Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Joakim Noah, Tyrus Thomas, Chris Duhon, Andres Nocioni ... over the last season, I have talked to several of these players, several of their agents, and several of their friends.

My impression is that's a group of extremely hard-working players who want to win.

But for whatever reason, when you put them in the pressure cooker that is the current Bulls organization, in their own way, they have each cracked. They have, in some cases, not felt valued. Professional development has, they say, not been a priority. Communication has been terrible. Players have felt humiliated at times, and confused at others.

It's a sad situation.

Was Jim Boylan the problem? I guess it's possible, but no one I have talked to who is close to the situation feels the problems are solved by today's firing.

In the meantime, if the Bulls continue to believe that these young players are the problem, and start auctioning them off cheap, my advice to the rest of the league would be "buy." With some nurturing, and some playing time, I expect it will be clear we haven't seen the best of these Bulls yet.

Of course, somebody will replace Jim Boylan. (Who wants next on the coaching seat of doom?) Quite possibly the new person will have the chutzpah to fix everything in one fell swoop. It would be great to see, and I'm sure no one would be more thrilled than those players.

I found this to be a summary of the Bulls I'm in total agreement with.
I still look at this roster and think that it looks like a loaded roster. Lots of top 10 picks, lot of talent, enormous amount of depth. But somehow, everything just went wrong when they were put on the court this season.

I tend to refuse to believe in the "Magical supercoach" theory. You can't build a college team simply by spending a lot of money to hire a big name coach who will leave you in 3 years. You can't turn an NBA team around simply by bringing in Larry Brown. Bill Parcells isn't going to win you that many more games than the worst coach in the NFL. Belichek might be the exception, but that's for electronic reasons.

But this situation looks like something that I think the right coach could change. I don't know who that would be, but this seems so much like a big ship that's just missing a rudder, something to point it in the right direction, that nailing the coaching search might well put us up where we should have been this year, with the Celtics and Pistons.

Tyson Chandler pretty much has verified this article....
My thinking is the lack of a very good veteran presence (and not Ben Wallace) has been sorely missing. A Ray Allen, Garnett, etc...has sorely been missed with the youth. Tell you one thing...I don't know how...but I'd do whatever I could to bring Brand back if they don't go big in the draft.

Trouble is...how do we know which vet would be the right one(s) to stick in here? I bring this up because The Clippers somehow got themselves in exactly this same boat a few years ago, with Brand on their team, but when they brought in Sam Cassel everything clicked for them for a season (Until injuries started piling up). How do we know Brand is going to be the kind of guy this team needs (esp. since bringing him in would clearly crowd out TT and Gooden if they weren't moved in getting him)

I see what yer sayin...but I don't consider Cassell a "good veteran presence". Not many left out there IMO. I'm talking about guys like Allen, Garnett, Grant Hill, Kidd, etc... Hard to differentiate between a good veteran and a good player. Good player doesn't always = good influence. Hell...maybe they're all gone now by way of the dinosaurs. The guy I think I'd make a serious play for is Dwayne Wade. I know he'd cost a little bit and he's had some injuries...but I really right off the top of my head think of guys that might be available that fit that criteria. Wade would be perfect on this team IMO.

We might be able to do it if we let go of both Gordon and Deng.