Paxson Lays Down the Gauntlet
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009In today’s Full Court Press blog post by K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune, there were three John Paxson quotes. Here they are.
* “We’re not very good right now. We’re not playing well enough to win those (close) games in my opinion. I don’t expect any of our guys to sulk. They have to come to practice every day and work. It’s a lot of little things. The turnovers we had throwing the ball away in the backcourt, it’s just concentration and focus. I’m not going to say I’m pleased we’ve been competing better because we want to win. I don’t like where we’re at. I don’t think anybody does.
* Asked how he believes the coaching staff is faring, he said this: “The only person I’ll evaluate right now is myself and I obviously haven’t done the job of putting the type of team that I want to have on the floor in terms of competitiveness and effort. That falls on me. That’s the only person I’m going to critique.”
* “I’m obviously not happy with how we’re playing. I don’t think my expectations were such going into the season that we were going to be a top, top level team. But what I want to see is the team play together. And right now, through 40-plus games, we’re not that. And that concerns me.”
The sulking comment is clearly regarding Larry Hughes, who has received DNP - Coach’s Decisions for the past five games. It also may be directed at Ben Gordon, who has been jerked around once again by the organization with the return of Kirk Hinrich. It seems kind of feeble minded to jerk Gordon around given his role on the team, his contract status, and the fact that the Bulls have played worse since Kirk Hinrich has returned (.333) than before he returned (.432). If the Bulls played better with Ben Gordon in a reduced role, then it would be fine, but the Bulls have managed just to win 33.3% of their games since Hinrich has returned, despite better play out of Luol Deng, Tyrus Thomas, and Joakim Noah.
As said by Rosenbloom in his blog post today, this is a dig at Vinny. Paxson has not given a vote of confidence to Vinny, and he will likely be disposed of at the end of the season.
Sounds like the Bulls are going to be active at the deadline too, given the state of the team. Derrick Rose, Ben Gordon, and Luol Deng are the safe bets for players who will still be around after the deadline.
