HoopsHype.com NBA Blogs - Eddie Johnson

The Chicago Bulls are in the spirit of giving Christmas gifts early and Scott Skiles was the only participant that didn’t like the gift, at least that’s what I assume. But then again, Skiles once left the Phoenix Suns in the middle of the season, so maybe he is happy to part ways with the only squad that was willing to bring his career back to life after he literally quit on his previous team – which is something only reserved for Larry Brown to do.

What I have heard prior to his firing is he has an inability to communicate with his players on a consistent basis and that a number of players had no idea what was expected of them on the court. My experience tells me that Skiles lost some enthusiasm and the players, as they always do, noticed and complained behind the scenes – which cost Skiles his job.

The overriding factor on coaches losing their job during the season is interviews with the players. And I will bet my bottom dollar that John Paxson had no choice because of player complaints – to go along with his own perception that this team was underachieving with Skiles at the helm.

Paxson is not immune to these problems either. I wrote a story already about the drafting of Ben Wallace clones (Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah) the last few years and holding on to Luol Deng when they could have had the best player on the planet in Kobe Bryant. Paxson showed his weakness by allowing Skiles to encourage him to build a team of hustlers and role players and not pull the trigger on Bryant or Kevin Garnett. I suspect Skiles wanted nothing to do with star players that would challenge his authority and compromise his theory that no player should dominate the ball. Well, I think it’s obvious where that gets you and that’s fired, because you need stars to win and the Bulls presently have none.

The Bulls did not win six championships with hustling role players. They won with megastar Michael Jordan and two superstars in Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman. The problem I have with Paxson is that he is thinking so opposite of how he won titles and this has him in line with being next to go.

Now let’s see how fast those Kobe for Luol Deng and others come to life again, huh?

By the way, Skiles might not be alone getting canned this season…

Mike Brown (Cleveland). Was exposed by Gregg Popovich last year during the Finals and seemingly has struggled to get this team to perform consistently since that sweep.

Mike Dunleavy (LA Clippers). Yes, Elton Brand is out. But this team should not be a 9-17.

Lawrence Frank (New Jersey). Three star players and no consistency – which means trouble for Frank.

Pat Riley (Miami). Oops sorry, I forgot. He can’t fire himself.

Isiah Thomas (New York). Dolan is on record as saying Isiah will not be fired, but he has to get this leaderless team playing with passion or Dolan will be forced to go back on his statement of support. I am pulling for Zeke to get through this, but unfortunately his players are showing no heart, which is extremely disturbing for any fan.

Let’s give a pat on the back to the coaches that were on the hot seat, but are now Coach of the Year candidates.

Mike Woodson (Atlanta). Has done a brilliant job of molding this young team around superstar-in-the-waiting Joe Johnson. Woodson also might be one of the best coaches in the league at drawing up plays in crunch time, which is huge for a young team.

Flip Saunders (Detroit). Had the Pistons gotten off to a slow start, he would be gone. But give Saunders credit… It is not easy to coach a team laced with veterans who have won a championship. He seems to be in control and working hard at communicating better. Check out his interaction with players as they walk to the scorers’ table before games.

Nate McMillan (Portland). Along with Woodson, he is the front runner for Coach of the Year. I felt Portland would surprise this year without Greg Oden, but not to the tune of 10-game winning streaks. Nate has convinced this team to play extremely hard and allowed Brandon Roy, a second-year player, to lead them. The rest of the league better get use to this team dominating like this in the future once Oden is in uniform.

Doc Rivers (Boston). Rivers can communicate but most importantly he is allowing the three stars – Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen – to coach on the floor. That is extremely difficult to do for a lot of egomaniac coaches that would love to be in Rivers’ position right now. If Larry Brown coached this team, I would bet that he would run plays for Kendrick Perkins in crunch time just to keep the stars humble. Rivers understands why he is 22-3 and ego will never make him feel otherwise.

