SHARK wrote:
By not firing their head coach, I think the odds are better than even money that Vinny Del Negro finishes his 2nd season before Bulls' management ends the experiment. As much as I would like to see Byron Scott accelerate the growth of Derrick Rose into stardom, we can bitch & moan about Vinny's coaching style and management's reluctance to fire him all we want. The fact of the matter is Bulls' management realizes what happened in 2007 when Jim Boylan replaced the fired Scott Skiles on the bench, and don't want a rerun of that again.
If they fired VDN right now, I don't think they like the idea of a more experienced veteran of NBA wars, assistant Bernie Bickerstaff, coming in on an interim basis and getting tuned out by these players. Besides, Bernie's record as an NBA head coach himself isn't much better than Vinny. Moreover, even though he drafted these players, I don't get the impression either that John Paxson wants to coach these guys either. Last but not least, the Bulls want to be a player in the much-publicized, much-anticipated free agency class this summer, and the last thing a prospective free agent wants is to playing on a team where he and the coach aren't on the same page.
Just because Vinny survived Christmas Eve doesn't mean he'll last all season. It just means that they didn't want to fire him on Christmas Eve and are giving him a bit more time.
It's still early in managements mind. As bad as they have played, and, yes, it means nothing, they are in the race for the playoffs. They may decide to keep him for the season as long as they are in contention for a playoff spot, but if this continues to head in the wrong direction, I wouldn't be shocked if they got rid of Vinny and went with Bickerstaff for the rest of the season on an interim basis. He's not Boylan, he's not going to make the team any better, but it would show that the coach is being held accountable.