Chicago Bulls: Lloyd Pierce feels for Jim Boylen’s situation

The Atlanta Hawks head coach Lloyd Pierce seemingly has sympathy for the situation that now former Chicago Bulls head coach Jim Boylen is in.

Earlier this month, the Chicago Bulls surprised many fans and media personnel when they announced they would be parting ways with now former head coach Jim Boylen. After two seasons at the helm, Boylen was not very popular among the fan base or in a lot of the media-sphere around the Bulls camp.

What all started the wave of changes within the Bulls organization this offseason was the parting ways with former general manager Gar Forman and demotion of former vice president of basketball operations John Paxson to a senior advisor role. The Bulls hired former Denver Nuggets general manager Arturas Karnisovas to replace Paxson as the lead voice in the front office and former Philadelphia 76ers senior VP of player personnel Marc Eversley to replace Forman as the Bulls next general manager.

Now that the Bulls coaching search is officially on to find Boylen’s replacement, and hopefully a better direction for this rebuild heading into its fourth year, they can also focus on what might’ve went wrong while he was head coach here. Boylen finished up his stint as the Bulls head coach with a record of 39-84.

He finished up with a record of 22-43 through 65 games prior to the novel coronvirus-mandated pause to the 2019-20 regular season. The Bulls finished up 11th in the Eastern Conference standings, which was not the ideal result given the increased hype heading into this season.

There’s another head coach in the East that apparently feels for the situation that Boylen found himself in as the Bulls head coach. Atlanta Hawks head coach Lloyd Pierce joined up with Hoops Hype and their podcast this week to discuss both his team’s standing and the Bulls head coaching situation (in particular Boylen).

He opened up on the difficulties this job can present and how his team can build in the East heading into the future. The Hawks could have a bright future ahead behind star point guard Trae Young and big man John Collins.

Here’s a lengthy cut from what Pierce had to say regarding Boylen’s situation and how it connects with him.

"For me, it’s disturbing. It’s upsetting. Jim’s a great man. I know the challenges that he was facing as a coach with a team that’s similarly young to ours. You’re trying to get that thing going. It’s not always the easiest task at hand when you’re dealing with the media, social media, young players, and the expectations of everyone. Everyone wants to win, and everyone wants to win right now. I know the position. I’m in the position, but we all know as coaches that this is the job we’re in. We understand the expectations that come with the job. We understand the seriousness of those expectations, and we take on the task knowing that. I think Jim will be fine. He’ll land on his feet soon. He was granted a great opportunity. I hope nothing but the best for him. I also understand this is our business, so it is what it is sometimes."

There is one commonality that’s shown here from Pierce that a lot of other NBA coaches seem to feel about Boylen. They all like his overall basketball knowledge and consistently claim that he is just a good guy. And that might be the case, he just wasn’t cut out for the Bulls head coaching job.

Certainly Boylen should land on his feet elsewhere in the NBA or college ranks as an assistant. His basketball knowledge sounds like it is up to par, and the assistant role is probably best for him.

Karnisovas and Eversley have to get this coaching hire right since the Bulls did strike out on the last two. Boylen obviously didn’t produce much success in the win column or hope for the future of this rebuild, and former head coach Fred Hoiberg didn’t do much for the rebuild either.