Like a kid having trouble sleeping on Christmas Eve, I sat up last night thinking about what exactly would be said this morning at the Berto Center. For much of the season I was on Team Gar-Pax, but after the March 30th incident, I began to drift over to Team Vinny. Now that didn’t mean that I necessarily wanted Vinny to stay on and coach next year, but I did feel a little bit more blame could be placed on management for not acquiring a replacement for Ben Gordon’s 3-pt shooting.

I had concluded that I would try to take up Henry Abbott from TrueHoop’s challenge to write a recap focusing on defense only. I figured that would be easy as I expected Gar-Pax to be extremely defensive about their decision to hire Vinny in the first place, not firing him in the winter when they offered him little to no support, the March 30th incident, and the firing of a coach that brought a young team to the playoffs two years in a row.

If the Forman or Paxson were defensive in today’s press conference they must have been watching Golden State game tape (lack of defense, not the whole completely dysfunctional organization part). In what I thought a wise choice, they refrained from double-teaming the press, instead choosing to go with a man-to-man approach.

Forman went first, as a GM should, and acknowledged that Vinny Del Negro had worked hard, and had certainly done some good things with the Bulls. I thought it was odd that when asked why they fired Del Negro, Forman responded there was not “anything specific” and then went on to say that where they were just wasn’t where they wanted to get.  I can’t quite remember but didn’t the Bulls make the playoffs these past two seasons? Even more remarkable this year considering they struggled with numerous injuries, BG’s departure, ho-hum free agent signings and two significant trades during the season? Where else did they expect the Bulls “to get”? What Forman really meant to say was that they didn’t believe Vinny could get them to where they wanted to go.

Forman was clear, in his last bit of defense he played, that he would let the media drive past him and discuss the March 30th incident with the man responsible for it, John Paxson, sliding over to provide the weak side help defense. Interestingly enough, he said that Paxson wanted to address the matter with the media immediately after it happened, but Forman told him to hold off until the end of the season to avoid distraction (Whoops!).

From there Forman then went on the offensive, turning the press conference into an extended free agency pitch. It was as if they were saying “we know we can’t talk with all of you until July 1st, but put on these 3-D glasses and it’s as if I’m talking directly to you -Lebron, Chris, Dwyane, Joe, Carlos, whomever”. He praised his young nucleus of Rose, Noah, Deng, Hinrich, Gibson and Johnson, explaining that they were almost all in their early 20′s (although he called Kirk a glue guy, which is code for “I know Kirk is turning 30 next year”). He went on to detail the great city of Chicago, the great fans, and the great organization – insert talking points – which was first rate, with great ownership, and unified.

Forman offered very little in terms of what he would look for in a new coach, indicating that today was truly the start of their search and that he had twenty messages waiting for him on his voicemail after the press conference.

With that, John Paxson took the podium and without recanting too many of the specifics of the March 30th incident, apologized to Del Negro and the rest of the Bulls organization. He explained that as a player he had to fight and scrap for everything he had, but that there was no place for such behavior as an executive in the organization. Paxson also smartly acknowledged that it didn’t matter the reason for why he stood up to Vinny on that day, he was wrong and he was still embarrassed by his decision. Consistent with the Bulls organization’s message that Vinny didn’t do anything wrong and they were merely looking for a new dynamic moving in the future, Paxson saluted Vinny for being a diligent, hard worker, who did not short change the Bulls in his preparation.

Post-Script to Press Conference:

About a half an hour later, Vinny briefly spoke with the press outside of the Berto Center. He thanked Jerry Reinsdorf for the opportunity to coach the Bulls and thanked his players for their effort and support. He credited his assistant coaches for working extremely hard throughout the two seasons. Lastly, he thanked the fans for continuing to support the team and its growth.

Notice anyone missing? You can’t blame Vinny for omitting the two guys above after the complete lack of support throughout the season. They easily could have lent Vinny the support and still made the same decision at the end of the season. It should not be hard to get a quality coach in place this offseason, but only time will tell whether Forman and Paxson can succeed with the upcoming free agent class.

