Injury-riddled Bulls bring back Skiles as point guard

CHICAGO, IL — After a Wednesday night loss to the league-worst Minnesota Timberwolves in which they managed only 67 points, the Chicago Bulls have made a long-overdue roster change. Though not the trade many fans and media members have been expecting from GM John Paxson, the team did make a move to try to inspire their struggling offense, bringing back former head coach Scott Skiles to play point guard.

“We’re really excited to bring Scott back into the fold,” Paxson said at a Thursday press conference announcing the signing. “There are a lot of ways that Scott can contribute right away. Obviously, he knows the offense pretty well – this team has been looking for a guard who can consistently initiate the offense and set up his teammates for success, and we believe Scott is that guy.”

In addition to seeing most of their young core fail to perform for the first half of the season, the Bulls have been struck by the injury bug lately. Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Chris Duhon and Joe Smith have all missed multiple games due to injury in recent weeks, and the team has limped to a 4-7 record in their last eleven games.

“Scott is definitely going to make my job easier – no question about it,” said Hinrich, who has been starting at point guard most of the season. “He plays great defense, and he’s really about setting up his teammates on offense. Now I don’t have to worry about looking for other guys, or running the offense – I hate running the offense. I much prefer to just take jump shots, and playing next to Scott should make that possible. After all, he holds the single-game record for assists.”

Luol Deng, who is expected to remain sidelined for at least another week with a sore Achilles tendon, believes Skiles’ biggest contributions will come in another area.

“Obviously he’s an upgrade as far as a pure point guard, but I think it’s his leadership that’s going to make the biggest difference,” Deng told SSNN. “It’s been more than a month since we had a real authority figure step up and take control of this team. I’ve been asked to do that this season, but it’s really my preference to melt into the background and let a more vocal guy take the reins. I think Scott, as our point guard, will give us the kind of leadership that we’ve lacked since the coaching change.”

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