Vinny Del Negro, stay or go?

dougthonus

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It seems clear to me that VDN is going to stay on as head coach next season. I think the only thing that would prevent that is a massive collapse and the Bulls missing the playoffs. However, this team doesn't look like it's anywhere near collapsing at the moment.

However, let's put on our GM hats for a moment, VDN? Stay or go?

First, I'll start with what I feel are his positives and negatives:
Positives: He's been good with rotations for the most part, and he's been good developing the young players. He's given Tyrus/Noah/Rose a ton of playing time recently. Thomas/Noah were getting a bit less earlier, but they also weren't playing hard. Now that they are they are playing big minutes.

He's gone to a short rotation and has avoided a lot of the guys that should be avoided. This seems to me to be a big improvement over earlier in the year where Aaron Gray and Lindsay Hunter were getting run. Overall, I think he's done a good job in making sure our guys have a shot at developing.

The offense has been outstanding ever since we got John Salmons. I believe we're one of the top offensive units in the NBA since that period. Salmons has certainly helped that out a bit, but it's still impressive to have a top offensive unit when your best front court player is Brad Miller or Tyrus Thomas. We're doing it all with guards.

On the downside, the defense seems more or less terrible. It doesn't seem like we have any real scheme or method of trying to stop people. We don't seem to really preach defense well, and we seem to largely play a vanilla man scheme. I think we could be getting a lot more out of our personnel on this side of the ball then we are.

I've heard the players to a large degree don't respect him. Maybe that was because when I heard these things the team sucked balls, and now that they're playing better everything is roses again. It's hard to say when people talk about their boss, because when things are going bad he's the one they can blame easiest. Still, I'm not sure he's the right guy long term.

That being said, if he's doing an okay job developing people, then is he a bad guy short term? I'm not so sure. Earlier I really wanted VDN gone, but now I wonder, if he's willing to commit to the youth then what's the downside here? The next coach needs to be an Xs/Os hard ass, so why not let the young core get a year of heavy playing time under Vinny Del Friendly to improve against NBA competition prior to Mr. Hardass sit you comes in?

I was adamantly against him before, but I think I can live with him now without considering it a mistake. He definitely seems to have fixed his rotations considerably since he started, and I have to give him some credit for coaching offense given how well we've been playing offensively without a real big man on the team. I think Vinny may actually have earned another year.
 

Kush77

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VDN is staying. And the main reason being money of course. Aren't the Bulls still paying Skiles (this might be the last year) but if they let VDN go that would be three straight years of Jerry paying 2 coaches. That ain't happening.

Vinny just kills me with some of his moves sometimes. The first two games against the Heat are a good example. Of course the Thabo inbounds play when he only played about 2 minutes. And then not letting Gordon take the final shots against Miami when he was on fire.

But he is playing the young guys, which Boylan didn't do for some reason. He did bench Larry Hughes, and he starts Ben Gordon which is the right thing to do. So he's been good and bad.

You got a good take on it Doug, maybe he develops the young players, gets the Bulls to a certain point, the we get a new coach.

I do like the shorter rotation, even though I can't see Aaron Gray do his "slow-motion" run up the court.
 

Newskoolbulls

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Vinny will stay. It was a ruff start but this team was coming off a embarrassing 08 season another offseason of contract talks and not to mention vets having to put their egos aside when they see a rookie pg playing 30+ minutes. I think Vinny has done an ok job and will get better next season because he will look at this current season as a good learning experience.
 

dougthonus

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I do like the shorter rotation, even though I can't see Aaron Gray do his "slow-motion" run up the court.

You've got Brad Miller doing that, and it's funnier with Miller, because he takes guys off the dribble a lot more than Gray did.
 

ryguy24

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Before the season, I assumed that rookie coach + rookie PG would mean a crappy start, and then hopefully by the end of the season we would get all of the schemes down and play much better basketball. I also hoped that Vinny would give the reigns to the young guys, so we could finally make some solid judgments on them and watch them hopefully blossom.

Well, it's tough to stick with those thought in the midst of all the losing, but all in all, the season is going exactly the way I thought it would. Unless Vinny was straight up terrible, I thought it would be pretty stupid to fire him especially considering we KNEW it would probably take half a season to get things down pat. All in all, keep Vinny. You can tell he's starting to do more of the coaching as opposed to asking the assistants about everything, and you can also tell that Vinny and the assistants seem alot more comfortable now (whereas there were rumors in the beginning of the season that they weren't getting along).