I will use one of the funniest quotes I have ever heard in sports and only because it’s in reference to my beloved Chicago Bears. Dennis Green, the former head coach of the Arizona Cardinals went into a postgame tirade in reference to the Cardinals blowing a huge fourth quarter lead to the Bears last year and conducted a press conference for the archives, which is now a national commercial. He said, “The Bears are who we thought they were and we had them right where we wanted them, now if you want to go and crown their ass go right ahead, but we had them right were we wanted them.”

That’s the same feeling I have about the Chicago Bulls. They are exactly what I thought they were and that is good team that will fight and claw but always come up short. Still, some prognosticators were crowning them to win the Eastern Conference this year.

The Bulls are 1-5 and could conceivably be 1-9 after the first four games of a six-game road trip playing against the Suns, Clippers, Lakers and Nuggets.

Chicago fans are wondering what is wrong with the team that swept Miami last year and was beaten 4-2 by the Pistons in the Conference semifinals.

Let’s backpedal for a moment to last year…

Everyone thought the Cavaliers got a break when the Bulls blew an opportunity to play the Wizards last year in the first round, but Chicago caught a break too. The Heat proved to be just as bad as the Wizards and the proof is the fact the Heat have lost 19 out of 20 games going back to last season and counting seven preseason losses this year.

Also add the fact that the Pistons were vulnerable and the Bulls couldn’t take advantage. Just look at their meltdown against Cleveland in the Conference Finals.

So here is my point… The Bulls are not as good as advertised and it’s because of two fatal flaws that never seem to work out come winning time.

The first flaw is obvious and I wrote about it when Chicago signed Ben Wallace much to the chagrin of Bulls fans who peppered me with insults via e-mail. The Bulls have zero interior scoring with not one player on their roster that can command a post position and create high percentage baskets for him or his teammates. Wallace offers nothing offensively and his strengths are rebounding and blocked shots. Well, I am embarrassed to even mention that he is averaging 4.8 rebounds and 1 block per game.

That’s why the Bulls are shooting 38 percent as a team and rank 29th in the league in that area… Because teams are suffocating the perimeter players and daring them to drive or throw it down low to any big man the Bulls have on the floor.

Secondly, their go-to scorer is a 6-foot-2 guard, Ben Gordon , who is shooting 35 percent from the field and is averaging a paltry 2.2 assists per game – thus adding proof of how they are being defended. The Bulls have a team of hustlers and players with no star ability to score consistently and dominate. Yes, they can play defense. But really, what other choice do they have? That is exactly what Scott Skiles and John Paxson have been preaching, but this way of thinking is wrong – especially when it involves Paxson, who played on multiple championship teams and was nothing but a shooter himself.

They drafted Gordon, Kirk Hinrich and Luol Deng – all of them outside scorers that can create problems. And then they signed a non-scorer in Ben Wallace and draft back-to-back non-scoring big men in Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah.

I look back at all those Bulls championship teams and see virtually all of their players with the ability to shoot the ball.

That’s why I am having a hard time understanding the method to this madness. Why do you pay Ben Wallace most of your payroll and then go and draft two clones? (Especially Noah, who might be a worse scorer than Wallace. Did I just say that?)

Listen, here is the remedy!

Paxson, you blew the chance to trade for Kevin Garnett and he might win his second MVP this season based on early season projections. And now you are hesitant to trade for Kobe Bryant.

Paxson, you need to listen to your conscience and stop listening to head coach Scott Skiles, who is intent on having 12 players who played like he did – diving on the floor and running through brick walls. Four or five of those players are enough.

You need Kobe Bryant, so put a package together including Luol Deng and stop thinking you are going to build a championship with draft picks. Superstars win championships.

The only wild card team with enough savvy and talent without a star player is Detroit and although I picked them to win the East, they will not win the championship. Boston has the best chance right now in the East.

Make your job easier and go with the superstar. Build around him. Kobe has a solid 5 to 6 years left in him to at least give the Bulls a fighting chance to win a title. If you don’t, “The Bulls will be who we thought they were, but they will never be crowned.”