Boylen Confident In Bond He's Forming With Bosses

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(670 The Score) As speculation swirls about his future with the organization, Bulls coach Jim Boylen is confident in the relationship that he's forming with his two new bosses in executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley.
"The relationship has gone really well," Boylen told WOOD-TV on Wednesday at a community event supporting social justice initiatives in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Mich. "We communicate every day. I think they understand where we were, what we’re trying to get to. They’ve been very supportive and collaborative. It’s a process to build this team into what it can be. I just like the fact that we have a relationship already. It’s never perfect. Nothing’s perfect. You just work at it. Tell the truth. You get your guys to play hard. That’s what we’re trying to do."

Karnisovas has been admittedly deliberate in his evaluation of Boylen, emphasizing that he wants to get to know him as a person and leader and discuss basketball philosophy with him. The two have had to do that without the benefit of on-court basketball action during the coronavirus pandemic, which halted the NBA season in March. At 22-43, the Bulls weren't invited back to the NBA's 22-team restart in Orlando, where games will begin in late July with a champion set to be crowned in October.

Boylen has led the Bulls to a 39-84 record across parts of two seasons. His .317 winning percentage is the second-worst of any coach in Bulls franchise history.

"We have a young team," Boylen told WOOD-TV. "We were 23 1/2 years old. We had an injury-laden season. We need to play. We need to compete. We played very hard. We were a hard-playing team, but we want to keep that edge going into next year. It's hard to do that without the competition part of it. We're hoping we can have some of that."