Try getting anyone with the Bulls not wearing a shirt and tie to talk about the future of head coach Jim Boylen.
And not the stock answers of “we’re still evaluating, we still need to put eyes on Boylen and his coaching staff … blah, blah, blah …’’ No, real talk about what’s being said behind closed doors — or in private Zoom meetings, considering the times — about Boylen’s relationship with ownership, the new front office, his staff, and the players.
It’s an exercise in futility.
However, the Sun-Times has learned that things are staying vague for a reason. Ownership, as well as former vice president of basketball operations-turned-adviser John Paxson, would like Boylen back and have told the coach as much.
New head of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley have already had detailed discussions with players and retained personnel, however, and are getting enough of a mixed bag of feedback of what’s gone on the last year that they are leaning toward starting with a new coach and moving on from Boylen once a decision on the season is made by the league, according to a source.
The fine line Karnisovas is walking in all of this is doing so without rocking the boat with the Reinsdorfs barely a month on the job, but also reminding ownership that this new front office was hired under the promise of full autonomy in the basketball decision-making department and there has to be a trust that they know what’s best for this rebuild.
The argument for keeping Boylen is that he does care about the organization, there are several players that have spoken very favorably about him, and he did carry out the orders of what the previous front office wanted done this season with a mostly injured roster.
What will undoubtedly sink him, though, is a source said that several key players ripped Boylen to the regime, and then there’s the elephant in the room of a 39-84 (.317) record since taking over from Fred Hoiberg.
Even as an assistant under Hoiberg, Boylen was brought in to be the defensive specialist, but there were struggles on that side of the ball throughout Hoiberg’s stay.
All of that is well understood by Karnisovas and Eversley.
Boylen has spoken to both men on a regular basis, but the coach trying to get his side of things out to the public isn’t easy. Usually very accommodating to the media, even Boylen has gone into a witness protection program when it comes to any discussion about his future.
He spoke to ESPN about his relationship with former coaching legend Phil Jackson, and has been available for several features on other members of the Bulls organization, but a source said he was advised to stay away from any interviews about his future or his present standing with the team.
Bulls players?
The same orders from above.
If Zach LaVine wants to play in an NBA 2K tournament or a game of H-O-R-S-E to pass some time on ESPN2? Fine, just stay away from discussing his relationship with Boylen and the chance the coach is back next season.
Publicly, both Karnisovas and Eversley have answered the Boylen question, with Karnisovas saying, “My initial impression of Jim is he cares a great deal about this team and he’s as anxious as everyone else to get back in the gym … I’m going to do my comprehensive evaluation of every department and ensure I give the process the time it deserves. We are limited right now with what we can do [because of the coronavirus shutdown]. … So until we get to some level of normalcy, and I don’t know what that looks like, we will not be able to fully access the current situation.’’
Eversley was just as vague.
“Just like anything else on our staff, we are going to utilize our time to evaluate everybody on staff – not only players, coaches, but also people in the front office as well,’’ Eversley said.
Fair, but time may already be running out on Boylen.
