ESPN Chicago is reporting that there was some miscommunication between Bulls front office and Vinny Del Negro in the Bulls loss to the Nets on Friday. Essentially, there had been a decision to not play Joakim Noah more than 35 minutes. Noah hit that limit, and so Vinny Del Negro pulled him. Then apparently player development assistant Lindsey Hunter asked acting General Manager Gar Forman if they could go over, Forman checked with VP John Paxson, who gave the okay.
But by that point they were in overtime. And VDN didn’t think the approval meant he could push Noah for the entire period. Noah played just 12 seconds in overtime.
Okay. Couple things here.
One, Gar Forman notifying the press that Lindsey Hunter had asked and they’d approved? That’s some Grade A buck-passing and bus throwing. There’s no reason to inform the press that. Just say that it was VDN’s decision and direct all questions to the coaching staff. They don’t need to know that they need your approval to play a player more minutes. And wait, the assistant coach has to go ask the general manager, who then has to go ask the former GM and VP? How does that work, exactly? For a decision that needs to be made in about thirty seconds?
So the coach doesn’t have power to make final call on minutes. The GM doesn’t have the power to authorize the coach on that call. And an assistant is going to the GM to ask.
Weird. Just weird.
There’s rampant speculation that VDN is going to be gone after this season, despite leading the Bulls to back to back playoff appearances with a shell of a roster, rampant injuries, and this silliness in the front office. VDN’s not a great coach. He may not even be a good coach. But he’s improved, and he’s gotten results. It’s a shame that he was set up to fail so incredibly by the team.
