Chicago Bulls: Zach LaVine is right about Jim Boylen

The modern NBA should continue to push Chicago Bulls head coach Jim Boylen further out of relevance. But Zach LaVine isn’t playing well either.

The dysfunction of the Chicago Bulls has once again come to the forefront of the NBA. Bulls head coach Jim Boylen has to be considered one of the worst head coaches in the NBA this season, and his clashing with his starting lineup isn’t going to help this team in any way at all.

In a Nov. 22 loss to the Miami Heat where the Bulls were down by around 20-25 points for most of the first half, Boylen created yet another controversy. That loss to the Heat moved the Bulls even further out of playoff contention. And it kept the Heat firmly at the top of the Southeast Division standings.

The old school coaching tactics of Boylen, which don’t make any sense in this day and age, are going to continue to be a detriment to this team. Between Boylen making his team do push-ups and wind sprints in practices early in his head coaching tenure last season, post-Fred Hoiberg, to making his players clock in for practices, there’s no justification for his antics.

A new twist to the coaching antics of Boylen this weekend is shooting guard Zach LaVine emerging incredibly outspoken on Yahoo Sports on Nov. 23. LaVine opened up on his relationship and trust in Boylen after the head coach benched him early on in the 116-108 loss to the Heat to Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports.

Here’s what LaVine had to say about his head coach, in terms of the trust factor, to Goodwill of Yahoo Sports.

"I feel I earned that trust, but I guess he feels differently. Other players around the league — and everybody’s situation isn’t the same — I feel other players around the league have that trust. I guess we haven’t got there."

Most of that article released by Yahoo Sports was done with a Q&A approach. This is what LaVine had to say about the feelings he had back toward Boylen.

"I’m trying my best, I’ll say that. I’m playing my minutes and trying to do the best I can do. It’s tough, especially when you’re in a rut. If he doesn’t trust me, it’s hard to trust someone who doesn’t trust you."

There also seems to be friction between Boylen and the Bulls two centerpieces of the rebuild, LaVine and power forward Lauri Markkanen.

"Obviously, I think everybody needs to do better. Coaching staff on down. It can’t just be the players. You can’t single out guys, it’s not just two players, five players. It’s everybody. I take responsibility for my mistakes, I know I haven’t played the best basketball yet. I’ll continue to get better. I’ve been working on it. I think everybody needs to take responsibility."

While it’s not great that the Bulls and all their dysfunction, from John Paxson and Gar Forman down to Boylen, are ending up in the public eye again, it’s good on LaVine to make it more public.

Is it great for the possibility of LaVine and Markkanen to lose even more confidence?

No.

But the Bulls need to figure out something so that the third year of this rebuild doesn’t continue to be a complete disaster. A 5-11 record heading into the showdown on the road at the Spectrum Center against the Charlotte Hornets isn’t ideal.

Losing to the Hornets on the road exactly one month after the Bulls fell short in the final minutes in the regular season opener would be the perfect statement to how this season went so far.

A man who is likely the worst head coach in the NBA needs to go for this team to improve. But the three-year contract extension he received over the offseason doesn’t look like that will happen anytime soon.