Doug Collins said Thursday he never was in the picture to replace Bill Cartwright as the Bulls' head coach, and Collins said conversations with general manager John Paxson during the summer were about an assistant coaching position.

"There was a lot of speculation about [replacing Cartwright] because John came to me to be an assistant coach,'' said Collins, who was working the Bulls-76ers game for TNT. "One of the stipulations, had that worked, was I would never be the head coach under any circumstances. I told that to John and Bill.