The Chicago Bulls aren't planning to make any more coaching changes in the near future.
According to a report from Joe Cowley, the Bulls have bumped up Jim Boylen's pay, and plan to keep him on as head coach through at least the 2019-20 season. Via the Chicago Sun-Times:
A team source told the Sun-Times on Saturday that Boylen has not only received a bump in pay since he took over from Fred Hoiberg on Dec. 3, but that bump includes him receiving "a contract beyond this year.''
The source was asked if the contract went past next season, and did not comment, but it was later confirmed that it was just through 2019-20 for now.
When he was first named head coach, Boylen was working on his associate head coaching deal, which paid him just over $800,000 the rest of this season and through next season. The Sun-Times reported that Boylen was betting on himself to earn that increase, at least for 2019-20.
A gesture that the front office appreciated since they would be paying the remainder of Hoiberg's $5 million through 2018-19, as well as another $5 million they owed Hoiberg for next season. Now that Boylen has been bumped, any notion that they have plans to move on from him leading into the 2019-20 campaign is all but flat-lined.
According to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski, Boylen has $1M guaranteed of a $1.6M salary for the 2019-20 season.
Boylen took over for Fred Hoiberg, who was fired after a 5-19 start that was due in large part to a lack of talent and numerous injuries to the team's best players. Nonetheless, the Bulls decided they needed to make a change, and handed the team over Boylen, who had been serving as associate head coach.
In his first week in charge, Boylen's overly intense tactics nearly led to a mutiny. Boylen ran two-plus hour practices featuring push-ups and running lines as if he was coaching a high school team and not an NBA one, showed up his players by subbing them out in five-man units and criticized them in the press.
Then, after a 56-point loss to the Celtics, Boylen tried to once again hold a lengthy practice the very next day. The players nearly boycotted it, but eventually decided to show up with the intent of holding meetings instead of practicing. In the aftermath, the players reportedly went to the union, and they formed a leadership council.
Since then, the drama has subsided a bit, but the team hasn't played much better, they'll have another chance to turn things around on Saturday night when they face the Utah Jazz (10 p.m. ET -- Watch on FuboTV with NBA League Pass extension). A fact that isn't all that surprising given their lack of talent and further injuries.
Additionally, it's not surprising that the Bulls' ownership would prefer to keep Boylen around on a relatively cheap deal rather than hire a brand new head coach while they still have to pay Hoiberg. That probably isn't the best decision for the future of the team, but it is the best decision for the owners' pocketbooks, and that appears to be the deciding factor here.
