Making changes to personnel in the front office could be the appropriate step for the Chicago Bulls to move in the right direction.
There’s a pressure cooker that should be heating up around the Chicago Bulls front office thanks to their botching of the third year of this rebuild so far. John Paxson and Gar Forman didn’t do much over the course of the last four years to inspire confidence that this team could succeed in the post-Derrick Rose and post-Jimmy Butler era.
GarPax and Bulls head coach Jim Boylen tend to take the brunt of the blame from fans and the media for why this team is barely treading water in the Eastern Conference standings. A young core that looked to be improving in February last season and three significant offseason free agent signings that were supposed to upgrade this roster didn’t do much to help yet.
The Bulls are horridly misusing the likes of forward Thaddeus Young and center Wendell Carter Jr. Both Young and Carter Jr. have the skill sets to facilitate different units of the offense, but are more used as floor spacers of back to the basket scorers.
A report from K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago mentioned the job security of the internal people within t he Bulls front office. There doesn’t look to be any “imminent jeopardy” of front office personnel that could be seeing the door soon from this report, but the executives are upset at the start to the season.
Yet, a report from Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times paints a very different picture of the inner workings of the Bulls front office right now. That report shows that the Reindorfs aren’t necessarily happy at the on-court performance of Forman’s product of late. That apparently isn’t a recent change of heart from the ownership either.
The problem with the Bulls does stem from the top. But just letting Forman go wouldn’t completely solve the issues. Paxson and Boylen are part of the problem too, and a near-complete shakeup of the front office and head coach could be necessary to flipping the page to a more successful era for this Bulls franchise.
Through 19 games this season, the Bulls hold a record of 6-13. They head into a big Nov. 29 road contest against the Portland Trail Blazers needing a win to avoid falling into dead last place in the Central Division standings. This three-game stretch that featured two matchups against the Blazers and one against the lowly Golden State Warriors afforded the Bulls a shot at getting firmly into the playoff race in the East.
But they were convincingly defeated in the first two legs of this three-game stretch.
Moving to a record of 6-14 through the first 20 games of the regular season could be cause to hit the panic button. Hitting the panic button should also feature changes in personnel from the top down. The Bulls are close to starting this season under Boylen in similar fashion to how they started last season, before former head coach Fred Hoiberg saw the door.