Bulls Risky Doug Collins Hire
Ever since Michael Jordan soared out of Chicago, the Bulls have been a picture of inconsistency. Changing GMs didn't help. Trading players didn't help. Shuffling through coaches didn't help. So now they appear to be ready to make a nostalgic head coaching decision to see if that will help. Don't bet on it.
If you look at Doug Collins' record in his three seasons with the Bulls, in which he averaged 45 wins a season and went to the Eastern Conference Finals, you may wonder why the guy ever got run out of town. You would have a short memory.
Collins, known as an old-schooler of the highest order, was too much for his young Bulls to handle. In particular, Collins breathed down the necks of young stars Horace Grant and Scottie Pippen to the extent that they probably suffered third degree burns. So, it was out with the fierce Collins and in with Zen Master Triangle, Phil Jackson, who took the team to its first NBA Finals two seasons later and eventually won six titles.
So now, with the amazing fortune of having won the NBA Draft lottery, in which they will take one of two players (Derrick Rose or Michael Beasley) who has one year of college experience, and with a team loaded with frustrated players, they are going to hire a coach who was notoriously hard on players, especially young ones? Doesn't seem like a smart fit to me. Add to that the fact that Collins had not seemed interested in the prospect of returning to coaching until this week, and you have to wonder.
"I consider it a compliment when people mention me, but I just love my life now," he told ESPN's Mark Stein recently. "The work that has to be done and the headaches you have to put up with today, I'm not willing to pay that price. It's just too tough."
Well, as good as Ben Gordon, Luol Deng and Andres Nocioni may be, Phil, they're no M.J., Pippen and Grant. I don't think you have any idea of the price required to coach in today's NBA.
The move to hire Collins is coming from the brilliant mind of John Paxson, who has been even more mediocre as a GM than he was as a player. And that is not saying much.
Paxson already hired one old-school coach in Scott Skiles, who ended up rubbing players the wrong way before finally being fired. He also drafted Tyrus Thomas, who has underperformed in his short time in the league, and he overpaid for Ben Wallace, whom he eventually traded away. Paxson has had ample opportunity to rebuild this team with a lot of available cash, good draft positioning and multiple players with high trade value. So far he has nothing to show for it.
Maybe Paxson realizes that his days are numbered in Chicago, so he wants to hire a coach with a strong history of turning around teams in the first couple of years on the job before fading out.
How a fiery and stubborn Collins gets Deng, Gordon, Joakim Noah, Thomas, Chris Duhon and Nocioni, a group of up-tempo players who have made more news off the court and in the locker room than with their play over the past season, to listen to his harsh coaching and play his half-court style of basketball will probably determine not just Collins (second) career in Chicago, but also Paxson's and the foreseeable future of the franchise that already ran Collins out of town once.
If you look at Doug Collins' record in his three seasons with the Bulls, in which he averaged 45 wins a season and went to the Eastern Conference Finals, you may wonder why the guy ever got run out of town. You would have a short memory.
Collins, known as an old-schooler of the highest order, was too much for his young Bulls to handle. In particular, Collins breathed down the necks of young stars Horace Grant and Scottie Pippen to the extent that they probably suffered third degree burns. So, it was out with the fierce Collins and in with Zen Master Triangle, Phil Jackson, who took the team to its first NBA Finals two seasons later and eventually won six titles.
So now, with the amazing fortune of having won the NBA Draft lottery, in which they will take one of two players (Derrick Rose or Michael Beasley) who has one year of college experience, and with a team loaded with frustrated players, they are going to hire a coach who was notoriously hard on players, especially young ones? Doesn't seem like a smart fit to me. Add to that the fact that Collins had not seemed interested in the prospect of returning to coaching until this week, and you have to wonder.
"I consider it a compliment when people mention me, but I just love my life now," he told ESPN's Mark Stein recently. "The work that has to be done and the headaches you have to put up with today, I'm not willing to pay that price. It's just too tough."
Well, as good as Ben Gordon, Luol Deng and Andres Nocioni may be, Phil, they're no M.J., Pippen and Grant. I don't think you have any idea of the price required to coach in today's NBA.
The move to hire Collins is coming from the brilliant mind of John Paxson, who has been even more mediocre as a GM than he was as a player. And that is not saying much.
Paxson already hired one old-school coach in Scott Skiles, who ended up rubbing players the wrong way before finally being fired. He also drafted Tyrus Thomas, who has underperformed in his short time in the league, and he overpaid for Ben Wallace, whom he eventually traded away. Paxson has had ample opportunity to rebuild this team with a lot of available cash, good draft positioning and multiple players with high trade value. So far he has nothing to show for it.
Maybe Paxson realizes that his days are numbered in Chicago, so he wants to hire a coach with a strong history of turning around teams in the first couple of years on the job before fading out.
How a fiery and stubborn Collins gets Deng, Gordon, Joakim Noah, Thomas, Chris Duhon and Nocioni, a group of up-tempo players who have made more news off the court and in the locker room than with their play over the past season, to listen to his harsh coaching and play his half-court style of basketball will probably determine not just Collins (second) career in Chicago, but also Paxson's and the foreseeable future of the franchise that already ran Collins out of town once.