By now, we have all heard about the alleged incident between Vinny Del Negro and John Paxson.  While the details are unclear, the consensus still seems to be that Paxson was the aggressor in this situation.  The question now arises, will any lawsuits be brought on account of the incident?  An interesting quote from the Chicago Tribune yesterday may shed some light on why we should probably expect a lawsuit:

“People are less likely to sue if they feel the organization is owning some responsibility,” said Bernie Dyme of Perspectives Ltd., a Chicago company that creates employee training programs.

The lawsuit question kind of gets pushed to the back of my mind when I hear that quote, however.  Lawsuits are not the only thing that are less likely if the organization owns some responsibility.  An organization that is so eager to shirk responsibility is going to find itself less customers, less qualified employees, and a less profitable product.  This whole situation is just another example of bad business practices by a front office that has been attempting to regain credibility in this city since the great Jerry Krause took a huge dump on their front office’s reputation.

With everything that has happened, do you believe the front office has regressed to Krause-era levels of ineptitude?  An argument could be made that it has.  It’s funny how one lucky bounce of a draft lottery ball can cover up a lot of errors.

(Sidenote: Brownie points to anyone who recognizes the person quoted in that Tribune story.)

Apparently some sources are reporting Vinny was the aggressor now, but as far as we know, it went down just like it is pictured here:

If this get up didn't hurt Vinny's coaching career, then this episode with Pax won't either.

Stormin Norman aptly wrote in this space earlier this week that the Bulls were trying to build a shady case to fire Vinny Del Negro. Well today the news broke that Bulls management went further than just trying to question his in-game management skills or refusing to publicly support Vinny Del Negro with reporters.

Reports have John Paxson confronting the coach in the locker room after the March 30th game against the Phoenix Suns when Joakim Noah played beyond his organizational set minute limits.

The Tribune reported that Paxson allegedly grabbed Del Negro’s tie (not the hair John!) and shoved him twice in his chest.

ESPN Chicago downgraded the contact, claiming Paxson “poked him with jabs to the chest”. Paxson then challenged Del Negro to a fight before being restrained by assistant coach, Bernie Bickerstaff.

Last month during their tilt against the Houston Rockets, the Bulls players all laughed after one of the players suggested they “Win this for Vinny!” when Del Negro was ejected for arguing foul calls. It’s unclear whether the Bulls players will rally around their coach in this last week and hopefully, into the playoffs. But what is clear, is that in showing restraint, Del Negro saved himself for being fired for cause (although you could argue that his coaching coming out of timeouts may constitute “for cause”) and kept his reputation clean for his inevitable job search in his future.

*UPDATE: Charles Barkley, quickly becoming the Joe Rogan of the NBA (fight analyst/mediocre comedian/mediocre actor), admitted that no one would want to see a Vinny Del Negro v. John Paxson fight in the first place. But if a fight happens? “Vinny will whup his ass.”*

Before I answer the question about Chicago moving on from Ben Gordon, let me throw some numbers at you:

2008-2009 (w/Ben Gordon):

FG%: .457 (16th)
PPG: 105.1 (8th)
Opponents FG%: .458 (15th)

2009-2010 (w/o Ben Gordon):

FG%: .433 (27th)
PPG: 91.4 (27th)
Opponents FG%: .457 (18th)

The obvious answer to the question posed is that this city was over him about 6 months after he won 6th Man of the Year.  I will never understand why.  After all that hater talk about how bad his defense was and how all his turnovers were killing the Bulls on offense, it sure looks to me like the Bulls are missing Gordon, wouldn’t you say?  Sure he took some bad shots, but he hit a lot more of those than the “good” shots that Vinny and the Bulls have been creating for themselves lately.  And its not like the team defense has improved all that much without him, as opponents’ fg% has dropped only 1/100th of a percent this season.

Okay, I am not going to rehash my defense of Ben Gordon here.  The bottom line is that a poor shooting Bulls team right now looks in desperate need of him.  Remember how frustrating it was that Vinny couldn’t seem to draw up plays at the end of games (or ever really) that involved BG dribbling around like a chicken with his head cut off, and then jacking up a terrible shot?  Sure it went in a good amount of the time, since we all know he hit some big shots in his career, but it was difficult to watch.  Well guess what?  Now we don’t even have that.  Rose refuses to pull the trigger, Salmons and Hinrich might as well be shooting blindfolded, and Brad Miller is, well, Brad Miller.

