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Few league followers remain sympathetic to Scott Skiles; after Chicago's disaster of a start this season, followed by a disaster of a middle and a disaster of an end, it seems clear he poisoned the well quite a bit with his angry, abrasive style. Chicago had good defensive talent, and most of the guys were ones you would say work hard. The team needed offensive creativity, if anything, and Skiles nor successor Jim Boylan could provide that.

Milwaukee needs some offensive creativity, too; weapons like Michael Redd, Mo Williams and Yi Jianlian should be able to boast an offense better than 22nd in the league -- the Bucks did have the #13 offense in the league just a year prior with the same pieces, after all. But the defense remained consistent: consistently awful.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Tom Enlund reports the Bucks will likely hire Skiles as their new coach within a few days. With the above findings in place, it makes too much sense. If the Bucks offense can get back on track while Skiles incites some team defense out of the bunch (and there's potential for this -- with long Andrew Bogut and Yi, and good quickness in the backcourt), this team can easily vault into the Atlanta-Indiana-New Jersey range. With a(nother) top 10 pick and some reassignment of assets, they could get even better.

Of course, this supposes new GM John Hammond doesn't want to immediately make his mark by detonating the locker room. Of course, Skiles could be a star candidate for that gig, too; it was, after all, the incredibly young 47-win 2004-05 Bulls which stands as the coach's greatest bench triumph. This could work, folks.