It's safe to say, Bulls' fans, that not much was expected from the 2008-09 Chicago Bulls, and after 3 straight tough losses to the San Antonio Spurs, New York Knicks & Atlanta Hawks. Bulls' General Manager John Paxson sounded as frustrated as Bulls' fans when he held court with the media at practice today at the Berto Center. While #1 overall pick Derrick Rose has been terrific, the rest of the team appears to have already tuned out rookie head coach Vinny Del Negro just 40 games into his first season. While Pax seems to have admitted blame for his part in not making this uneven roster better, he didn't exactly give Vinny and his coaching staff a vote of confidence either. It makes me wonder if the Bulls need a complete makeover from the front office on down. I realize Uncle Jerry is very loyal to his employees, but he's got to wake up and smell the coffee. Paxson needs to be sent packing for not being more proactive in not making this roster much better when he had the chance, and Del Negro is simply in over his head, just like a certain college coach who had no business here a decade ago, Tim Floyd.

Nas, I was listening to "Boers & Bernstein" late this afternoon when I heard Paxson's less than flattering remarks. After hearing what Pax said to reporters, Terry & Dan were under the impression that Del Negro's not long for this job and even talked to "SCORE" Bulls reporter David Schuster on the subject after he filed a report from the Berto Center in the 4p update. Jason Goff also chimed in, and seemed to think that this was "destined to fail".

Question for you salary cap guys: How hard would it be to trade Deng before the deadline? If he keeps putting together solid performances, I'd definitely try to move him. If the Hughes/Simmons deal goes through, though, I suspect it'll be Nocioni and possibly Gordon who go, though.

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To trade Deng would be tough this year due to the Base Year Compensation rule and the fact that they are already over the cap.

What's wrong with Vinny. The players don't respect you....shit they didn't respect Skiles ( a hardass) The Celtics get it where the Bulls players don't and never will!

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

I think the issues for Skiles were much different than they were with VDN. I also suspect that some of the "disrespect" stuff with Skiles was overblown / fan consensus accepted as truth. With VDN it's Jim Boylan all over again - the guy has done nothing to deserve respect from his players, let alone refs or other coaches around the league. The Bulls need a guy who's a coaching lifer in there; just because you can run with the players in practice doesn't mean they have to listen to a single word you say in the locker room.

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This thing is a damned train wreck - how does Pax fire this guy a year or less after he takes the job? It's a blatant admission of failure...

It is a failure, and the man who signs the checks for this franchise, Jerry Reinsdorf, also deserves blame for this debacle! He snoozed & lost Mike D'Antoni to the New York Knicks when he didn't even make a damn offer! He was afraid to give Doug Collins another chance, and also bypassed a guy who was supposedly a front runner for the job in ex-Minnesota Timberwolves' head coach Dwane Casey before settling on someone in Vinny Del Negro who had NEVER coached a damn game in his life, and would be better suited doing what John Paxson isn't doing well right now. I had a chance to go to tonight's game vs. Toronto, and I took a pass! I'm not spending $40 to sit in Section 305 and watch a bad basketball team possibly lose another clunker to an even worse team than they are before another extended Western "Road Trip from Hell" before the All-Star Break! The Bulls need a complete makeover, and Uncle Jerry needs to get Pax out of there, and VDN is in over his head! They'll be lucky to reach the 33 wins they had a year ago in a really bad conference!