The recent departure of now former Chicago Bulls head coach Jim Boylen could mark the second worst coaching job in franchise history.
It is true that the now former Chicago Bulls head coach Jim Boylen did not inherit a great situation when he took the interim job early in the 2018-19 season. The Bulls were in the midst of the second year of the rebuild, and the team was not in good shape following the departure of former head coach Fred Hoiberg. But there is little doubt in anyone’s mind around this Bulls team that Boylen did anything to help move this rebuild in the right direction.
Boylen just does not seem like he is cut out to be the head coach of a functional NBA, or even major conference college team (as Utah Utes hoops fans would know), but his assistant coaching career shouldn’t be over. He is still likely to land with another NBA or college coaching staff in an assistant role, since he at least seems to know the game well.
It’s just fine that some career assistants just aren’t cut out to be head coaches at major landing spots. During his run as the head coach of the Utah men’s hoops program (for four seasons), Boylen registered a record of 69-60. Utah did get one Mountain West Conference Championship during his time as head coach. But the furthest they got in the NCAA Tournament was a first round exit at the conclusion of that 2008-09 season.
The run for Boylen as the Bulls head coach wasn’t even that successful. He finished out his tenure as the Bulls head man with a record of 39-84. That was good for the second worst winning percentage of any head coach in franchise history (that coached at least a dozen games).
The worst record posted by a head coach (with those qualifiers) was the former Iowa State Cyclones coach Tim Floyd. During his run as Bulls head coach from 1999-2002, Floyd registered a dismal record of 49-190 (.205 winning percentage). Boylen would’ve had to do a lot to be as poor of a head coach, in terms of record/winning percentage, to match that of Floyd.
It is pretty safe to say that Boylen at least was a slightly better head coach than Floyd. But both Boylen and Floyd were the Bulls head coaches in the midst of rebuilds. And the “baby Bulls” would take off after Floyd was let go. Hopefully that same will be said for the Bulls after letting go of Boylen.
We can all look back on the Boylen-era hopefully when the Bulls are finding more success in the win column heading into the fourth year of the rebuild. He surely provided plenty of talking points for the Bulls, but the fans are not likely to miss his antics.