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Depending on the day, the same member of the Bulls organization can have a completely different opinion on whether Boylen will be back as coach. But only the new head of basketball operations, Arturas Karnisovas, will have the final say.
It’s still the million-dollar unanswered question floating around this entire Bulls front-office restructure.
Make that the $1.6-million-and-change question to be exact.
That’s the salary coach Jim Boylen was making per season when he was handed a three-year extension last spring.
An extension that many are wondering if he’ll even be around to fulfill.
It was obvious going back to November that Gar Forman would be out as general manager sooner than later. When the Sun-Times first broke the pending front office restructure on All-Star Sunday, it was obvious that vice president of basketball operations John Paxson would be headed for a new role.
All of that was made official on Monday, when the Bulls announced Arturas Karnisovas as the new head of basketball operations, while Paxson would take on an adviser role, and Forman was fired after 22 years.
The great unknown?
Boylen.
Talk to individuals associated with the organization lately, and they each have a different guess. Talk to them in consecutive days and at times those guesses have even changed. To call the coaching situation fluid is an understatement.
COO and president Michael Reinsdorf has been very public in his backing of Boylen, and according to one source that backing remains alive and well. That’s what Boylen has working in his favor. The con to that pro, however?
Reinsdorf and his father, chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, empower their executives to make basketball decisions with very little interference. Sure, Jerry likes to put the final stamp on things, but he does come from the school of having a hands-off approach.
So if Karnisovas wants to move on from Boylen — much like he did with Forman — expect little resistance.
“This is my view of the role ownership should play in sports, and certainly in terms of basketball — is the ownership is responsible for hiring the right person to lead the basketball team and then should step to the side and allow the basketball people to do their work,’’ Michael Reinsdorf said recently. “And if we pick the wrong person it can take years to recover, and so we needed to get this right.’’
By all accounts they did with Karnisovas. Now it’s up to Karnisovas to get it right. There have been multiple reports that Karnisovas conducted interviews this week with GM candidates, and that process will carry on until at least next week.
Once the NBA decides on what it will do with the remainder of the season in the wake of the league-wide coronavirus shut down, Karnisovas will then have to address the coaching situation. Staff and all.
If he does pull the plug on Boylen and the coach’s .317 winning percentage (39-84), here are three names to watch:
Kenny Atkinson — The former Nets head coach knows rebuilds and player development, and there’s no doubt he will attract interest from multiple places this offseason. His name floated around the Bulls when he was fired last month, but that was from outside speculation rather than anything substantial from inside.
Adrian Griffin — The former Bulls assistant — now an assistant in Toronto — has been praised by many as being more than ready and capable to lead his own team. His reputation is that of a perfect mix of being a players’ coach, but at the same time having a disciplined hand in the way he teaches and mentors. There’s been smoke around him being a Bulls candidate.
Tom Thibodeau — Much like a shark is put in the ocean to only swim and eat, Thibodeau was made a coach to win games. That’s what he does, everywhere he goes. He was continuing to float around to different NBA camps before the shutdown, and by all accounts has evolved from even his stint with Minnesota, let alone his time with the Bulls. Thibodeau would bring instant credibility to the restructure.
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