It’s the Bulls Podcast #56 hosted by Marcus Couch and Doug Thonus. We’ve got full Bulls vs Cavs Reaction, our State of the #Bulls – Front Office Rumor Edition, and Game predictions for the coming week.
Welcome to the Bulls Podcast, coming to you from BullsPodcast.com. This is where we bring you the latest news, reviews, rants, rumors and opinions on the players, coaches and front office of the Chicago Bulls.
My name is Marcus Couch, and this week I’m joined by the man, the legend, Mr. Doug Thonus.
We’ve got several topics for this episode. Including:
- Bulls vs Cavs Rundown
- State of The Bulls – Front Office Rumors
- Game predictions for the coming week
Bulls vs Cavs Post-Game
The Bulls took on the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland and won 108-103.
State of the Bulls – Front Office Edition
The Bulls are currently putting out the vibe that they aim to hire a new general manager to replace Gar Forman. But Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations John Paxson and president/CEO Michael Reinsdorf aren’t going anywhere.
And from the latest news; perhaps neither is coach Jim Boylen.
Per K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago:
“Boylen continues to receive strong backing from both Paxson and ownership.”
“While placing the contingency that Boylen must be retained could limit the pool of candidates, NBC Sports Chicago previously reported that Michael Reinsdorf, who is leading the search, is expected to ask potential candidates to keep an open mind on retaining Boylen. If the preferred target candidate insists otherwise, that’s not expected to be a dealbreaker.”
What are we talking about here? This is just the classic phrase of reshuffling of the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Imagine you’re in a job interview and the employer indicates a preference for how you’d proceed if you got the position. Are you really going to suggest a contrary plan? Maybe you’d still get the job based on other attributes, but that aspect would probably hurt your chances.
Once on the job, a new general manager would also save political capital by keeping Boylen. If the new general manager hires a new coach who fails that’d reflect far more negatively on the general manager than if the general manager keeps Boylen and Boylen fails. Essentially, hiring a new coach accelerates the clock on the general manager getting judged.
It’s probably not coincidence, hired after Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor expressed affection for keeping Ryan Saunders, new Timberwolves president Gersson Rosas kept Saunders following a coaching search. Maybe Rosas would’ve landed on Saunders, anyway. But in a big world full of coaching candidates, that’s difficult to believe.
An established executive like Sam Presti would likely get more latitude to hire a new coach. But I doubt the Bulls would pay enough to lure Presti from the Thunder.
Most likely, this suggestion only pushes Chicago further toward a limited pool of candidates.
All this for Boylen? The defining characteristics of his tenure are oddly timed timeouts and clashing with his players. Boylen gets too much grief for his timeouts, but he also hasn’t done enough positively as a coach to drown out the timeout noise. His relationship with players is legitimately concerning.
Also: If Boylen holds such strong support from Paxson and ownership, that might indicate something about Doug Collins’ standing in the organization. Doug Collins was recently banned from Coaches meetings by Boylen. This isn’t good.
Thursday March 12th
Bulls @ Orlando Magic
Marcus: W
Doug: L
Saturday March 14th
Bulls @ Miami Heat
Marcus: L
Doug: L
Sunday March 15th
Bulls vs Celtics
Marcus: L
Doug: L
Wednesday March 18th
Bulls vs Miami Heat
Marcus: W
Doug: L
Doug Social Links:
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/Doug_Thonus
Marcus Social Links
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/marcuscouch
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/marcuscouch
Everything show related you can find @bullspodcast. Please make sure you are connected with us everywhere we are.
If you can’t remember any of these, you can check out our show notes for this show over at our website, which is BullsPodcast.com where we have all the links we mentioned in today’s show.
Until next time, Thank you for listening everyone, Go Bulls!