The Chicago Bulls are not off to the start a lot in Chicago projected they would get off to. Currently their records sits at 2-6, leaving them at one of the lower seeds within the Eastern Conference. One has to speculate with this short stint of basketball played, that this 2-6 start may actually be a representation of how this season goes. Currently sitting at a 1:3 ratio the Bulls are in prime position to have another solid LOSING SEASON!
As a fan this is completely unacceptable seeing that the East is fair game right now for the Chicago Bulls to start making it into the top 8 in its conference to make the playoffs. However it seems that year after year the Bulls are only able to sell more hype than actual results.
Since the day of the Jimmy Butler trade, Chicagoans have been split on whether that was a smart move on behalf of the organization. On one hand one can see how the Bulls organization could feel that Jimmy butler was not going to lead the Bulls into being a real contender for the NBA Championship (i.e James Harden in Houston), yet trading him and not receiving a bonafide all-star in return did not seem like the most ideal thing to do either. However, John Paxson and Gar Forman would see to it that the latter would be good enough to send Jimmy Butler to Minnesota for the 7th pick, Kris Dunn and Zach Lavine. However, I still resent the fact we swapped our first round pick in the deal, but I digress.
In comes Fred Hoiberg and the Bulls are looking to become this new offensive machine behind the mind of Hoibergs run and gun offensive style system. He was suppose to develop the skills of Markannen, Lavine and Dunn to run his system effectively and develop into all-star caliber players. Fast forward a year, Hoiberg is fired; Dunn is an after-thought; Lavine started a mutiny against Jim Boylen as interim coach; Bulls tank a season in hopes to get Zion Williamson; the Bulls hire Jim Boylen as the head coach, and finally we come to a point where all this change and chaos has only lead to a failing rebuild process. None of the players are responding well to Jim Boylen's motivational tactics. He doesn't seem to have control over the team as much as you would like, and it appears that Boylen is in over his head.
The November 5th loss to the Los Angeles Lakers proved a lot about the acumen of not only the players but Jim Boylen as well. The Bulls signed Thaddeus Young this year to be a veteran presence, but also someone off the bench that could help continue a flow of scoring once the starters were to get their breaks. But that has not turned out to be the case. Thaddeus is proving to not be a threat on the floor as much as you would like and he really doesn't do anything great to warrant his consistent presence on the floor either. This was highlighted in the Bulls loss when they blew a 20-point lead to the Lakers that started to whither towards the end of the third quarter. As Coby White their rookie was making mistake after mistake with either shooting low percentage shots, bad fouls, or rushing plays and creating turnovers, Thaddeus was suppose to be the calming presence on the floor to settle Coby down and take the offensive load off of his back. Neither of the two happened.
Along with this, Boylen was very poor with using his timeouts in the game. In the first half he used timeouts back to back to help establish what would be a great half from the Bulls to put themselves up by double-digits at half. By the last 5 minutes of the third quarter the Lakers had crawled themselves to being only down by nine, and Boylen never called a timeout to break the Laker's rhythm and get his young team settled.
Boylen's lack of understanding basketball rhythm and flow is what cost the Bulls the victory. Not calling the timeout fed momentum to the Lakers and gave them the energy and life they needed to get the ball to kind of "swing their way". That broke the hold the Bulls had on the game and from there they only managed to delay their demise. After the game Boylen was asked about not calling the timeout, and he explained that he did not "feel it in his heart or mind to do so" and that "timeouts have nothing to do with the free throw line and boxing out, or rotations". His lack of acumen didn't blew the game, his young players just not being "there" yet is what caused the loss.
He also stated something very interesting in that he does not "yank guys from a rotation, and that you "develop the guys to be who they are to be and that I want to develop my starters and bench", this shows me that he is hell bent on not babying the development of his players. He has a clear understanding of all his players and their roles and that they should be finding themselves growing into that, and quickly. As I understand Boylen's methodology from the standpoint that he wants his players to think the game and be able to be their own respective coach out on the floor, the reality is the Bulls will continue to lose because they are not their yet. Although, Boylen may want to induce a speedier learning curve by not being so hands on and letting the young players learn off the cuff a little, it will only serve him cold questions and hot headings from the Chicago media.
Simply put, the Bulls need to find the reciprocal of their current win:loss ratio, and they need to find it fast, or we might see another rebuild in the works! Which I as fan will dread if the rebuild does not start with John Paxson and Gar Forman!
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