The Bulls extending Jim Boylen
Following the additions of Thaddeus Young and Tomáš Satoranský, not only were their internal playoff hopes this season but a handful of basketball analysts also predicted the Bulls ending their two-year playoff drought.
Be that as it may, there is a strong sense around the Chicago fanbase that despite the bottom of the Eastern Conference being so dreadful, the playoffs are still a long shot as a result of the tough schedule they have in the coming months.
Right now, the Bulls are 10th in the Eastern Conference and though their two best players, Zach Lavine and Lauri Markkanen, have slowly shown improvement compared to where they were at the beginning of the season, their inconsistencies early on are part of the reason why the Bulls have 19 losses.
Last May, the Bulls chose to extend head coach, Jim Boylen. Granted how limited his coaching tenure had been, there was at least small optimism that he would transform into the leader that this team needed, particularly after the additions of assistants Chris Flemming and Roy Rodgers.
But Boylen’s coaching decisions continue to be questionable and his overly optimistic comments during post-game interviews haven’t exactly helped his case.
The last time John Paxson did a coaching search was back in the summer of 2010.
A couple of months after they had fired Vinny Del Negro, to the front office’s credit, they were able to find defensive genius, Tom Thibodeau, who led them to multiple winning seasons (although we all know how that ended).
Since it’s starting to become pretty clear that Boylen isn’t the right voice for this young group, a head coaching search might have been a good idea from the start.