can win without one with D’Antoni’s system. Will it run as fluidly as a team with Nash, Amare, and Marion? Of course not, but it can still be effective.

The ideal situation would be to resign Deng to roughly the same offer as he turned down in the summer and let Gordon do the one-year tender thing. If D’Antoni isn’t the coach, the Bulls have to make a lot more changes. Say Rick Carlisle comes in. The first call Pax should make then is to Houston to offer Deng and Gordon for T-Mac.

But we don’t need to worry about that now because the Bulls just may get themselves the NBA’s coolest coach.