Moving one chair over instantly changed Jim Boylen’s life last December.
It meant being under the microscope, rather than in the background.
It meant a wave of criticism crashing his way, rather than being able to coach in the shadows that most NBA assistants freely coach in.
It meant dealing with the narrative of the job he was doing as new Bulls head coach, even when that narrative was created on the blogosphere and had very little merit to it.
Boylen adapted to the negativity, but that doesn’t mean he embraced it.
The one narrative that still irks him was the idea that he was hell-bent on reverting to slow-it-down basketball, turning his nose on the modern NBA.
It was reported by multiple beat writers, and even stated by Boylen, that the slow-paced style he went with through December was more about getting his young team to understand the basics. Breaking the colts of bad habits. Or as he put it, “getting them to crawl before they could walk,’’ and then eventually run.
As promised, they were eventually running by February, but then came the narrative that Boylen only started playing fast-paced because vice president of basketball operations John Paxson pressured him.
Never happened.
Both men made that clear.
Paxson reiterated that last week, in talking about the latest draft that netted the Bulls guard Coby White and big man Daniel Gafford.
“We’re not pushing anything onto our head coach,’’ Paxson said.
Does Boylen like a lot of four-out, one-in action when the push isn’t there in his half-court sets? Absolutely. But he also likes multiple-ball-handlers pushing the action, including wing Otto Porter and 7-footer Lauri Markkanen.
That’s why the organization was quickly dismissing the idea that the ultra-quick White would somehow be forced to play with a Boylen piano on his back.
“Jim wants to play faster,’’ Paxson said. “In watching the game of basketball, offense and defense work together. If you’re an efficient offensive team, a lot of times you’re a better defensive team because the other team has to take the ball out of the basket to run against you. If you’re not an efficient offensive team, if you turn it over a lot, you’re not going to be as good of a defensive team.
“Jim has a philosophy, the multiple ball-handler system is something that lends itself to playing faster. But you need a commitment to running. And I don’t think we’ve always had guys committed to running, and that will be something from training camp and hopefully this summer.
“It’s simple when you think about it. If you get the ball up quicker, you have more options, you can move the ball from side to side, teams have to guard a little longer, those types of things. And Coby obviously has proven he can play an up-tempo game.’’
White has no reservations about his new head coach, raving about the meeting he had with Boylen in the pre-draft interviews.
“I told my agent and my family after the meeting with Coach Boylen it was great … It was the best individual meeting I had with a coach,’’ White said.
That will be tested right away.
Boylen will be getting the Summer League players together and begin practice within the week. It will have a boot-camp mentality to it with Boylen wanting his entire roster conditioned. Then come Las Vegas on July 5, all eyes will be on exactly how much Boylen is willing to let White run wild.
“The great players want to learn, they want to be coached,’’ Paxson said.
The Bulls are confident Boylen will do that with White.
Just don’t tell the critics. It will completely ruin their narrative.
