Not a total failure, he got the Bulls back to respectability after the post-Jordan dark ages. (Though unlike the Blackhawks, they never needed it; their years of 20-win teams still sold out the building.) But he's only been able to get them so far on hard work and good guys.

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The hard work/good guys era did somewhat work - they just needed a star to get them over the hump. Failing to land a star wasn't necessarily the result of the hard work/good guy philosophy. They were just unlucky though they did almost land Kobe.



Like CH said he brought the Bulls back to respectability. Then he reversed that buy hiring unproven coaches like Hoiberg and Del Negro. Those were truly dumbass coaching hires even without the benefit of hindsight. At best it's a mixed bag for Pax. Not a failure though.

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Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

Well, they did land a star by pure good fortune in Derrick Rose, and then lost him by pure misfortune.

I'd like to think they still could have done more. The Vinny Del Negro hire really was inexcusable, looking back.

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If he didn't luck into D Rose what do you think his record look like?

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They were in the playoffs more often than not under Skiles and even with Del Negro. He assembled a very respectable core in Hinrich, Deng, Gordon and, later on, Noah.

We weren't SA or today's GSW. But we weren't NY either with their bum ass players weighing down the team with massive contracts. We got by on the short term hope of Deng and those guys growing together and making the playoffs, while in the long term we hoped to convert some of the core into legit stars. Then Rose came along and gave everyone legit hope. It's been a decent ride until very recently under Pax.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

I guess we just have different expectations, more than half the league makes the playoffs. It's actually harder to not make the playoffs statistically. Pax was a shit front office clown, NY had shit front office clowns.

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The trajectory for the Bulls changed once Rose got injured. You aren't going anywhere when your best player (top 5) player at that misses the better part of 3 seasons.

That doomed the franchise. That wasn't on GarPax. That said they have made mistakes. Firing Thibs wasn't one of them as he was overrated as a coach and wanted control over player personnel. Seen how that has gone.

Hiring Hoiberg was a mistake. He didn't have it and was never going to have it. Not going in on tanking last year was also a big mistake. Had they worked the number right they'd have placed themselves in position to draft an Ayton, Jackson, or Doncic. Carter is solid but doesn't appear to be a franchise type of player. They screwed up the tank by pretending that they wanted to be competitive. Now they have to tank again in the hopes that they will receive a top 5 pick.

They also screwed up in some of their player evaluations. No way in hell do you come into the season without a viable backup/guy that can push Dunn for the starting spot. Dunn isn't established enough to simply hand the job to and even if he is you can't have European pro/G-League caliber guys as his primary backups.

Lastly where in the hell do they think they are going with Holiday as their starting 3. Jabari is a much better player. In addition is the difference in salary and the fact that Holiday is working off of a 1 year deal. Stupid move.

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You forgot Chris Duhon!!

Looming large is Paxson botching the '06 draft where he could have had LMA but took Tyrus Thomas instead -- go fig, the one time he took the bad-character guy over the good-character guy. If not for the lottery JUST SO HAPPENING to go to the Bulls, that would have been their last high pick before they bottomed out, but then again with Vinny Del Negro and no Derrick Rose, that could have come by 2009 or 2010.

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You have to keep in mind when evaluating coaching hires that JR refuses to negotiate with agents for management positions. That eliminates a very large group of potential candidates, including anyone with an established record and really hamstrings his front office. He does this with the Sox as well with the same type of results.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I think Thibs got more out of less talentwise that virtually no other coach could have done. But at the end, Gar/Pax ruined him because of their jealousy of him and his close relationship for awhile with Reinny. It was reported quite a bit how Gar would talk shit with the players about Thibs and interfere with his coaching decisions. Reinny, right now, must be senile and as long as he remains as owner, the Bulls and White Sox are doomed.

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An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

Yeah. Good point there also. Then you have the fact that the NBA itself has changed into a virtual monopoly of teams who have legitimate chances of winning championships. It is now completely a players league and they really dictate indirectly who is going to win a championship. Frankly, I don't know why fans even go to games in the large percentage of cities. The product itself is lousy for the most part. Four passes along the perimeter, then a three point hoisted shot. Or someone taking a drive to the basket. No post work. No center play. No one who got hit a mid range shot. It is boring basketball. I rather watch two good high school teams play.

_________________
An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip