Jim Boylen has expressed confidence both privately and publicly that he believes he will stay as head coach of the Chicago Bulls. This because he is in good standing with ownership and still has a fan in John Paxson who remains close to the Reinsdorfs. However, his fate isn’t in their hands. It rests with VP Arturas Karnisovas and new right-hand man GM Marc Eversley.
One of the key factors in this process was the players themselves. Being in good standing with them undoubtedly would go a long way towards Boylen keeping his job. By the sound of things, Bulls management hasn’t exactly been getting overly positive reviews from those on the roster. Lauri Markkanen even criticized the coach during a Finnish podcast.
It’s also no secret Zach Lavine, their biggest star, isn’t a fan of his either. Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times told 670 The Score he believes this along with Boylen’s lack of overall success has made his dismissal inevitable.
“They’re ready to move on from Jim Boylen. Now the thing in this is timing and how to do this…If you’re Jim Boylen, the best-case scenario for you is if there’s somehow a play-in tournament with all the teams and he goes on a deep run and really impresses his bosses and somehow the players show some life. That’s Jim Boylen’s best-case scenario…
…So what you have with this front office is they have to say, ‘Okay, ideally we’ve talked to the players. Publicly we’ve stated the two most important things to us are players first and winning. Jim Boylen doesn’t check either of those boxes. He just doesn’t. Fair or unfair.”
Truth be told, the only way this doesn’t end in being fired for Boylen is if he gets a stay of execution. That means Jerry and Michael Reinsdorf decide to insist that the team keeps him aboard as head coach. That, however, seems highly unlikely. It would mean they’re already overruling the decisions of Karnisovas, something they’ve made clear they don’t want to do. It could potentially sour the relationship before things have even begun.
Reinsdorf has always preferred to empower his top executives to make the big decisions. It’s been that way since he hired Jerry Krause way back in the 1980s. He’ll want Karnisovas to run the show his way. If that means Boylen has to go? So be it.
