The following was written by Marc Stein in his Weekend dime report:



I really never thought about him as a possible coaching candidate but with his recent success as Memphis' head coach, I like his style; it's a much faster pace than we are used to and that is what we need. What is your take on Calipari?

If he were to be the coach, he'd either need to find a new offensive system or we'd have to drastically overhaul the roster. It's kind of hard to run the dribble drive motion offense without guys that can penetrate.

Tyrus Thomas would get unlimited playing time under Calipari.

The Bulls are in a unique possition because they are still young. So to say they will 're-build' is kind of out of the question. But Calpari would be excellent for young guys like Sefelosha, Thomas and Noah. IMO thats the new core of the team and they need to build around those guys. This team IS NOT going to contend in the next 2 years, so we might as well develop the young guys. By the looks of things we will get another top 10 pick- hopefully a 6th-8th pick, that depends on the lottery of course. Can a Blazers situation happen? Can we get a top 2 pick? Its possible but very unlikely.

What to do with the other guys?
Pax is in a critical offseason...

I dunno on the Calipari front...just like in the NFL I have to ask, when's the last time a coach made a name for himself in the college game then took a job with a pro team and was actually successful?

Probably Larry Brown, at least off the top of my head.

Actually, I had forgotten that he was the head coach of the Nets for about 2 and a half years. They made the playoffs his second year, but he got fired after they started the post-lockout season 3-17.

Regardless, the success rate of college coaches making it in the NBA is quite low...

I want Jeff Van Gundy and only Jeff Van Gundy.

I wouldn't be mad if the Bulls hired someone like Van Gundy or Carlisle, although with the latter I'd have to learn how to spell his name correctly, but I've thought for a while that this young team might be a good place to try out some talented fresh coaching blood. Certainly there must be someone sitting as a top assistant coach on a staff somewhere who's at that spot where it's about time for him to get a shot at a head coaching job. I'd just like to see someone try a totally fresh start with this team.

In order of who I'd like to see

1. Jeff Van Gundy
2. Calapari
3. Carlisle
4. Terry Porter (I wouldn't mind giving him a shot, but I'd like to get a prime time coach to show we mean business)
5. Larry Brown

The one guy I really don't want to see at all is Larry Brown. Because to my eyes, a guy who believes that you win with vets (a-la the olympics) is not a good match for the youngest roster in the league.

Interesting. Not sure how good a fit he'd be...but like some have mentioned with such a young roster...it just might be a good fit. I also question the success of the college coaches going to the pros. Just doesn't happen very often. I know this sounds like a long shot...but one guy I wouldn't be surprised that Pax goes after is Mike Krzyzewski. I know he's in a good place and all...but I've read more than one place the frustration guys like him are having on the recruiting front, the one and dones and how turned off to it they're becoming.

Not sure if any of the guys listed here would be considered ready yet...but here's an interesting SI piece about some former NBA players going through a coaching training camp.

Karl Malone..... No one will F around with Malone as the coach!

No, John Stockton as the head coach and Malone as the Big man coach! Then we'd have an awesome pick and roll! Imagine that!

Boston Globe floats Boston Assistant coach and defensive guy Tom Thibodeau as potential coach of the Bulls next season.

I don't know how he would be at being a head coach, but he's the kind of guy I think we should be open to considering. Strong background, strong resume, solid recent performance.

The more I think about it, the more I'd like Rick Carlisle as coach of the Bulls. He's a good defensive minded coach, helped the Pistons come out of the pits, then took an injured/suspended Pacers team to the playoffs.

My big question on him is...if he struggled so much dealing with the personality conflicts and pathetic behaviour of the Pacers in the Artest/Jackson/ONeal years, why should we believe he's the guy to bring order to the Bulls after the Boylan disaster?

He may well have an answer to that question, but if I were interviewing him, his interview would hang strongly on that answer.

1.) You name ANY coach that has contained Ron Artest...

