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Time might be running out for Vinny Del Negro in Chicago.The Bulls' head coach has seen his team go 1-9 over its last 10 games, and with the losses coming by an average of 18 points per, it's hard to say that the team has even competed during this recent stretch. And looking at the last three games, things seem to be going from bad to worse.
Last Saturday was a 32-point home loss to the previously struggling Toronto Raptors, one in which the Bulls' players had so completely given up by the end of the third quarter that they allowed a player on the opposing team to tie his shoe, while holding the ball, during live action. This might not seem like a big deal, but even the Raptors' head coach Jay Triano was quoted as saying, "If it was one of our guys guarding their guy and the guy tied his shoe, I would expect our guy to go over and knock him on his a**."
With two days off to practice and maybe figure some things out, the Bulls' next game came at home against the historically bad New Jersey Nets -- a team which had previously managed just a single win over its first 20 games. This one was close, but the Bulls still managed to lose -- at home -- to a team that had shown an inability to win 19 out of 20 times taking the floor.
Wednesday night in Atlanta, things got out of hand quickly, and once again Chicago was crushed, this time by an embarrassing 35 points. Again, it's one thing to lose, but it's another entirely to simply give up once you fall behind, and a team with the Bulls' talent shouldn't be repeatedly losing by 30-plus points on a semi-regular basis.
With the team clearly in a nosedive at this point, how much longer will Del Negro be allowed to stay in charge? Speculation is, if the Bulls suffer another huge blowout, he may not last through the weekend.
Looking at the schedule, combined with the way the team has played lately, it would seem unavoidable.
The Bulls host the Celtics on Saturday night, followed by a home game against the Lakers three days later. Considering that L.A. has won 10 straight and Boston has won eight in a row, it's unlikely (to say the least) that Chicago will bother to get up for either of the league's best teams, when they couldn't be bothered to put forth enough effort to survive their last home game against the league's worst.
ESPN's John Hollinger points out that the timing for the Bulls to make a coaching change seems to be perfect, with a combination of a season-long block of six home games, and some days off in between for the new coach to implement any changes during practice. And when you add in the fact that they have a guy with 14 years of head coaching experience currently serving as an assistant who could step in for Del Negro in Bernie Bickerstaff, the question likely becomes not "if," but "when" the change will be made.
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