Chicago Bulls (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
Everyone is speculating what is going to happen to Jim Boylen. Ignore the noise. Boylen is not coaching the Chicago Bulls next year.
The Chicago Bulls finally parted ways with Gar Foreman and Jon Paxson stepped aside as the team brought in a new President of Basketball Operations in Arturas Karnisovas. This move alone should bring new hope and life to a Chicago Bulls basketball team that was seeing record lows in attendance last season.
Now fans (including myself) want to see Jim Boylen get the ax next. The thing is, Karnisovas has made it clear that his first priority as President of Basketball Operations is to bring in a new General Manager. Karnisovas is off to a great start, but we should temper our expectations slightly. This team has been in such disarray that literally my eight-year-old being hired to run the basketball side of operations could not be any worse than the last 15-plus years.
To kick things off, Karnisovas has already hired two assistant general managers. J.J. Polk will be in charge of salary-cap management and Pat Connelly will focus on personnel. There comes familiarity with both of these hires. All three of these men have ties to Denver’s President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly.
Now for the noise. It seems some people tend to believe that Jim Boylen could stick around in Chicago.
First of all, we should note that nowhere in this article does it definitively state Boylen will be sticking around. The original source mentioned in the article is Joe Cowley. Cowley had this to say about the Boylen situation:
Alright, I am not sure what Cowley is hearing, but I will tell you this, it is all noise. Boylen seems like a nice enough guy, but he just cannot cut it as a head coach in the NBA. Whether it is his timeouts at the weirdest of times or his inability to play the right lineups, he just should not be in charge of any NBA team. I know that is crass, but it is the truth and this franchise cannot wait around and be nice. The team needs to win and change the culture now.
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This brings me to why Boylen is not going to be here whenever the 2020-2021 season starts. Out of the gate, rumors were floating around that Gar Foreman might stick around just as John Paxson was sticking around.
Well, it did not take long for those rumors to be flushed out. Foreman was fired and Karnisovas’ reason was that he was brought in to effect change. Let that sink in a minute. Karnisovas was brought in to effect change. Is keeping Boylen going to effect change? The answer is clearly no. I do not care who Boylen’s “big hitters” are, he is not going to be the head coach of this team much longer.
Now, let us dive into why Boylen has not been fired yet. The answer is simple. Karnisovas is focusing on fixing the front office first. The goal right now is to land the best possible general manager he can for this team. Someone who will share in his ideals and help bring some top free agents back to Chicago. Maybe Anthony Davis will finally come play in Chicago now? Whoever it is, the chances of landing a max-contract free agent is greater now than it was just a month ago.