April 16, 2019
It seems as if Chicago teams owned by Jerry Reinsdorf,
prioritize loyalty over winning. How else can you explain that Kenny Williams
is still employed by the White Sox? Since the World Series in 2005 the Sox have
only appeared in the post season once. Williams’ bad decisions in trades and
free agency crippled this team. He is now the Executive Vice-President. I have
a hunch he was in some way involved in the Manny Machado fiasco. Rick Hahn
replaced him and was saddled with the worst manager in Sox history, Robin
Ventura. After posting a won-loss record of 375-435, Ventura resigned at the
end of the 2016 season. The only thing that kept him around for 4 years was
loyalty. Instead of conducting a managerial search in the off-season, loyalty
reigned as they hired Bench Coach Ricky Renteria the next day.
Reinsdorf’s other team, the Chicago Bulls, have an eerily
similar situation. In 2003, they named John Paxon General Manager. Six years
later he hired Gar Forman to be his GM while he became Executive Vice President.
Most of these years the Bulls have been terrible. The best year they had was
when Derrick Rose had his MVP season and they went to the conference finals. Jerry’s
son, President Michael Reinsdorf, held a press conference pledging his alliance
to Paxon and Forman. He didn’t understand why fans weren’t pleased. Maybe
because they haven’t won a goddam thing. I guess it doesn’t matter because the
fans keep filling the United Center.
As I’ve stated before, I don’t like firing a coach during
the season. The management wonks lost faith and let their golden boy coach Fred
Hoiberg go as the Bulls started out 5-19. In a you have to be kidding me move, the
Bulls hired Assistant Coach Jim Boylen. This would not be so bad if they had made
him an interim coach and conducted a candidate search in the off-season. Instead
they extended his contract covering next season and it seems that they want to
add 3 more years to this contract. Unbelievable! So Bulls fans, how do you feel
about Boylen and his spiffy won-loss record of 17-41?
Boylen is the antithesis of a modern NBA coach. He hasn’t
picked up on the fact that the NBA is all about spacing the floor and shooting
three point shots, not points in the paint. If you look at the top teams, they
all have players who can hit threes. The Bulls were last in the league in three
point shot attempts. Boylen also is always pacing the court, yelling at his
players. He called for a practice after
back to back losses and almost had a revolution on his hand. You think
potential free agents don’t hear about this? Granted, the Bulls have been beset
by injuries. But in February, Lauri Markkanen was averaging over 20 points and 10
rebounds a game and Zach LaVine was playing like an all-star. The Bulls were still
getting blown out. If a game was close, he couldn’t find ways for them not to
choke. Otto Porter Jr. came aboard and they almost played 500 when he was healthy.
However, he is not a player who will turn your franchise around.
Most players come to the NBA with good
offensive skills The Bulls coaching staff has to teach them the importance of
and how to play defense. The Bulls defense ranks near the bottom of the NBA.
They are especially bad defending three point shooters, who continually get wide
open looks. This problem is a direct result of bad coaching. One of the most infuriating things about
Boylen is he can’t seem to concentrate on both offense and defense at the same
time. When he first came in, he slowed the tempo down and stressed defense. The
results were huge losses only with lower point totals. He then promised the
offense would get better. The results were losses with higher point totals.
Boylen may be passionate
and caring, though last time I checked these are not synonyms for winning.
However, if the Bulls get lucky in the draft lottery, coaching may not matter. On
my wish list is Ja Morant. Zion Williamson will be a great player but Morant is
the perfect point guard who can make his teammates better. If Markkanen and LaVine
get better with Morant, the Bulls have three stars that can win championships.
Sounds good, but most likely they will be gone before the Bulls pick.
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