NEWSLETTER
Decisions … decisions.
New executive VP of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas will be making a lot of those over the next several weeks. Already with two hires in his back pocket (JJ Polk and Pat Connelly), Karnisovas told reporters yesterday that the team’s next move will be to interview a pool of general manager candidates in a process that will start sometime this week.
Who knows exactly what the next step will be after that, but at some point in the near future, Karnisovas will have to address the coaching situation. And spoiler alert for anyone just now hopping on the Bulls bandwagon: Jim Boylen is not the man for the job.
Not only has he been instrumental in the Bulls downward spiral on the court, but his late-game timeouts and bizarre postgame comments haven’t done any favors to the Bulls’ off-court reputation either. If Karnisovas is truly the right man for the job (and we think he is), Boylen will be out the door by the time the 2020-21 season comes around. And while I know many of us would like to see that decision made sooner rather than later, Karnisovas said this morning on 670 The Score’s Mully & Haugh show that he’ll take his time to properly evaluate Boylen’s tenure.
“This relationship is the most important relationship probably in the organization. Your coach, who is leading your team. I already spoke to Jim numerous times. We’re going to get on Zoom calls and we’re going to look at a lot of video, look at offense, defense, defensive schemes. We’ll have time to do so.
So far there is no decision to be made, there is just evaluation period. How we have done things in the past. Everything is going as it is, like I said we are going to sit down with everybody, look at all the departments, and move forward with that.”
Ugh … but fine.
Karnisovas has a structure, and that’s admirable. I love the fact that he’s establishing some sense of order by refusing to break away from his normal systematic approach. I’ll love it less if it results in Boylen staying with the team, but I’d truly be surprised if that comes to pass.
Also, for anyone who might be scared when Boylen is not shot into the sun within the next week, nothing Karnisovas has said makes it sound like he has any confidence in the current head coach. He had an opportunity to give Boylen praise yesterday and earlier today, but didn’t. The guy didn’t even say he enjoyed the talks. Instead, he has maintained a professional attitude, and I got to say, it’s pretty refreshing.
In general, this is an interesting storyline to keep an eye on, but not one to worry about (yet).
