Bulls GM John Paxson finds himself in a quandary
Friday, December 28, 2007 | 06:31 PM ET
Fresh off handing his coach Scott Skiles a pink slip and a lump of coal for Christmas, Chicago Bulls general manager John Paxson now finds himself in a quandary.
Does he shake the team up, or does he let new interim coach Jim Boylan take a crack at turning the season around?
There are solid reasons to think the campaign might not be over, and that a steady hand at the wheel might be all that is needed. Chicago has essentially the same team that lost in six games to Detroit in the Eastern Conference semifinals last season. They have three good young players in Ben Gordon, Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich. And while they've only won nine of their 26 games, thanks to the mediocrity of the East, they are only three games behind Cleveland, the eighth-place team.
But the counter-argument is more compelling: the Bulls' lack of shooting touch, either in the low post or out beyond the three-point line, is a fatal flaw. Last year they were able to mask the flaw with defence and, once the playoffs began, a favourable match-up with the ripe-for-the-picking Miami Heat. But this year, for whatever reason, the Bulls have been exposed. Even if the Bulls started playing with last year's cohesion and scrapped their way to a seventh or eighth seed, does anyone see this team as anything more than an appetizer for a hungry Celtics or Pistons squad?
So the question becomes, are the Bulls a seller or buyer?
Five years ago, current Toronto Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo was the embattled executive of the Phoenix Suns and facing an eerily similar decision. People were calling for Colangelo's head, particularly because his summer revamp - jettisoning Jason Kidd to New Jersey for Stephon Marbury and letting Clifford Robison go to Detroit for next to nothing - had been disastrous. Then, after a poor start to the season, his coach - also, as it turns out, Scott Skiles - had just resigned, leaving Colangelo like Paxson as the next fall guy.
It took Colangelo just two days after Skiles jumped ship to make up his mind: in what was his best deal of that forgettable year, he shipped Rodney Rogers and Tony Delk to the Celtics for Joe Johnson, Randy Brown, Milt Pilacio and a future first-round pick.
Wags immediately nominated Colangelo for GM of the Year on the grounds he had helped three teams - New Jersey, Detroit and Boston - finish with the top three seeds in the Eastern Conference. In the end though, Colangelo had the last laugh, securing the uber-talented Johnson for two vets ill suited for a rebuilding effort.
Whether Paxson will be able to pull the trigger on a similar deal to fix this is another matter, since in many ways, he is the anti-Colangelo, with a tenure that thus far has been defined more by the moves he hasn't made than those he has.
In the last year alone, Chicago has been the rumoured destination for Pau Gasol, Jermaine O'Neal, Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant, but in that same time frame the team's only new additions have been a couple of average Joes: Joe Smith and Joachim Noah.
It may be time for Paxson to take a page from the book of Bryan and be decisive. Make a deal. Roll the dice. Teams may not be lining up to take on Ben Wallace's contract, but the Bulls have other pieces like Tyrus Thomas, Smith, Andres Nocioni and Chris Duhon who may be attractive to a team, depending on whether they are looking to get older or younger.
The worst thing that could happen is that Paxson joins Skiles on the unemployment line. But if he does nothing, losing his job seems inevitable.
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About the Author
Paul Jay has been writing about basketball for seven years, working as a basketball columnist for Rogers Sportsnet and writing for CBC Sports, Raptors Insider, Dose and appearing on air with Sportsnet and Raptors TV. In his 12 years in journalism, Paul has written features for some of the best publications in the country, including the Globe and Mail, the Ottawa Citizen, Saturday Night, Canadian Lawyer and This magazine. He first joined CBC.ca during the 2004 Athens Olympics and currently writes online for CBCNews.ca as a technology and science writer.
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