So as Gordon returns to town with claims of having “moved on”, and I believe he has since this team and city basically took a shit on him for most of his career here (Skiles bringing him off the bench for 3 years, Paxson not giving him an extension, Paxson not giving him an extension, etc), the question is, have the Bulls REALLY moved on?  Perhaps psychologically the break with Gordon was occurring since his first day here, but in terms of what the Bulls really need to succeed this season, the people that truly understand basketball know what he meant to the team and we miss him.  Bad.

Tyrus Thomas, a lightning rod of discussion and controversy for the Bulls, becomes a restricted free agent this offseason.  The Bulls have until October 31 to offer him an extension, otherwise they will have to match any offer another team gives him this coming summer to keep him.  The likelihood of him remaining a Bull if he becomes a restricted free agent seems unlikely at best, since the Bulls will probably be using their cap space to chase one of the big free agents that will be available in the class of 2010.  Sources close to the Bulls seem to think that Tyrus will not be signed to an extension before the October 31st deadline, however:

A source close to the Chicago Bulls organization told us yesterday it looks like the Bulls will not extend Tyrus Thomas before the Oct. 31 deadline and I assume he also meant they will let him walk next off season when he becomes a restricted free agent.

I’m not sure how reliable that source is, but The Hoop Doctors usually are pretty good about reporting on NBA-related topics.  If Tyrus truly does walk, it will be the end of a sad saga for Paxson in which he essentially passed on taking Aldridge OR Roy in the 2006 draft.  On the other hand, Tyrus might break out in his contract year and earn a huge deal making the Bulls regret not extending him when his value was still somewhat low.  We’ll have to wait and see how this all plays out.

• Jake Peavy says no to the White Sox.  How embarassing. [Smells Like Mascot]
• As embarassing as a 20-0 loss?  I don’t know for sure, but the Sox had a BAD day yesterday. [Deadspin]
• The Bulls have a new GM, sort of, even though Pax is still kind of running things.  Either way, the new guy wants to keep Ben Gordon. [By The Horns] + [Sun-Times]
• Lou is getting angry and D-Lee and Soto may be the first to feel his wrath.  Get ready for the benchings. [Wrigleyville23]
• Get ready for video gambling Chicagoans, because the state senate just passed a bill legalizing it.  WOO!! [Chicago Breaking News]
• Ok Ethan, don’t get too excited, but Mark DeRosa is apparently on the trading block. [Shysterball]
• So now the City is trying to tax Bears season-ticket holders under some amusement tax.  I’m not “amused”. [BlogDown]
• Robert Horry lost his 7 championship rings.  [BDL]
• Well, at least Horry didn’t sell his rings…yet. [Chicago Breaking News]
• The Fridge is out of the hospital.  Whew. [WCG]
• The Bulls are bringing in some potential draftees to work out.  Not exactly the cream of the crop, but they are prospects I guess. [Blogabull]

• Gar Forman will be the new GM of the Chicago Bulls.  He is being promoted to replace Johnny P.  Hard to compete with a guy named Gar I suppose.  [ESPN]
• The Zooker has a Twitter account and he is finding INTENSITY wherever he goes.  Woooooooooooooooo! [Deadspin]
• Sounds like Cutler was showing off the arm strength in the first Bears OTA.  I’m sure this is nothing new after years of Sex Cannon throwing deep in camp.  [Sun-Times]
• Another tough night for the Cubs hitters as they waste a good start from Dempster and lose to the Cards 2-1.  Lee was bad, Soriano was worse, and Milton Miltoned.  [Tribune]
• Holy crap, check out Mark Buehrle’s truck! It’s so irresponsible Al Gore and Michael Moore are making a movie about it.  [Deadspin]
• So Dwight Howard broke the shot clock on a dunk last night.  Don’t see that all the time. [FanHouse]
• The Free Darko guys have done it again.  Here is the Derrick Rose version of some commercials they helped put together.  [Docksquad]

