When the Chicago Bulls hired Jim Boylen they knew what they were getting. A hard-nose coach who was going to make players earn every minute they were out on the floor.
After two wildly unsuccessful years, Boylen was fired. Under Boylen, the Bulls were 39-84 (.317).
Boylen didn’t come without credentials. His time with the San Antonio Spurs was brilliant. In fact, if y0u want some of the best defensive drills, just go on YouTube and dial up some Boylen videos.
But there is so much more to coaching than X’s and O’s. There is the communication part and that has become paramount, not only in today’s NBA, but also corporate America. The days of the response to “jump” is “how high” are over and not for the reasons you think it is.
It isn’t because the kids today are too soft. It isn’t because the kids today are too lazy. It’s the exact opposite. For all the complaining about basketball in America, particularly in the NBA, the game is better than it has ever been at younger ages.
The NBA has gotten “smaller” as the world has gotten smaller. The league has been influenced so much by the International game that 1992’s Team USA seems like a million years ago. The blending of FIBA and the NBA has made basketball better than it’s ever been.
USA Basketball deserves a lot of credit. Our U-Teams (19 and under) are coached by some of the best coaches in the world. The competition they play against is high-level for any age. USA Basketball’s neighbor, Canada, has forged a pretty good rivalry at the younger ages.
The game doesn’t belong to the United States, it belongs to the world. Once that is accepted, you know why how you coach is just as important as what you coach.
As pointed out in an article in the Ringer, Boylen made several missteps with his team. Three games in his tenure, the Bulls’ players were already boiling in anger. Tough talk and overly hard practices aren’t the answers for a young team in the NBA. Boylen was a disciple of Gregg Popovich but the differences in situations are about as large as the differences in NBA wins. Popovich had a veteran team and that was champion level. He inherited a solid roster from Brian Hill and the organization drafted smartly.
The Bulls were far from that. Boylen wasn’t a championship head coach as much as the current Bulls weren’t an MJ championship team. That had to be recognized from day one and it wasn’t. In the NBA that gets you 39 wins in two years along with a pink slip.
The Bulls as an organization is responsible for the mistake. The front office knows the roster as well as anyone and should’ve known what was the best coach for their situation. If they had done that, Boylen probably wouldn’t have been the choice and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Basketball has changed on a global scale. The Cleveland Cavaliers were better off with Tyrone Lue than David Blatt. That doesn’t mean Blatt can’t coach. His resume doesn’t need defending. What that doesn’t mean was he was the best coach for the Cavaliers or any other team in the NBA. That’s not an indictment of the players, as much as it is a society that is changing in it’s definition of leadership.
The new basketball operations chief Arturas Karnisovas has an important job ahead of him. The Bulls aren’t void of talent on their roster. The right coach could get Chicago in the right direction. Hire the wrong coach and we’re having this same conversation two years and 39 wins from now.
