| Paxson Misses On Skiles' Firing Authored by Douglas Benton - December 26, 2007 - 1:47 pm
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The Bulls were dealt adversity early in the season with all of the Kobe Bryant trade talks and their failure to get extensions done with Ben Gordon and Luol Deng. The added pressure from these situations through the Bulls off course early on and they have never been able to regain their stride.
This year, the Bulls have lacked their trademark effort on most nights and when they have shown it, it has come in spurts and not been sustained. This has been evident on both ends of the court.
Most people don't realize it, but the effort the Bulls' gave had a direct effect on their offense as well as their defense. Their offense is about moving parts and cutting away from the ball to slash and get the open looks off the pick and roll. However, the player movement has been bad this year, which has only highlighted their poor shooting. The lack of a post threat is still evident, but it has been the lack of player movement which has killed this team.
On defense, the Bulls have been getting beat on the ball far too often this year, leaving the back line susecptible to drive and kick plays. On top of this, the Bulls haven't rebounded the ball well this year, which has given teams more chances and not allowed the Bulls to run off their defense much, which was one of their strengths last season.
Individually, Krik Hinrich has regressed mightly this year both with his shot and his ability to run the team. This season, Chris Duhon has been the better of the two at running the offense. Hinrich's running mate, Ben Gordon, has struggled to make the leap to become an Allen Iverson type scorer and still has remained non-commital to defense.
Also, Ben Wallace has been a major disappointment in his second season with the Bulls because the effort he displayed in Detroit has been seen few and far between. In addition, the development of Tyrus Thomas has become stagnet and becomes a bigger issue with the ever improving play of the player the Bulls traded for Thomas, Portland's LaMarcus Aldridge.
Through this all, I like the team that is constructed. Sure, they need a bona fide low post presence who can command double teams, but they have talent. Deng and Andres Nocioni have created a top small forward tandem and two rookie bigs in Joakim Noah and Aaron Gray appear to have been good picks by Paxson and company.
A fact against Skiles is he has created a star system he tried tearing down when he first arrived and he and his staff haven't done a great job of developing their players behind initial success.
In the end, should Scott Skiles have been fired? Not now. In the middle of the season and still in the playoff hunt in a top heavy Eastern Conference, Skiles gives you the best chance to make the playoffs and some eventual noise. This team is built for Scott Skiles in every way and he should have been given a full season to turn it around. At the end of the year, if the Bulls miss the playoffs and look bad doing it, then you might want to re-evaluate Skiles, but right now, it comes off as the Bulls are quitting on this season and feel the work done the last four seasons has been in the wrong direction. |
