More FireDavidHaugh.com Material

So you had a column recently that took the outcome of a Bulls 2 point win and took it to mean the Bulls could woo Lebron James because of it.  It was a bad thought then, and I commented on it here.

The next game in the series the Bulls are beaten and embarrassed 121-98.  Do you, as a responsible professional writer, write a mea culpa article?  Do you write that, since my thought the other day was true based on an outcome of one game, the antithesis must be true if the next game's outcome is the opposite?  Do you furiously defend your thought?  No, you move onto something almost as bad-- an article on how Vinny Del Negro got a bad deal this year.   

Sure, there were injuries and When GMs Attack and salary clearing- but you don't judge a coach on win-loss record alone.  You look at how he prepares the players he has, how his young talent develops and whether he gives the team the best chance to succeed.

This is gonna be another long article, so grab something to drink and listen to this Sunset Rubdown song and try to enjoy....

Bulls bounce back? Del Negro more likely to get bounced

By David Haugh

April 26, 2010

"We're going back home to win the series (and) don't plan on coming back here,'' James said. "It's the last time you'll see us in Chicago.''

At the opposite end of the hallway, Vinny Del Negro probably could have said the same thing about returning to the United Center as he walked off the floor like it was any other game.

It wasn't.

That reality about Del Negro's future has nothing to do with Sunday's loss or even the Bulls coach's worthiness to stay.

VDN is going to be done as Bulls coach.  This was known around January.  Don't know why its news now.  Or why he's suddenly a good coach.

Barring an upset the Bulls seem incapable of pulling off in a building the Cavs have gone 37-6 in through the playoffs, their season will end late Tuesday night. Within days and possibly hours, so will Del Negro's tenure in Chicago

Yeah, hedge your bets.  The Bulls might pull off the comeback. David Haugh-- go ahead and assume the Bulls will lose the series.  Unless the Cavs team bus gets lost on the way to the arena.

Nobody would be shocked if a peek at Bulls vice president of basketball operations John Paxson's weekly planner revealed something like this:
Tuesday: Watch Bulls lose Game 5 during "American Idol" commercials
Wednesday: Have GM Gar Forman fire Vinny.
Thursday: Make sure Jerry Reinsdorf will let me hire the coach I want this time.
Friday: Call Jeff Van Gundy.

Pretty amusing-- and true.  Nicely done-- and a shot at the Gar Forman/John Paxson dynamic. I approve.

Bottom line, the next time Del Negro coaches on the bench in Chicago it will be for the Clippers or Nets or another team that hires recycled coaches. Whenever it comes, Del Negro has benefited from this experience enough to think he will get another opportunity to coach in the NBA.

Um, he could be an assistant too.  But if you think recycled coaches are for the historically bad Clippers and the worst team this year Nets-- that's just wrong.  Most teams have "recycled coaches."  Coaches actually don't last long in the NBA in the same job-- but they usually find new ones.  See:  Skiles and Jim Boylan.

Nobody will ever label Del Negro an X's and O's guru like Hubie Brown, who announced Sunday's game for ABC. No college coaches are scribbling down notes after Bulls' out-of-bounds plays. And as an ESPN.com column suggested before Sunday's game, anonymously quoting an NBA scout who chided the Bulls for running only five plays, Del Negro's game plans can be as simple as the playoff T-shirts handed out: See Red.

VDN isn't a good X's and O's coach-- fairly obvious if you've seen any inbound plays this year.  Or plays designed to get Brad Miller open for a last second shot.  But for the record Haugh pretty much concedes VDN as a bad on-the-court coach.

But with a point guard as gifted and creative as Derrick Rose, do you really want to reinvent half-court offense?

No, but some half-court offense would be nice.  The Bulls offense really was only effective when they outran the other team.  But some version of a functioning half-court offense would be nice.  

Remember Del Negro took both Bulls teams to the playoffs — the second after the front office opted not to replace Ben Gordon. Remember how a young core of Bulls players peaked during a late-season run for a playoff series that indeed will spur their growth. Remember that Del Negro coaxed a limited roster to play defense well enough that only two other teams held opponents to a lower shooting percentage.

Remember a 10 game losing streak and losing twice to the worst team in basketball.  And the Bulls want to replace Gordon- just with a superstar, which can't happen till this offseason.  Someone who would get them closer to a championship.

You could argue that Del Negro deserves to finish his contract with the Bulls, but that would be like protesting the cancellation of your favorite TV show. You may be able to support your point and it wouldn't matter. The decision appears to have been made, and it seems as irreversible as the differences are irreconcilable.

Feel free to support that point.  He gets paid either way (I believe), so there's not that incentive.  And management thinks he's a bad coach- they determined this when they didn't give him a vote of confidence back in January.  And you yourself said he wasn't the best X's and O's coach-- IN THIS ARTICLE.  

You mention a tv show getting canceled-- but if VDN were a tv show, he'd be like Joey.  He seems like a nice guy but the product isn't that good.  And if you keep him, you might have According To Jim on your hands.  No one wants that.  Point is-- a tough year isn't reason to keep a coach.  The job he did actually did and can do in the future is all that matters.

The way Del Negro defended his job performance after Game 3's victory suggested he already knows. The way Del Negro played overmatched first-round draft pick James Johnson in Game 4 — he had five fouls in nine minutes — left cynics wondering if he was making a point about just how limited of a roster he was given.

Or he could just be trying anything to slow the best player in the game.  Granted, it was an odd decision.  And, believe it or not, a coach can lose a game and still do quality coaching.  And a coach can win and still be a bad coach.  Wins and losses are a terrible thing to base your review of a coach on.  Watch how the team plays instead.

The point isn't whether that was a veiled shot at management by Del Negro. The bigger point is that the relationship between Del Negro and the front office has deteriorated to the point we wonder at all.

The point is that  management should have fired VDN back in January.  They left him dangling alone all year.  They attacked him physically.  The point is this year has been so bad and bizarre for the Bulls, that the playoff series is really not much of a news story.

So there it is-- another bad Haugh article.  Hopefully it gets better.  At least the Bulls are almost done so we might get a hiatus for his Bulls/basketball thoughts.