As Tommy Udo said on RGM (I think it was him), unless there's a super duper upgrade available in the offseason, keep Vinny. It would be dumb to replace him with another average coach hoping to light a spark. This team needs continuity, not constant change (unless that comes in the form of a Bosh/Amare trade ;) )
 

dougthonus

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Good point about continuity. I hope VDN improves his defensive schemes more, because we look lost on defense a lot, though much of that is due to Rose.
 

ZombieKevie

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wish we could trade coaching positions. demote vdn to assistant, then promote one of them 3 uber experienced coaches. i dont see vdn leaving at least until his contract is up or unless we pull a toronto raptors next season.

the team is playing hard for him, unlike skiles last year, though if there was no ben wallace we might still have skiles. but then would skiles even start rose.

i really like that hes giving the young ones big minutes. but he sucks at making plays in a timeout and i really miss when the bulls were a good defensive team.

i dont know if its the fact that our defense is sub-par or b/c rose is pretty bad at d, but it seems like gordon has gotten alot better on defense or hes just trying harder now.
 

dougthonus

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I believe VDN is only under contract for one more season with a team option for the 3rd season. That seems to be what was reported when he signed the deal.
 

collisrost

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Vinny's just fine for a rookie coach. i don't know what people could have expected. Next year he'll be fine for a coach with 1 year's experience.
 

Ralphb07

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Doug do I need to bring my Vinny love on this board too,lol. He's done what a lot of people wanted back last April which was a coach that will play and stick with the young guys not micro-manage the game and get out on the break and he's done all that.

We have a bad slump midway through the season but it seems we've overcome that and now the team is really playing well. I don't know if he's the coach for the next 5 years but he def needs to be here next year and continue to with Tyrus, Noah and Rose with building them up

A big thing too is if Rose and him connect if that's the case as Rose will be the leader here and as early as next year being more of the vocal leader that will trickle down to all the players
 

DJhitek

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Vinny should get another year, if he continues with his bumbling late game situations than it's just better they let don't pick up his option.
 

Dpauley23

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The one thing that could cost Del Negro his job is he doesn't have defensive scheme
 

collisrost

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Vinny has been willing to play the young guys and showed the balls to sit Larry Hughes. These two things would make him OK in my book. Encouraging Tyrus to take all those jumpers is also likely to pay off in the long run, no matter how many times it made me yell at the TV this year. I'll grant you that he'll never ever come close to being a championship level coach, but he's just fine as a short-tenure developmental coach for a young team.
 

Dpauley23

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Ya, but with if the Bulls trade for an Amare or Bosh. Then you have devolped players and then if thathappens you need to get a new coach
 

dougthonus

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Dpauley23 wrote:
Ya, but with if the Bulls trade for an Amare or Bosh. Then you have devolped players and then if thathappens you need to get a new coach

I agree with this too, but I'm on the fence a bit with Vinny. I think he's improved as the season has gone on, and I think you need some continuity with the coaching staff. Who is the clear upgrade that we'll sign in the off season? If there isn't one, then I don't think you sign another random guy without much experience in hopes that he does better.
 

Dpauley23

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Here the thing though does Vinny Del Negro really run that great of offense or is just the players? Now if you could bring in defensive minded I would do that. If you keep Del Negro then when you give him his Review you have to tell him change his scheme or in this case actually develop one.
 

Gene

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I was starting to soften up to Vinny as the long term head coach and then he went and coached such a dandy today. His rotations are terrible, he doesn't understand match ups, and he loves pulling players when they are hot because his coaching manual told him to.

I want us to keep rolling and make it into the playoffs, but if we do that then Vinny is probably gonna get at least the first half of next season to see what he can do. I don't think I truly believe he will ever be a quality NBA HC, but I am hoping he is. I especially hope he turns out alright for Tyrus' and Noah's sake, they've had a different coach each year of their careers and you've got to think that is hampering their development a little bit. If we do fire him then get it done next season so Rose doesn't have to suffer through many coaching changes.
 

J-Mart

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This is how I think it goes down, Vinny will stay (as long as we make playoffs) and as long as we don't get Amare or Bosh. If we get one of them in the off season, I bet Paxson will can him and get a new coach to start fresh. The whole offense would have to be changed anyway when you get that caliber of a player.

IMO he should be gone no matter what unless we get out of the first round. I'm willing to see him for another season but I just don't think he has what it takes to be a higher level coach in this league so it would be better to cut ties now.
 

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