Viva Los Bulls!
Needing a break from listening to Lakers fans complain that Paul faked his injury, let's get back to the offseason. The Bulls are shaping up to be my favorite team to follow this offseason (Thankfully, the C's offseason hasn't started and doesn't need to be as intense). Besides having the Beasley/Rose debate, their coaching decision seems to be heating up as well. The new rumor is that former Timberwolves coach Dwayne Casey is the frontrunner. I think this is the right move. Not only is Casey supposedly good with developing young players but he's also not the hard ass that Collins is. Personally, I just don't get replacing one tough coach who lost the team with another tough coach. Also, I'm happy to see Casey get a second chance after McHale did him wrong by firing him when he had the Wolves playing .500 ball. (The team went 12 - 30 for the rest of the season under new coach Randy Wittman).
Casey also seems like someone who'll be able to adapt to the Bulls roster as opposed to the Bulls having to adapt their roster to Doug Collins. With Casey in charge, Michael Beasley becomes a more viable option, as does re-signing Ben Gordon. Also, not having Collins around might keep Ty Thomas off of the path to Kwame Brown-land. Now whether Paxson will make the right move remains to be seen but this would be the bet move Paxson has made in a couple years.
Worst case scenario, Casey comes in, works with the young guys, and then in a couple years you bring in someone to take the team to the next level. Ironically, kind of like what happened with Collins and Phil Jackson.
And reading to much into this whole issue, could the shift away from Collins possibly be a signal that the Bull could be looking at drafting Beasley? Could a deal involving Hinrich, Nocioni, #1 for Marion and #2 be in the works? Probably not but if I was a Bulls fan, I'd like to think so.
