Chicago Bulls assistant Coach Ed Pinckney to assist Ukrainian National Basketball team – NBA Update
While Luol Deng, Joakim Noah and Omer Asik are waiting in the wings to participate in FIBA Euro Basket – a tournament that is the qualifying event for the 2012 London Olympics - another member from the franchise is also gearing
up for some action in the tournament.
However, he will not be on the court, but outside it.
As it turns out, Chicago Bulls assistant Coach Ed Pinckney is going to assist the Mike Fratello, the head coach of Ukrainian National Basketball team.
Mike, who was hired by Ukrainian basketball association in February for the coaching position, carries substantial experience coaching in NBA. In his tenure, he has coached Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Memphis Grizzlies.
His selection of Pinckney is thought to be a result of latter’s growing reputation as an assistant, after he, under the supervision of Tom Thibodeau, guided the Bulls to the best record in the NBA regular season and a place in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Pinckney is determined to learn from the massive experience of Fratello and the playing style of the Europeans.
"I'm excited about the opportunity to meet with [Fratello] on a day-to-day basis, especially with the way that the Europeans play. It's going to be good to learn the way that they do things over there"
Pinckney was serving with the Minnesota Timberwolves, before Chicago Bulls handed the responsibilities of assistant coach to him back in 2010.
After seeing the Miami Heat eliminate his team in the Conference Finals, Pinckney is hoping to bring back some valuable lessons from his stint so that he can help in Bulls surge towards glory next season.
His biggest challenge at the European championship will be to formulate a strategy with Mike Fratello to slow down the bigs, a species of players that are abundant in the European circuit.
"I'm curious to know how to slow down catch-and-shoot big guys because that was a very difficult project for all the teams that faced Dallas and I don't know if there actually is a conventional way to do it, but in these games
in Lithuania, you're going to have teams that have those kinds of players and there's going to be teams with multiple players on the court at the same time that are somewhat similar.” Pinckney said.
The Bulls already have a strong back court system and if Ed Pinckney is able to bring in a better concept to fire up the defence against the big guns, the Bulls will definitely have a huge impact in the next season.
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