Bulls cannot afford to get it wrong again

Now that the Bulls' season is over, ownership and management can be trusted to fire head coach Vinny Del Negro this week.

The question is whether they can be trusted to hire his replacement.

It's like giving the keys to your car to somebody who cracked it up the last time he drove it.

Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and vice president John Paxson are the same headhunters who found and hired Del Negro, aren't they? Now they're going to find and hire the next coach, too?

The Cavaliers eliminated the Bulls on Tuesday night 96-94, and sometime this week Del Negro will be eliminated from the Bulls.

Del Negro said of the upcoming off-season, "We have a lot of work to do."

That sounded very much like he expects to be back for the third and final year of his contract, which would be one of the biggest upsets in NBA history.

"I don't even think about that stuff," Del Negro said of this possibly being his last game as Bulls coach.

Regardless, firing always is less complicated than hiring. You know more about the person you're divorcing than about the person you're marrying.

Like, Reinsdorf and Paxson know they don't like Del Negro. Just as we know they were clueless and mindless, respectively, when they hired him in the first place.

Reinsdorf and Paxson wound up with somebody who never coached anywhere on any level and then didn't want him almost from the start.

Del Negro gave his bosses, or lucked into, more than they deserved: Two playoffs in two seasons, which should be attractive to potential free agents this summer.

Reinsdorf and Paxson can't leave the next hire to luck. They also need a coach who also will be attractive to free agents.

Unemployed head coaches, NBA assistant coaches, college coaches, high school coaches, grammar-school coaches, Development League coaches, sports writer know-it-alls, White House basketball aficionados - there's a great big pool of candidates out there.

This time the new coach will have to be a fit with whichever maximum-contract free agent the Bulls acquire, assuming they don't mess up that process and wind up with Tyrus Thomas.

Someone in the Bulls' organization has to know soon, if not by now, which available all-star they can get and which available coach he likes, respects and wants to play for.

The new Bulls coach will have to be able to install a system that utilizes the new player. Coach and player alike will have to mesh with Derrick Rose, the heart of the franchise, and Joakim Noah, the soul of the franchise.

It's quite a little jigsaw puzzle Reinsdorf and Paxson - let's include general manager Gar Forman - will have to piece together over the next few months.

Seriously, is anybody with the Bulls sufficiently networked to know the entire basketball coaching landscape? Is anybody really qualified to pick Del Negro's successor?

Reinsdorf and Paxson have been around the league forever now, but they still have to prove this summer that they know how to translate that into impeccable decision-making.

Del Negro said of his future, "All those things will be dealt with in meetings, and decisions will be made. I've been too fortunate in my career and my life to worry about that."

All we know for sure is, last time Reinsdorf and Paxson unsuccessfully pursued the obvious in Mike D'Antoni and successfully landed the oblivious in Vinny Del Negro.

Doesn't exactly inspire optimism this time, does it?

mimrem@dailyherald.com