What's Vinny DelNegro doing?

Never ask a question that can be answered in the same sentence.

Vinny DelNegro doesn't know what he's doing. Placing your franchise player on the bench in crunch time when guys like Brad Miller (who has no future for this team) are taking time. Even worse is that the team is finally starting to play better with Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah getting more minutes, and now are spared for Miller and Tim Thomas.

Kirk Hinrich is a nice player and could have stayed in the game while Derrick Rose ran the point, but DelNegro opted for Hinrich over Rose when it mattered.

And they've suffered.

I'll argue that the Indiana Pacers might be the worst team in the NBA right now without their ace Danny Granger and a productive Mike Dunleavy. It's shameful and stupid to think how DelNegro is wasting his ace with ineptitude.

• It would be one thing if Rose were this wreckless, volatile type that can hurt a team with his immaturity as we've seen before with Rasheed Wallace, Carmelo Anthony and Baron Davis when they're grumpy.

But Rose, clearly, is not. He's learning, but I speculate that Vinny doesn't know defense. Truthfully, how can everyone on this team regress when it comes to defense? They switch on every possession drawing constant mismatches--and fouls.

With quick, undersized athletes, it should be no problem to get back in position. It's why guys like Zach Randolph and Al Jefferson thrive against the Bulls--because they don't aggressively front the defender or stay with their man.

If that's the case, why not stay in a zone? Sure, no team in the NBA runs a pure zone because of the three second rule, but it's also because few teams are comfortable with it because an opponent may have a hot shooting night.

It may go beyond reason at this point to try and fix Vinny's mess, and I'm hoping that the Bulls have the sense to fire him this offseason. DelNegro will soon learn he'll have to bench Tim Thomas because there is simply not enough minutes to go around, Thomas probably doesn't care much anyway.

It's easy for the media and fans to second-guess what coaches do. But it's even more rare that they agree.

And this time, we're all in agreement: Vinny's got to go.