2.) The Pacers team as a whole was a bunch of guys who had issues with their egos or with the police. Stephen Jackson? You kidding me? Toting a gun around everywhere, Jermaine O'Neal was still maturing, Artest is a nutcase, and even in Detroit, Ben Wallace has a history of not liking his coaches (Carlisle, Saunders, Skiles, Boylan).

3.) Even with the terrible attitudes, he lead them to a 61 win season.

4.) Boylan was an assistant with the Bulls before he became a head coach. The guys know him already. The coaching job has clearly gotten to his head.

Tim Floyd (Or Cartwright, can't remember who it was back then)

I think Carlisle and Jeff Van Gundy would be my top choices. I wouldn't mind a great college basketball coach but I'd rather have a guy that already been successful at rebuilding a team or taking a team to the playoffs consistently.

If I was in that chair making the call, I wouldn't rule out a retread coach, but I also wouldn't give a big advantage to a guy that's taken a team to the playoffs consistently just for that reason, without considering the situation they were put in, etc. The most important thing I'd want to hear is what their plan is for developing the young guys and turning this team back around. I'll take a better plan over a better resume these days without a second thought.

Basically at this moment I'm leaning towards Calipari but the other two I wouldn't mind are Tom Thibidue (sp?) or Paul Westphal.

You mean when he a kid coming out of St. Johns? Come on...

A man tried to run him over. He should have been toting two guns.

Carlisle coaches a boring style of basketball that rule changes and increased athletisism are slowing making obsolete. Not to mentions the fact the Bulls aren't at all built for it.

Lol yeah.. sorry, I just had to.

Link.

The Milwaukee Bucks seem to have plucked a GM out of Detroit's system, and there's talk that his presence there makes Milwaukee a good fit for Carlisle and that he may well wind up coaching there.

I'm still sittin on Calipari as the front runner for the job in my eyes.

Any particular reason why?

Calipari signed an extension with Memphis yesterday.

One guy I never had thought of before was Mark Jackson. He seems to me like a guy who could really coach; like Avery Johnson. He knows the game and basically was a coach on the floor as he was running the point. What is your guys' take on him? I heard his name has come up in the Bulls coaching talks but I don't know what level of interest they have in him.

I don't remember where I read it (Soxtalk maybe?), but there was an article somewhere that made it sound like the Bulls are going to go with a re-tread coach like Carlisle or Van Gundy.

Yep, was Soxtalk.

http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?s=...t&p=1612599

There's talk in the NY Post this morning about 2 other potential names, Paul Silas, who is available, and Mike D'Antoni, who might be available.

Sign me up for D'Antoni if he gets fired. God would I love him to be our coach. If Sam Mitchell is fired, I'd be interested in him too.

Best case scenario to me would be the Knicks hiring Mark Jackson, the Bulls hiring Mike D'Antoni, and the Pistons losing in the 1st round and firing Saunders.

I agree whole heartedly. Mike D'Antoni is our perfect coach!

I'm not sure I want a coach who can't get the Suns to play D to come to the Bulls. OFfensively they are great but they don't play defense. A defensive mentality is a direct reflection of the coach. The Bulls were best when they played defense. This past year they stopped respecting their coach and stopped playing team basketball and team defense. We need a defensive minded coach that can improve our offense, teach our young players, and who can establish the correct roles and rotations for our players. I don't think Di"Antoni fits that mold.

I think Mark Jackson fits that mold. As a player he was a very good general on the floor. He played hard, ran the offense efficiently, and also was active defensively. I think that's the kind of player that transitions well to coaching. Unlike Skiles who also shared a lot of the same characteristics, Mark Jackson will probably be able to gain the trust of players because he will be a straight talker and won't have favorites, and I think he'll do a better job of teaching young players how to play the game. I don't think Skiles was patient enough for that. Mark Jackson could be huge for Kirk Hinrich's confidence and growth as a player/distributor.

If we don't get Jackson, I hope we get a fresh coach like Tom Thibodeau.

If I had a choice between Jackson and a retread I'd take the gamble and hire Jackson. Plus, the last Jackson coach we had worked out just fine.

