There was one dark cloud over Jim Boylen’s first ever Day 1 of training camp as a head coach.
A right hyperextended elbow suffered in practice for second-round rookie Daniel Gafford had some concerns throughout the Bulls organization, as the big man was still awaiting test results as of Tuesday night.
“Yeah, I worry about the elbow,’’ Boylen said. “When you hyperextend an elbow, which is what Lauri [Markkanen] did last year and if you’ve ever done that, that’s a really weird kind of thing. You can roll an ankle, but an elbow, if it’s at the point where it hurts, it probably means you popped it pretty good. … Daniel plays so hard. Such a good kid.’’
About the only bump in Boylen’s ride, as the long-time career assistant was finally in the head coaching chair for a full training camp.
“It’s very emotional for me,’’ Boylen said of his day. “It’s very humbling to be there and to be in this position. It’s still sinking in in a way, although I’ve been thinking about this team all summer. I’ve said this before, we’ve just got to get this right, we’ve got to do it right. That’s my goal.
“It’s not about me being the head coach. We’ve got to get this thing right. We’ve got to get it right for the city, we’ve got to get it right for the Reinsdorfs, we’ve got to get it right for [vice president of basketball operations] John Paxson. We’ve got to get it right, man. That’s my goal and with all that experience you talked about working for other people, that’s what we’re going to try to do.’’
And Boylen has been very out-spoken about the fixes he wants to make throughout this training camp.
“We want to play faster so we gotta work at that,’’ Boylen said. “You are what you emphasize. We need to be better defensively. We need to work at that. We need to communicate better so we need to have drills that work at that. You think about those all summer.
“I’ve got notes from when I was on the plane going to visit [Tomas] Satoransky. I’ve got notes from the summer league sitting in the stands. You just kind of put it together. It’s pretty cool to have a group of guys who care and want to work. That makes it really fun.’’
Difference of opinion
Privately, one of the complaints that former coach Fred Hoiberg had of the Bulls front office was not getting the type of players to fit his system.
It seems different with Boylen, but Paxson didn’t see it that way.
“In the past, we took a couple of gambles is the way I’d call it based on short-term contracts,’’ Paxson said. “That’s really what it was. This year, we had a little more room to look at longer term. That’s all it is. Philosophies, we’ve always respected team-oriented, tough-minded guys. I don’t see that as a change. We took our circumstance and rolled the dice a little bit.’’
One-on-one
To make the voluntary workouts in September fun for the players, Boylen had a series of one-on-one tournaments with money prizes.
“I mean, that’s another way that we competed,’’ veteran forward Otto Porter said. “We got to compete against each other, see who’s the best every week. We got money for it. I think that’s something that everybody wanted. But also a time to build that team bonding and team chemistry.’’
As far as a clear-cut winner? Porter wasn’t going to throw those details out.
“I think Zach [LaVine] had the most games, but it was like a tournament, so four different players won,’’ Porter said.