• Bulls win an instant classic!  Obviously more on this to come, but here’s a good take on the game. [Hardwood Paroxysm]
• Tex Winter, the mastermind behind the triangle offense and former Bulls assistant, suffered a stroke on Saturday. [Truehoop]
• A great breakdown of all the Bears picks this weekend. [WCG]
• The Cubs finally won a game, and more importantly made a statement about not backing down.  Take that Albert Pujols. [Wrigleyville23]
• Our favorite fantasy basketball site is going with a new design.  Check it out. [Give Me The Rock]
• Remember when John Paxson was going to step down as GM?  That talk sort of died after the trade deadline, but apparently there still might be a little shake up in the front office this summer. [Sun-Times]
• Another dickhead lays into Milton Bradley.  As bored as I am with people giving him a hard time, he’s not exactly making it easy to like him. [Bleacher Nation]
• There were a lot of undrafted free agents signed after the draft concluded.  Here’s an unofficial list. [NE Patriots Draft]
• Some people in Chicago are trying to kill Tony Allen.  Why?  Who cares about him? [Deadspin]
• First Ramirez, then Marmol, and now D-Lee?  Bradley is already banged up, how much more can the Cubbies take? [Bleacher Nation]

The Knicks are coming to town tonight, and with them, some former Bulls.  One of NQTC’s favorite jackasses is among them: Larry Hughes.  Apparently he felt this was a good time to air out some of the dirty laundry that went down between himself and the front office.  Here’s his take on what happened:

In an interview with the New York Daily News, Hughes had a complaint with how things ended with the Bulls. He didn’t play after Jan. 12, when Kirk Hinrich returned from a thumb injury.

“I got a text message from the GM (John Paxson) – that’s it,” he said. “It was one line saying they appreciated my patience and wishing me good luck. I thought I’d get a courtesy call. They do it in every workplace, every day. When management sends you off, they give you a courtesy call.

“There’s no relationship (with coach Vinny Del Negro). I didn’t start, but that wasn’t the issue. You can’t start all the time. I understand that. And I voiced that. The issue was that he didn’t give me a shot to be out there to contribute.”

With someone as narcissistic as Hughes, its hard to tell if his story is true, or just an attempt to look blameless.  If it is true, Paxson definitely did not handle the situation with any professionalism.  Rarely will you hear me defend Larry Hughes, but in this case, maybe Pax needs to communicate better with his players.  This isn’t to say that Hughes deserved to be treated any better, but its a bad image for the league.  In a situation where the Bulls plan on being active players on the free agent market, the last thing we want Chris Bosh (or Dwayne Wade, or anyone really) thinking is “Oh, the Bulls are interested?  Wait, don’t they treat their players poorly?”

This all presumes Hughes is telling the truth, which I find hard to believe for the reasons stated above.  Either way Paxson has spent the better part of a decade trying to erase the image left by Jerry Krause that the Bulls front office doesn’t treat its players with respect.  It would be a shame to see that begin to unravel over a loser like Hughes.

The playoff race for the Bulls is in full-swing and most of us are preoccupied with the Bulls inevitable fall (by playoff elimination or first-round sweep).  There is some news stirring on the off-season front, however.  Mike McGraw of the Daily Herald reports:

Word is, though, the Bulls would feel much better about acquiring Bosh than they would Amare Stoudemire, another defensively-challenged forward that might be on the market. The biggest reason is Bosh’s personality. He sort of fits the mold of a Georgia Tech engineering student, serious and studious. The belief is Bosh would make a good teammate, while general managers aren’t quite sold on Stoudemire in that regard.

So if Bosh becomes trade bait this summer, the Bulls are sure to get involved. This is one reason why the Bulls should step up and re-sign Ben Gordon, so they’ll have spare parts to put in any potential deal. Tyrus Thomas and a player of Toronto’s choosing, not Rose or Joakim Noah, figures to be the offer, though the possibilities are endless.

Obviously there would be a lot of competition for Bosh’s services.  I also believe that Bosh would be a better fit for the Bulls, but to be honest I wouldn’t mind either one.  Pair either of those guys up with Rose and that is a perennial playoff team in the East.

Also, maybe keeping Gordon around on a qualifying deal this year will pay off.  If we can use him in a sign-and-trade, then I’m all for it.  Pax loves those ‘character’ guys.

