Not A Chance, Jim!

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Mar 25, 2008 3:52PM

Bulls interim head coach Jim Boylan looks like a fool for commenting to the media that he hopes to remain the Bulls coach next year.

And we'd like to be added to the White Sox's pitching rotation... but neither's going to happen anytime soon.

Boylan took over an apathetic Bulls roster around Christmas, when the players had supposedly given up on Scott Skiles, and the team sported a 9-16 record. During Boylan's tenure, they've fallen to 15 games under .500. At 18-26 since taking over, Boylan has done nothing to suggest he's anything more than a placeholder.

Especially since he's had so much difficulty keeping his players in check. Saturday's confrontation with Andres Nocioni is just the latest in a string of outbursts by players this season. Joakim Noah, Tyrus Thomas and Chris Duhon have also been fined or suspended for transgressions. When guys who've quietly taken care of their business for a number of years, like Duhon and Nocioni, start acting out, there's no fixing things.

The trade that sent Ben Wallace, Joe Smith and Adrian Griffin packing and replaced them with Drew Gooden and Larry Hughes certainly didn't help things in terms of veteran leadership to counter a weak coach. In addition to the acting out, the team is incapable of finding the motivation to fight for a full 48 minutes -- how many double digit leads have they blown, just in the past two weeks?

The only way to right this ship is to throw Boylan overboard and bring in a stronger commander to turn things around. Whether it's by bringing in a big name coach like Larry Brown or Jeff van Gundy, luring a college coach who commands respect from his players like Duke's Coach K, or whether there's a lesser name out there that can better work with the Bulls players we're not sure. But we do know that Boylan's not the solution to the Bulls' problems.