The hits just keep on coming. This whole season, it seemed that the Bulls kept missing out on golden opportunities and unfortunately, that is also carrying on into the off-season.
Over the weekend, former Suns coach Mike D’Antoni signed a four-year contract with the New York Knicks. Last week, reports released assumed that D’Antoni, whose Suns team averaged 58 victories over four seasons according to the Chicago Tribune, was extremely interested in coaching the Bulls. General Manager John Paxson was also interested in the partnership even though D’Antoni has an offensive mindset and Paxson is more interested in defense.
But like the potential deals for Kevin Garnett, Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant, another team acted quicker and now, D’Antoni is responsible for cleaning up the mess Isiah Thomas created in New York.
When the Bulls released Jim Boylan at the end of the season, Paxson was critizied for not having a solid plan for the coaching search. He told reporters that he wanted to wait, take the search slow and find someone that could really connect with him and the team. That seemed like a good plan since the first round resulted in the firing of Dallas Mavericks coach Avery Johnson and the Suns not really wanting D’Antoni back. But now, with D’Antoni and another candidate Rick Carlisle being selected by other teams, the pool of qualified candidates is smaller, and will only get smaller until the only candidates left are assistant and college coaches.
Although their record and character doesn’t show it, the current Bulls team is a good team. It just needs a couple pieces -- a low post shooter and go-to guy – to be a competitor in the East. Another important piece is a good coach. The selection for a coach shouldn’t be made hastily, but Paxson and Jerry Reinsdorf need to be aggressive and act quickly when a candidate like D’Antoni comes around and expresses interest. Not only that, a coach like D’Antoni could have brought back some of the excitement Chicago had about its basketball team before it fell apart this year.
Comments
From what I've read D'Antoni didn't even give the Bulls a chance to put in a real offer. I'm surprised that he would want to deal with the mess that the Knicks are offering. The Bulls are closer to a championship than NY is.