John Paxson and Gar Forman continue to baffle Chicago Bulls fans. For their latest head scratcher they handed out a raise to current head coach Jim Boylen, doubling his salary from $800,000 to $1.6 million for the remainder of this season and the 2019-20 season. On top of that, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN confirmed $1 million of Boylen’s 2019-20 salary was guaranteed.
The news of Boylen’s raise came the day after the Bulls were embarrassed by the Golden State Warriors for their sixth loss in a row. The Bulls have since extended their losing streak to seven games and are 5-14 with their new head coach. Clearly, the Bulls had confidence in Boylen when they promoted him since they handed him the position outright, without slapping the “interim” tag on him. The question is why?
Boylen is an old school coach in a new league. He runs an outdated offense that does not take advantage of his current roster in what is now a space and pace league. He is a coach that runs his players into the ground with wind sprints instead of working with them on the x’s and o’s. The team even revolted, complaining to the NBAPA about Boylen’s extreme practicing measures which was yet another national Bulls embarrassment. The Bulls are a young team that should be focused solely on developing players. Playing in an outdated style is not helping Lauri Markkanen, Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn or Wendell Carter Jr. develop in today’s NBA. Furthermore, Carter Jr. has spent way too much of his rookie season on the bench with Boylen at the helm. These players are the Bulls biggest assets of the future, ignoring their strengths and placing them on the bench is doing long term damage to the team.
The perception of the Bulls under Fred Hoiberg was they were a weak team that didn’t work hard. Boylen was elevated to head coach in order to teach these young players how to work, motivate them and instill a new mentality. I understand the need to have a head coach that holds their players accountable but that shouldn’t be the only characteristic that gets them the job. The Bulls need a modern coach for to help bring them into this new era of basketball or they will continue to look like they don’t even belong in the same league as teams like the Warriors as they did on Friday. GarPax’s decision to commit to Boylen for $1 million guaranteed next year and the $5 million in dead money they have to pay their previous poor decision in Hoiberg makes it unlikely there will be a new coach on the Bulls sideline anytime soon.