Van Gundy, who knows Thibodeau as well as anyone, called the Boston move "a great change for Tom. I think when you work for someone so long, as Tom did for me, it works a lot better for the head coach. I'm not so sure how well it works for the assistant. But he has a talent for player development, and by that I mean development on the court, off the court, film, friendship, those types of things. The work he did with Yao Ming was the epitome of player development."

Wow. Your obsession with a "true PG" has clouded your mind that you now want Mark Jackson as our coach? Why not just go see what John Stockton is doing?

If you want a defensive minded coach, you want Rick Carlisle. I like D'Antoni because it doesn't require Paxson to totally revamp the roster, which I don't trust him to do at all.

Also, I'm pondering how you know Mark Jackson will be straight forward with the players and that he won't have favorites? Do you know him personally? Have you spoken to him in depth about these matters?

D'Antoni would bring out the best in Tyrus, Thabo, Joakim, and Gordon (Who would be our Barbosa). Its not that he can't coach defense, just look at all the players on that team, what do you think about when you see Steve Nash, Amare Staudemire, Barbosa, and Diaw? Defense probably isn't what comes to mind. All those guys are scorers and only Amare can be a good defender at times. Shaq is suppose to be there defensive stud but I still think offense when I see him out there.

Tyrus, Thabo, and Joakim are all defense first players but with D'Antoni as our coach he could bring out their offensive potential to the max. The one major thing we are missing is that passing point guard.

Wow. This surprised me.

My god you always have to nitpick about every little thing, just stop. Its not funny anymore

It was more of a sarcastic comment, as I hope yours above is as well.

Living out here in Phx...I've never been a big fan of D'Antoni. Lots of rumors of him and Kerr absolutely can't stand each other. Will he be fired...maybe. But he's still owed $8.5M for two more years...not chump change. If something happens I think there'd have to be some sort of buyout deal (which is unheard of for coaches)....but I'd expect that Bryan Colangelo (who brought D'Antoni to Phx from Italy) would pony up the dough. Doubtful he'd land here...but what do I know.

avrey johnson out as mavs coach. should the bulls be interested?

I'm being honest, I'm asking you to stop with the Tyrus garbage. Enough is enough; doing the same thing over and over again is redundant and it'd really be nice if you could just you know.. not do it anymore. We cool?

Wow you can't get anymore perfect than that. Avrey Johnson and D'Antoni available!?! I guess there not 100% certain on Dantoni but it looks like its the end of the road for him in Phoenix. If we hire any one of those two I'd be thrilled, but if they still sign Carlisle I'll be pissed with who is available now.

My problem with him is that while he seems like he'd be a solid defensive coach, I'm not exactly sure he's the offensive fix we need. Dallas supposedly ran one of the slower offenses in the league with him as head coach, they just had a lot of really effective scorers, IIRC.

Also, he seems like at some level he might be very similar to Skiles.

I suppose. Then again, I suppose it isn't really redundant when 80+ % of your posts have something to do with Tyrus?

80% eh? I think your just so set on waiting until you see me post Tyrus's name that you do the same stupid stuff everytime. I don't even understand why you even did it here since my post wasn't even about Tyrus. I don't know if you know this but I did mention other people in my post but for whatever reason you seem to ignore what my post was actually about and comment about nothing of any significance..

Easy now, save it for next year. If it weren't for the two of you going on about Tyrus the boards' post count would be cut in half.

Seriously though, let's let it die and get back on topic...

Personally, I'm more concerned about the roster than who we hire as a coach. All of these guys have some kind of issue (Johnson is fairly conservative on offense and could have problems without Dirk to get them out of trouble, Carlisle is kinda meh, did have two nice runs but with pretty good talent and I don't trust him to fix the offense, D'Antoni can't seem to motivate anyone to play D and Nash made it a bit easier to implement that attack, and who knows about Jackson or to a lesser extent Thibodeaux), I don't think you're going to find a guy that's magically going to turn things around without some upgrades.