Chicago Bulls: Grading front office, coaching staff 60 games in
Coaching staff
Although most of the problems the Chicago Bulls are experiencing this season aren’t only the fault of the coaching staff, there’s definitely a good amount of blame that falls here. Head coach Jim Boylen hasn’t exceeded expectations to any relative degree this season, and definitely didn’t deserve the three-year contract extension he received last summer.
What’s really frustrating for Bulls fans beyond the obvious that he didn’t deserve the contract extension is how bad Boylen does against opponents with a winning record. At the time when the Bulls played them, only one team with a winning record gave them a win so far this season. About the best wins the Bulls have to their name this season came over the Los Angeles Clippers and San Antonio Spurs, both at home at the United Center.
Those struggles for Boylen trace back to last season, where he continually lost to bad teams. He was given a bit of a break since he was working with a roster very devoid of any type of talent and depth down the stretch. But he’s not doing much better with what was a more complete roster for much of the 2019-20 regular season.
So far this season, the Bulls haven’t done much to show improvement. They do rank 15th in the NBA in defensive rating (109.8), but the offensive rating at 27th (106.7) is less than stellar. Boylen is still slowing the pace down, ranking 16th in the NBA in that stat category. Not much improved in the way to team stats on either end of the floor this year compared to last, except for total number of steals.
The roles of the assistant coaches that were hired last offseason, Roy Rodgers from the Houston Rockets and Chris Fleming from the Brooklyn Nets, are unclear. The offense at least made some strides this season, so they’re presence might be doing some good.