According to the Chicago Tribune, all signs are pointing to Pete Myers returning to the bench as an assistant coach. In addition, the Bulls are talking with Linsdey Hunter, trying to keep him in a player development role.

Staff scribblings: All signs continue to point to Pete Myers returning to the assistant coaching bench role he held during Scott Skiles’ tenure. Myers spent last season in a limited, behind-the-bench role but is expected to take Del Harris’ spot after Harris’ retirement last week.

The Bulls also have held internal discussions about keeping Lindsey Hunter as a part-time player or as a player development coach. Hunter attended Monday’s draft workout.

Not all that thrilled by the news of Myers returning to the bench. I don’t think he is a negative influence in anyway, but it would be nice to see the Bulls look to spend some money, in particular on a defensive assistant.

Lindsey Hunter was nice to have around the team this year. He was a great cheerleader on the bench. Hunter would likely do well in either role being discussed for him.

Del Harris appeared on the Waddle and Silvy show on ESPN 1000. Here is a recap of what he had to say.

• He thinks Bruno falling on Eminem was staged.  If it wasn’t staged, Bruno better buy a bullet proof vest.
• He will probably stay in basketball some way or the other.  He might pull a Brett Favre, but it’s unlikely, because of his age.
• If there were stressful times between the coaching staff, as Jerry Reinsdorf alluded to, then he didn’t know about it.  Jerry Reinsdorf wasn’t there that much, and was gone for most of the season.  They had really good, healthy exchanges between the staff.
• If you look at the overall year, they did an excellent job as a staff.  They started off with a blank page.  Vinny had never coached a game, and the staff had never been together at all.  They didn’t know the personnel that well.  They didn’t have a real system to start out with to tweak.
• This was a good year to go out on.  They had a great time those last 2 months.  The first 5 months were frustrating, but it was a remarkable turnaround.
• He doesn’t care that Kevin Garnett was out in the playoffs.  Apparently, no one on national TV had heard of Luol Deng, who is a pretty good player.  The Bulls could have used Luol, because without him, they were forced to play 7 guys.  IF they had one more guy, Deng or Sefolosha, Harris thinks they win that series.
• Their bread and butter was going with four smaller guys and either Brad Miller or Joakim Noah, no offense to Tyrus Thomas, who was a bad matchup against Boston.  They had a system (not +/-) which showed what the best lineups were against Boston.  They consistently showed that the lineup with four smalls worked best.  Boston’s best lineups against us were with both their bigs in.  However, when the Bulls went small, Boston would take one of their big guys out.
• In the second quarter of the seventh game, if Salmons doesn’t pick up his third foul right before Vinny was about to go small, they don’t go down 14 at halftime, and win that seventh game.

It’s official, according to Bulls.com, Bulls’ assistant coach, Del Harris, has decided to retire.

June 2, 2009 – The Chicago Bulls announced today, that after 50 years of coaching, assistant coach Del Harris has elected to retire from basketball.

“I would like to thank Del Harris for all of his hard work and dedication this past season,” said Gar Forman, Chicago Bulls General Manager. “He has had a terrific career and we wish him the best in his retirement.”

Harris, 71, just completed his first season with the Bulls as an assistant on head coach Vinny Del Negro’s staff. He enjoyed success at every level in 50 years of coaching, including the NBA, collegiate, international and high school ranks. Harris began his NBA coaching career as an assistant with the Houston Rockets in 1976, and was a coach or scout/consultant in the NBA for 29 seasons – including 27 trips to the NBA Playoffs. His stints include: Houston (1976-83), Milwaukee (1983-91), L.A. Lakers (1994-98), Dallas (2000-08) and Chicago (2008-09). In 12 full seasons as a head coach, Harris compiled a 556-457 (.549) overall record with three different teams (L.A. Lakers – 1994-98, Milwaukee – 1987-91, Houston – 1979-83). Overall, he coached in 202 career playoff games (88 as a head coach), including an NBA Finals appearance in 1981 with the Rockets. Harris was the recipient of the 1995 NBA Coach of the Year Award with the Lakers, and joins Pat Riley and Phil Jackson as the only coaches in Los Angeles franchise history to register three consecutive 50-plus win seasons.

“I was very fortunate to have Del by my side this past season. His knowledge and understanding of the game were an incredible benefit and help,” said Vinny Del Negro, Chicago Bulls Head Coach. “He has had a tremendous and successful coaching career that is quite remarkable. In his 50 years of coaching, he has had such a positive impact on so many people’s lives on and off the court. I was truly thankful for his support and encouragement throughout last season. I can only wish Del and his family all the best.”