It has become clear over the past few weeks that I have a man-crush on John Salmons.  I wrote last week making the case for Salmons to get minutes over Deng at the 3 spot.  With Deng’s injury and his season in jeopardy, the question takes on a new angle.  Instead of discussing whether Salmons or Deng should be getting more minutes, we now must look at how bad it will hurt the Bulls to have Deng on the pine for the rest of the season (if the injury is that severe).  Accuscore ran a useful analysis on the Bulls playoff chances before and after the Deng injury.  This chart was made before the win on Friday against the Bucks:

Bulls Win Projection With Deng: 10.8

Bulls Playoff Chances With Deng: 46.1%

Bulls Win Projection Without Deng: 10.6

Bulls Playoff Chances Without Deng: 44.6%

The thing to note about this is that the 3 (now four teams) that are behind the Bulls in the race for the 8th seed all have lower percentage chances to make the playoffs than the Bulls with or without Deng.

Also if you are looking to criticize Paxson for the trades he made at the deadline, Accuscore will make you think twice about that now.  Had the Bulls not made the trade, their win projection drops to 9.6 and their playoff chances drop to 38.8%, well below that of the Nets and the Pacers.

Over the last couple of weeks, Vinny Del Negro and John Paxson have been going at it over Derrick Rose’s 4th quarter minutes. Vinny had been keeping Rose on the bench in crucial late-game situations and Paxson was upset. Before I go any farther, I think it’s obvious to 99% of people that Paxson is right in this argument. Derrick Rose is the future of this team and regardless of whether Hinrich is better defensively (he hasn’t been the last year and a half), Rose should be getting the valuable experience in late game situations.

That being said, did Paxson handle this situation correctly? Here were his very public comments the other day on WMVP-1000 radio:

“I’ve talked to Vinny about this. And our future is Derrick. There’s no secret of that. There are times that I personally feel – and Vinny knows this – that I feel he should be on the floor at the end of games.”

Once Paxson went public, Vinny was backed into a corner and …

Read the rest of my post at Pippen Ain’t Easy…

After Paxson claimed he laid down the law on Vinny a couple days ago regarding backcourt minutes in the 4th quarter, Vinny responded in a totally mature and reasonable way yesterday:

“That’s between us,” Del Negro said of his near-daily conversations with Paxson. “I’ll make decisions on the team on what I see fit for players and when they should play and when they don’t. I know my players better than anybody. Derrick is going to be out there in the fourth quarter. Everyone is going to be held accountable defensively. If I feel there’s an advantage for us to do certain things in the fourth quarter, those are the decisions I have to make as a head coach. And I’ll make them.”

Translation: “I cleaned my room cuz I wanted too, not cuz daddy told me too.”  Whatever you want to tell yourself Vinny, just keep Rose on the floor.

K.C. Johnson is reporting that the Bulls will be meeting Barack Obama today:

The Bulls are scheduled to meet President Barack Obama Thursday afternoon in the Blue Room of the White House.
“A great honor for the Chicago Bulls organization,” said Steve Schanwald, executive vice president of business operations. “The President has been a fan of the Bulls for many years and we are very appreciative of this opportunity to say hello to him and pay our respects.”

Perhaps the Bulls organization should heed Barack’s messages and vision for this country when they are deciding how to handle their own affairs.  Here’s how his messages can help:

Change: The Bulls need to change the way they think and do business.  Building around the young stars works fine, but once you fall in love with “young assets” and refuse to make the big moves that this franchise needs to take the next step, then you have problems. 

Hope: There is hope for this franchise, but it is way down line (similar to our economy, no?).  With Derrick Rose to build around and a ton of cap space in 2010, its pretty irrelevant what happens the next two years.  The two things they need to focus on are making Chicago an attractive place to play and keeping all that cap space cleared up.

No More Business As Usual: Fire Vinny Del Negro.  Also the way the organization is run at the top needs to be different.  Reinsdorf’s meddling may have caused countless problems and they can’t have the owner micromanaging the GM’s moves.  Not to say Paxson would make all the right moves without Reinsdorf’s interference, but its just not a good way to run a business.

Yes We Can: Listen to the fans!  We are the ones buying the tickets and supporting the team.  We aren’t as clueless as you might think and we care passionately about the team.

I was going to write one about bi-partisanship, but it doesn’t look like Obama was all that sincere about that one (not a single Republican vote on the stimulus package, are you kidding me?).