Q&O with Thabo Sefolosha, for those who read french, on the swiss television website.

One of the questions reads like this :

Question from fan : What's the difference between the coaching of Scott Brooks and that of VDN ? Can you be a coach and human/civil in the NBA ?

Answer from Thabo : Brooks/DelNegro ? There are many differences. Brooks talks a lot with his players. Coach and human in the NBA ? Yes of course, it's possible. But not like Scott Skiles, my former coach in Chicago !!!

As you can see, he didn't want to elaborate on VDN being a clown, but felt compelled to call Skiles out. Fun stuff.

This does however confirm what everybody is saying about Skiles (rubs on his players after a while), which is not good for him and I'm glad he's gone (even if it means suffering through VDN's incompetence).

And also why Matt (and others, me included) would have liked Karl for the Chicago coaching job (if he had been available).

From that SI article on Karl and the Nuggets (and how they managed to turn around things this year) :

"I tell Pop [Spurs coach Gregg Popovich] all the time, 'Pop, you coach different than we coach. You have a no-nonsense, low-maintenance superstar.' How many of them exist? When you have a disciplinary problem with Melo [Carmelo Anthony] and you have an injury here and you have a dysfunctional personality on your team, that's not coaching; that's managing. The more that we have to manage what I call the de-energizers of basketball -- selfishness, non-commitment, not playing hard, attitudes in the locker room -- you're not coaching."

There are some NBA officials who insist you won’t be re-signing with the Bulls. Agree or disagree?

BG: I really don’t know right now if I’ll be back. It’s up in the air.

Will money be the biggest factor in your decision?

BG: I think money will be a big factor for the Bulls. I think that was the problem in the past, agreeing on money.

I think the guy forgot to say that they are both trying to salvage their teams by dealing with each other !

Pretty impressive actually !

I agree with him. He does ask the most important question (apart from what will happen with Ben Gordon) when you consider the future of the Bulls this season and beyond. How will Derrick Rose cope, adapt and make progress. What will be his impact (this year and beyond).

Lost among all the hoopla of contract negaciations this summer, it seems that almost everybody (including the Bulls) has forgotten that the Bulls have the No1 pick in the last draft, and should be (still) excited about it.

Chicago Bulls

The multifaceted disappointment that was last season means the Bulls face a lot of questions this fall. Rose's learning curve -- how steep, how vast -- trumps them all. Point guards so rarely get drafted No. 1 overall that, when they do, the expectations are enormous. Running the offense, fending off distractions in his hometown of Chicago, directing strategic and emotional traffic on a team with more than a little dysfunction all might fall to Rose as rookie tasks.

Coming from Calipari, I would not expect anything else, but still, finally some really positive vibe about Derrick before training camp opens in a couple of weeks.

Funny enough, I actually think he makes good points :

Vinny Del Negro, Chicago Bulls
Challenges

• Establish himself. The learning curve is going to be steep for someone with no experience as a head coach or assistant. Beyond the strategic demands, which new assistants Del Harris and Bernie Bickerstaff can facilitate, Del Negro will have to endure a crash course in all of the practices, scheduling, interviews, promotions, game dissections and front-office meetings that come with the job. Oh, and he also has to find a way to boost the Bulls back into the playoff race. Looks like Del Negro better invest in an office cot.

• Set a clear agenda. The Bulls were focused on everything but basketball last season. Luol Deng and Ben Gordon faced off with the team over new contracts, followed by the Kobe Bryant trade rumors, coach Scott Skiles' firing and a locker-room dustup between Ben Wallace and Joakim Noah. Every month this team seemed to inadvertently find a new issue to distract it. If Del Negro does nothing this season but redirect the club's energies into simply playing ball, he will have made more progress than two coaches in Chicago did last season.

• Clear up the backcourt. While No. 1 pick Derrick Rose is the Bulls' future leader, Del Negro has to sort out the team's present. Should Kirk Hinrich remain the starter at point guard, and if so, should he be showcased for a trade or lead the effort to return to the playoffs? If the unsigned Ben Gordon returns, where does that leave Thabo Sefolosha on the depth chart? Can Larry Hughes be counted on as a reliable second scoring option and would he even accept being the third option?

Prospects

The Bulls are retooling with a new, inexperienced coach and a new, inexperienced lead guard. For Del Negro, who was hired in part for the "positive vibe" general manager John Paxson felt his team desperately needed, refreshing the locker-room relations would be a good first step toward recapturing the promise this team once had and may again -- in time.

Thabo interview on swiss radio (sorry, but therefore no link to the actual interview). Interview was done because a local bank here just released their new ad campaign featuring Thabo (featured in that link). Nothing that we don't know yet, but a couple of interesting points :

1) Him stating that Skiles' never gave him enough trust or playing time, and that he's now very motivated with the new training staff and Vinny DelNegro.

2) All the players (at least those remaining) get along well and really were frustrated last year. They want to get back to winning. Stated that he especially enjoyed the arrival of Noah last year, someone he gets along well with and they can talk in french together too.

From a hoopsworld article (therefore take it with a big grain of salt) :

Paxson on His Way Out?

Speaking of Luol Deng, Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf has removed John Paxson from the discussion with Luol Deng and his agent, Jason Levien. Reinsdorf was already unhappy with the way the coaching search went, specifically with Paxson's inability to get Doug Collins wrapped up, and now he's unhappy that the Deng discussion is taking so long. It's not a good sign for Paxson that he's now being excluded from player discussions.

I'm personally happy that we didn't get Doug Collins, but if true, this is not reassuring as regards Jerry Reinsdorf basketball vision for his team.