According to the Chicago Tribune, Del Harris will be retiring from the Bulls.

The venerable coaching career of Del Harris will end shortly with the announcement of his retirement after 50 years, according to a league source.

Harris turns 72 next month. His departure creates a vacancy on Vinny Del Negro’s coaching staff, which could be filled by holdover Pete Myers or another candidate.

Former Bull, Randy Brown, who was recently forced to auction off his championship rings, has interviewed for a spot on the Bulls’ staff.

League sources said former Bulls guard and current Sacramento Kings assistant Randy Brown interviewed with Del Negro here at this week’s NBA predraft camp, although indications are Brown could be hired in a player development role rather than coaching.

Pete Myers is another option to join the coaching staff.

Other potential candidates that I’d like the Bulls to look at are Scottie Pippen, Randy Livingston, and Bill Cartwright.

Doug Thonus has released the 89th episode of the Bulls Beat Podcast.

Vinny Del Negro has to go. That is what Doug is yelling these days. Del Negro is gone a the end of the year. Doug thinks the Bulls should just fire Del Negro right now since they have three legit NBA head coaches sitting on the bench in Bob Ociepka, Bernie Bickerstaff, and Del Harris.

The players have completely tuned out Vinny. During the summer, Vinny made a bunch of promises to the players on how he was going to run the team that he failed to keep.

Vinny is a players coach who the players don’t like.

Vinny was just being spiteful when he fined the guys for eating in the locker room. The team provides food to its players in the locker room. This was a team rule, but no one has followed it in the past. (Apparently not even the Bulls staff, who provides the players with food).

So far this season, Vinny has not been leaning on his assistant coaches. The assistants have just been working on player development.

If there is one thing to take away from this is podcast is that Doug thinks that Vinny Del Negro has to be fired, and has to be fired soon. I completely agree.

You can listen to the entire episode at bullsbeat.com

In the middle of the fourth quarter during the Bulls game against the Dallas Mavericks yesterday, Derrick Rose clapped for the ball and Ben Gordon went ahead not passing to Rose and instead driving the ball in.

The message boarders went on to blow this into a controversy up as evidence of Gordon’s selfishness this season. They have fabricated stories about Del Negro calling a play which Rose called out that Gordon ignored. Stories have also been fabricated about Del Negro nodding agreeingly with Rose that Gordon did something wrong. This misunderstanding of the situation was likely caused by Neil Funk’s and Stacey King’s announcing during this time, where they blasted Gordon for not passing the ball to Rose.

A simple look back at the game on League Pass Broadband tells a significantly different story. Here is what actually happened.

Ben Gordon misses a shot and Tyrus Thomas grabs the rebound. Thomas passes it to Andres Nocioni at the top of the key who gives it to Gordon who resets the Bulls offense. Luol Deng raises up his right hand and calls out a play. Tyrus Thomas runs up to set a screen, but tries to set the screen on the wrong side of Gordon. At this point, Rose starts clapping for the ball on the right wing. Rose is the only player on the right side of the court for the Bulls. Thomas resets to the top of the key, and the Bulls go ahead with the play that Deng had called out. Thomas sets the screen on the correct side this time, and Gordon drives in off the screen. In this play, Dirk was guarding Nocioni downlow. Nocioni cuts to Rose’s side of the floor to try to pull Dirk away, giving Gordon an open look at the basket. Dirk recognizes that Gordon is driving and blocks off the basket, at which point Gordon passes it to Deng, who misses a close shot.

After the Mavericks score, the Bulls bring the ball down the court and call a timeout. Rose goes over to talk to Gordon and points at a spot on the floor, showing Gordon something. The spot that Rose pointed to at on the floor was on the side that Gordon was on. Then the camera cuts away. When the camera cuts back on to Rose, it shows Rose complaining to the coaching staff. Del Negro, Bernie Bickerstaff, and Del Harris give Rose a blank stare, probably realizing that it is just an NBA player having an ego trip moment and Rose walks away.

It seems that Rose was demanding the ball separate from a call from the coaching staff, just wanting to try to make the play himself. It appears that if anyone was being selfish in this moment, that it was Derrick Rose as Gordon was only going along with the play that the rest of the team was running. It would be pretty hard to believe that the entire team was trying to ignore a call from the coaching staff. In this instance, it appears that Rose wanted to go rogue like Sarah Palin and Gordon stayed on course running the Bulls’ play, called out by Deng.