That thinning tuft of reddish-blond hair sticking out from under the bus belongs to Scott Skiles, the now former coach of the Chicago Bulls as of Monday morning - courtesy of Bulls general manager John Paxson.

Merry bleeping Christmas, Scott: Love, John

You see, as always it's easy to pin the problems on the coach; and in this case, the frequently irascible Skiles was an easy target. After all, the Bulls are languishing in 14th place in the East, just above the Mesozoic Era's Miami Heat, but only two games out of the final playoff spot in the wacky East.

So why did they do it now? Paxson didn't elaborate in his statement to the media:

"This was a difficult decision to make, but one that was necessary at this time.  Scott helped us in many ways during his time with the Bulls; most importantly, he helped this franchise get back to respectability.  I am appreciative of his hard work and the imprint that he left on our team."

Skiles was hired after mild-mannered Bill Cartwright was fired on Nov. 28, 2003, when they were in dire need of intensity and direction with their young team. His 165-172 record is nothing to celebrate, but they've been in the playoffs three years in a row, the past two they've reached the conference semifinals.

But they start off every year sluggishly with the help of the bizarre timing of the circus coming to town every year to start the NBA season. That puts the Bulls on the road for a protracted period of time. They've bounced back strong the past three years, but at 9-16 it hasn't happened this season.

That meant Skiles had to go because somebody had to take the fall for Paxson.

For all the great stuff that was built with the drafting of Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng, Ben Gordon and Chris Duhon, then signing Andres Nocioni, they've gone backward since then for one reason and one reason only.

Hey John, YOU NEED A LOW POST PRESENCE! You live by the jump shot, you die by it.

Not sure if he knew that, so we had to put it in boldface caps if only because everybody else seems to know it. Consequently, all your other young guys have become stale. Granted, it may have been Skiles' personality, but you had to trade Tyson Chandler to the Hornets ... for P.J. Brown and J.R. Smith? All you got were four initials and none of them added up to HELP. You cut Smith and Brown retired. OK, that was for cap space and you signed Ben Wallace instead of Chandler.

Let's see, Wallace is 33, Chandler is 23. Wallace is 6-8 (maybe). Chandler is 7-1 (probably). Wallace is averaging 4.3 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks. Chandler is putting up 11.5 points, 11.9 rebounds and 1.2 blocks.

Hmmm, not a tough call.

But you see there's more to it than that. Not only did they sign Wallace a four-year, $60 million deal in the summer of 2006, but he is constantly unhappy and regressing on the floor. Meanwhile, they also drafted Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah - two aggressive and athletic big men - neither of whom has any offensive skills either. Add to that the inability to sign Deng and Gordon to contract extensions, the team is riddled with issues.

It's easy to understand why owner Jerry Reinsdorf loves Paxson. He was a member of their 1991-93 championship teams. He was a loyal analyst for the organization after he retired, and is a good spokesman for the team. And perhaps more importantly, he tore down and rebuilt the mess that unpopular Jerry Krause left behind.

But the Wallace signing and the inability to extend Deng and Gordon have seemingly tied him into knots. And for the first time in three years, they haven't come on strong after the bad start. There has been no comment as of yet regarding a successor, with highly-regarded Dwane Casey and Rick Carlisle freshly available from their firings last season There are also recycled color analysts Jeff Van Gundy and Mike Fratello hanging out for hire ... not to mention former Bulls coach-plus Doug Collins.

Regardless, the dumping of Skiles isn't the answer to their problems. They need to get low-post scoring before they become serious contenders, but before that they have to make sure the guys they already have are on board with what's happening.

But above all else, before a new coach is hired, shouldn't the question be whether or not Paxson is the guy who can handle all of that?

Merry Christmas Bulls faithful, and hope for a happy new year as well.