BREAKING NEWS: Scott Skiles fired on Christmas Eve
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by LMedina86
In a relatively shocking development, Scott Skiles was relieved of his coaching duties on Christmas Eve by the Chicago Bulls. In his time with the Bulls, it seemed as if they always got off to slow starts and recovered in the second half. However, this time it looked like the slow start wasn’t going to end anytime soon, thus costing Skiles his job.
In recent games, blowout losses against the Boston Celtics on the road and the Houston Rockets at home, the Bulls looked like they had quit on their coach. They were not playing the type of team defense that had been symbolic with the Bulls in the Skiles era.
Skiles took the Bulls job in Nov. 2003 after the firing of Bill Cartwright after 16 games. The Bulls finished with a 19-67 record under Skiles that season, but in his first full season with the Bulls they won 47 games and made their first playoff appearance in the post-Jordan era. Next year the Bulls regressed a little and only won 41 games, but still made the playoffs, losing to the eventual champion Miami Heat in the first round.
The 2006-07 season was a breakout season for Skiles and the Bulls. With the addition of free agent center Ben Wallace, the Bulls won 49 games and swept the defending champion Heat before being eliminated by the Detroit Pistons in the second round.
However, the 2007-08 campaign came with higher expectations. With their young nucleus of Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich and Luol Deng returning, the Bulls were expected to compete with the top of the Eastern Conference and some even predicted them to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals. But the Bulls struggled out of the gate, and now Skiles is out of a job.
And to think, Skiles was the feel good story of the summer in 2005. That June, Skiles and the Bulls nearly parted ways when contract negotiations fell apart. But he and the Bulls would agree to a four-year extension worth $16.5 million, thanks in part to the help of Chicago sports radio host Mike North.
And even though Skiles took the fall for this year’s debacle, there is plenty of blame to go around. The players aren’t playing to their potential, which may or may not be directly linked to Skiles and his coaching style and ability.
However, a lot of the blame should go to the man in charge of basketball operations, John Paxson. This team was put together in the image of Paxson and Skiles, which was fine and dandy if you wanted to be a good, not great team. Paxson’s failures to acquire an elite player like Kobe Bryant or low-post scorer like Pau Gasol or Kevin Garnett have doomed this year’s version of the Bulls.
And even though he made great draft picks with Hinrich, Gordon and Deng, his most recent drafts have also played a part of the demise of this team. He passed on LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy and drafted Tyrus Thomas when he had the second pick in the 2006 draft, and Ronnie Brewer when he instead drafted Thabo Sefolosha. In 2007, he drafted Joakim Noah when he could have packaged the pick in a potential blockbuster deal to acquire that elusive elite player or low-post scorer.
In the end, it will be up to Paxson to bring in the right players and coach to get the Bulls from point B to point C, like when Phil Jackson took over for Doug Collins in the late 1980’s.
At this point, it is undecided where the Bulls go from here. One of their assistants, likely Jim Boylan or Pete Myers will be the head coach on an interim basis. Unfortunately, neither are long term solutions to the Bulls coaching problems.
