Chicago Bulls: Impact David Blatt-Knicks consultant hiring

If the Chicago Bulls could make solid moves to their coaching staff, including changing head coach Jim Boylen, it would be great.

The NBA landscape shook a bit on Dec. 18 when the New York Knicks announced the hiring of former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt to fill a different role with their franchise. The Knicks parted ways with their former head coach David Fizdale earlier this month, after his poor start to the regular season. But what impact does this somewhat surprising of a assistant coaching hire have on the Chicago Bulls?

Blatt is usually considered on the short lists of quality NBA head coaching candidates whenever a new role opens up. But he’ll be trying to work his way back up the NBA coaching ladders in a basketball operations consultant role with the lowly Knicks.

A press release from the Knicks PR Twitter page published the news that Blatt would be joining the staff. It sounds like the impact he’ll have will come more in an administrative role than anything else. But the Knicks making a move like this does have the potential to make the Bulls coaching staff look bad.

At least the Knicks started out the regular season with a solid head coach, and could wind up with a better one than the Bulls have now. There’s a good case to make that the Bulls have the worst head coach in the NBA, with Jim Boylen at the helm in the Windy City.

Blatt was a better coach during his tenure with the Central Division foe Cavaliers and Fizdale was better than Boylen with both the Knicks and Memphis Grizzlies. But it’s not much harder to coach a game better than Boylen does, and to make yourself look better with the media and fans.

However, what is also making the Bulls look bad is the fact that the franchise that tends to be the most dysfunctional in the Eastern Conference is doing better than them right now on their coaching staff. The Knicks are playing better under interim head coach Mike Miller and the addition of Blatt to the staff is a good one.

Blatt was once considered a finalist for two Knicks head coach openings. But he never landed one. That could be due to the fact that he recently retired from head coaching gigs due to a multiple sclerosis diagnosis. But he’s returning to the coaching ranks in some regard. This might be a good role for him to start out in too. Even though the Knicks tend to bring a lot of stress on their coaches of late.

While the Knicks are making moves to better their franchise, when no one thought that was possible at the moment under Jim Dolan’s ownership and direction, the Bulls aren’t doing anything. They keep treading water with a bad front office and bad coach in the East.

It’s good to see Blatt back in the NBA coaching/administrative ranks in some role. The Knicks are an organization that definitely needs a pick-me-up, as do the Bulls. Maybe the Bulls can start making moves to better themselves in the near future from a management and coaching perspective. Starting with a fresh slate without John Paxson and Gar Forman in the front office or Boylen as the head coach. That’s a good way to go.