The FO poisoned the water long before Jimmy. Jimmy is just a symptom.
To me, the acquisition of Pau Gasol was a bargain with the devil. Yeah, Gasol got his numbers and his salary of $7m seems like a steal. But what Gasol lost in salary, he gained in power. It was understood that in exchange of the discount, Gasol wasn't to be benched under any circumstances. Even his rebounding was fool's gold because he never boxed out. The Bulls lost toughness under the boards and began to get pushed around with alarming regularity. How many times did we fail to sucure the rebound after defensive stops? More than anything, Cleveland punked the Bulls on the boards in the playoffs and that is why they lost? All that mess trickles down. The FO undermined both coaches IMO by giving the player carte blache to tune out their coaches. One could say Fred Hoilberg makes Vinny Del Negro look like Red Auerbach. I say Fred never had a chance and this is ALL on GarPax.