Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Take a look at this picture. What do you see? I see a coach that might be in over his head. On the offensive side of the ball that is. However it’s not his fault. There may be a person in the Bulls organization you can point the finger at. A couple of weeks back, there were reports floating around that Gar Forman’s job as General Manager might be on the line for a number of reasons. As the Executive Advocate of the “Legion of Booz” I took an exception to one of the reasons that his job was on the line being the contract that he gave to Carlos Boozer. I said it then and will say it now. Based on the scenario based on free agents at the time, the contract was legit. However, there may be a decision that he made this season that will come back to haunt him in this year’s playoff season. The firing of Tom Thibodeau’s lead assistant Ron Adams. I don’t know if there has ever been a season where so many assistant coaches have made the NBA news front. There was the fiasco in Brooklyn between Jason Kidd and his lead assistant Lawrence Frank who’s million dollar a year contract was still fresh before he was demoted to “filing daily reports” (aka washing clothes. aka filling the bus with gas aka cleaning toilets.) Then there was the so-called “dysfunction” going on in Golden State where Mark Jackson demoted Brian Scalabrine to D-League duty because of “philosophical differences”. What’s so crazy about the Scalabrine situation is that the organization actually is backing Scalabrine and Mark Jackson is the one on the hot seat. If that wasn’t enough the Warriors fired another assistant coach Darren Erman for violating company policy in what they called egregious behavior. What happened to the days when no one knew who the assistant coaches were? Or cared? To be totally honest, I really didn’t know much about Ron Adams, or cared. Sure I heard that he was Tom Thibodeau’s close and trusted friend on the bench (I think we all know how much weight that carries). I also knew he was in the center of the disconnect between Gar Forman and Tom Thibodeau that is evident to this very day. It wasn’t until the Bulls regular season loss against the Charlotte Bobcats, I started to take a closer look at Ron Adams and the impact he had on the team while coaching under Thibodeau. You will never get the real reason from Bulls management as to why they did not renew the contract of Ron Adams this past offseason. The management have their own method to the madness so to speak. There are many theories as to why he wasn’t resigned. My advice is to research for yourself and draw your own opinion. The word around the campfire the main reason why Adams wasn’t resigned was because he made a disparaging remark about the Bulls front office moves. The Chicago Tribune reported that Forman took exception to Adams’ criticism over personnel moves that cost the Bulls Kyle Korver and CJ Watson while bringing in Kirk Hinrich over the 2012 offseason. (Hmm, seems like I’m not the only one that has issues with the personnel moves of the Bulls management! I’ve found a new BFF!)
What’s the point you ask Pippen Peoples? The Chicago Bulls miss Ron Adams. Tom Thibodeau REALLY misses Ron Adams. It is painfully obvious that Tom Thibodeau is a defensive coach and that is it. Now that the postseason is upon us, it will become obvious. The reason the Bulls lost against the Bobcats was because of the bogged down offense and awful rotation patterns that Tom Thobodeau has employed. Ron Adams was considered one of the top assistants in the NBA. Even though the Boston Celtics were never in any danger of making the playoffs, Adams helped rookie coach Brad Stevens keep the team engaged and competitive throughout the year. If he can do that, I know he can add something to an offense that has basically a watered down elementary motion offense. An offense that let the wheels fall off in the second quarter of a very important game with playoff implications, then looked like a complete mess in overtime. Ron Adams if he was still in Chicago could do something to tweak the offense so it can be more effective in the playoffs. In the playoffs, adjustments have to be made DURING the games not from game to game. The offense is so predictable that it is prone to grind to a halt in the first round and will stall in the second round if the Bulls are lucky enough to get there. At the very least, he can get into Thibodeau’s ear and give him some advice about his rotations so he doesn’t run Jimmy Butler, Taj Gibson and Joakim Noah into the ground which has basically happened the entire year.
The Chicago Bulls are an extremely flawed offensive basketball team. Without a doubt. Being dead last in the league tends to back up my point. The Bulls lack a playmaker now that Derrick Rose shut it down for the season. That’s why we all keep hearing these rumors about Carmelo Anthony coming to Chicago day after day after day. Ron Adams was very important in helping create an offensive scheme that was effective last year when Rose was out. If he can help manufacture something with Nate Robinson in the line up, he can pretty much handle the challenges of a team that can’t buy a jump shot on 1060 West Addison with a black card sometimes.
Was Ron Adams wrong for criticizing management? Sure. But what gets lost in all of this was he was absolutely right. Kyle Korver helped the Atlanta Hawks make the playoffs when the loss of their franchise player Al Horford. Plus he has the unique ability of shooting straight which a lot of the Bulls have problems doing. How about CJ Watson? Oh, he’s just a major bench contributor to the number one-seeded Indiana Pacers. Could Gar Forman have just pulled Thibodeau and Adams into his office and told them both to shut up about their reservations about personnel moves? Sure. But Forman wanted to flex his muscles. Now the Bulls have a problem that needs to be addressed and quickly. They have to figure out a way to score. If they were bad during the regular season, they’ll be worse in the playoffs. If Ron Adams were around, maybe changes would be coming. Right now it doesn’t look that way.