Skiles, Korver & McGrady

> On 12/24 the Chicago Bulls fired head coach Scott Skiles ending his tenure after just over four seasons in charge. I can’t say the move caught me by surprise, although the timing could have been a little better from a public relations standpoint. Skiles’ team was 9-16 when he was canned, and they clearly weren’t giving the effort we’ve become accustomed to.

Skiles (165-172 in Chicago) reminds me of long time Utah coach Jerry Sloan. They are both very hard nosed guys that demand the game be played a certain way. Neither is afraid to use playing time as a motivator/punishment and both will ride a player into the ground if need be. The difference between them though is that Scott doesn’t have near the resume that Jerry does. Hence players tend to not respect Skiles with the same fervor they do Sloan over the long haul.

While it was certainly time for the Bulls to make a change, let’s give Skiles his due. He took a fundamentally flawed club and got the absolute most out of them. So much so that many “experts” had them winning the East this season, even though they are an undersized jump shooting squad without any type of low post presence on offense.

This brings me to the next person who should be on the hot seat in the Windy City, Vice President John Paxson. For all the good Pax has done in bringing the Bulls back to respectability, he made two disastrous moves in the summer of 2006 that set the franchise back years.

First he traded the draft rights to LaMarcus Aldridge for Tyrus Thomas and Viktor Khryapa. Obviously hindsight is 20/20, but I think even coming into the draft most people knew that LaMarc had a more polished low post game on offense than Thomas did.

After that Pax signed an already in decline Ben Wallace for a whopping $60 million over four years. Then the very next day he swapped Tyson Chandler for P.J. Brown, Aaron Gray and JamesOn Curry. This was a big time blunder when you consider that Chandler and Wallace are almost exactly the same type of player…except for the minuscule fact that Tyson is EIGHT years younger than Ben.

Imagine a front line of Luol Deng, Aldridge and Chandler. Wow, that would be nice! Paxson has also been particularly risk adverse. He’s balked at including Deng for the likes of Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant. Luol Deng is good, but c’mon now. This team still needs a major shakeup, and the coach was just the starting point. Pax will surely have to do more to fix his broken roster in the near future.

So on 12/27 Jim Boylan was named interim coach for the remainder of the season. Boylan is a long time pro assistant with tons of experience. (He’s also the type of guy more clubs should consider hiring instead of the same old retreads, but I digress.) Boylan’s first decision was moving Ben Gordon to the sixth man role. This has proved to be genius since Gordon responded in the eight games since by averaging 25.6 points while shooting 49.3% from the field and 47.5% from three. The next thing Jim did was shorten up the rotation to nine guys and define everybody’s role.

The players seem to be responding too as Chicago has gone a respectable 5-3 since Boylan took over. With the Bulls only being two losses out of the Eastern Conference playoffs with 48 games still to play, their season is far from over. While it’s undoubtedly going to take some work for them to qualify for the post season, anything’s possible in the East.

> Utah Gets: Kyle Korver

Philadelphia Gets: Gordan Giricek & a conditional first round pick (between 2009-15)

For the Jazz…

Kudos to Director Kevin O’Connor for acquiring exactly the type of player his team required. Even though Korver is shooting a career low 33.6% from 3-point land this year (a groin injury contributed to that), he’s still one of the most feared gunners from downtown in the entire NBA. The opposition will no longer be able to pack the lane by playing zone defense with Kyle roaming the perimeter.

His addition makes Utah extremely versatile at the wing positions as well. Starters Ronnie Brewer and Andrei Kirilenko bring athleticism & defense, reserve Matt Harpring toughness, the emerging C.J. Miles contributes slashing and KK’s the designated shooter. So it all depends on what coach Jerry Sloan thinks his squad needs during the course of a game, and multiple options are always nice.

The best thing about this move for the Jazz is that Gira was done in Salt Lake anyway. So O’Connor essentially gave up nothing for the outside shooter they so desperately needed.

For the 76ers…

New GM Ed Stefanski put his initial stamp on the team by shedding the three years and $15.5 million left on Korver’s contract after this season. Giricek’s deal is up after this year, so Philly gets an extra $4 million in salary cap space for the upcoming off season.

Gordan tends play hard about once every ten days, so I don’t expect him to fit in well with his hard working teammates, much less be embraced by the City of Brotherly Love. He’s a decent defender when motivated, but a bit of a “numbers hunter” on offense otherwise.

The draft pick has so many conditions/restrictions on it I haven’t been able to figure out when/if the Sixers can use it.

Winner – Utah

> Tracy McGrady has missed the last nine games with strained tendons, tendinitis and a bone bruise in his left knee. He is expected to miss at least the next two games as well. While T-Mac being hurt again doesn’t qualify as news, the rumblings out of Houston do.

Word on the street is that Tracy is unhappy being a Rocket now and that the feeling is mutual. Everyone from coaches to management to his teammates are supposedly good on his act. Remember, he pulled this same stunt to get himself out of Orlando and Toronto before that. So not only is he an injury prone whiner, but he’s also never advanced past the first round of the playoffs.

Tell me, what other “super star” misses games, complains and doesn’t win? If you said Vince Cater you are correct. One unnamed Detroit Piston even made the correlation between the cousins saying T-Mac’s nickname should be “Half-man, Half-a-Season.”

Ouch.

The interesting thing is that Houston is finally winning without Tracy. Since the ’04-05 season the Rockets are 11-42 minus McGrady, but they are a very tidy 7-2 over this latest stretch. Not only does their ball and player movement look better without T-Mac pounding the rock into oblivion, but Yao Ming is expressing himself verbally in the media for the first time ever.

First was this blast after Houston lost in Philadelphia 100-88 *with* T-Mac on 12/10…

“When you are soft yourself, everything will feel tough. It's not because they are so tough. It's because of how soft we are. It's weird that we changed that quick. I never had that feeling. I feel like they traded me to another team, a new team I've never been on before.”

Then this none-too-subtle shot over the bow after a 101-92 win in New York on 1/9…

“The team has more confidence playing without T-Mac right now. That doesn't mean we don't need him. You have to face those games when you don't have him. When you miss him, you still have to play. We're finding a way to play without him right now.”

I can’t help but think we are witnessing a changing of the guard down there. And it’s also nice to see Yao taking the next step in his evolution by becoming a vocal leader on and off the floor.