Chicago Bulls News: Team looking for ‘Boylen friendly’ general manager?

A recent report suggesting the Chicago Bulls might want to keep Jim Boylen as head coach is almost unbelievable.

If it wasn’t the Chicago Bulls, it would almost be too ridiculous to believe. But welcome to the current state of things for the Bulls, where reality has become stranger than fiction over the last couple of seasons. The most recent example of this phenomenon is a recent NBCSports Chicago report in which the team apparently is very open to the idea of Jim Boylen remaining the head coach next season. The implication of that alone should be justification for launching the entire organization into the sun.

As you know, the Bulls current general manager (in title only) Gar Forman has been pushed to the side, and the team will be looking to hire his replacement this offseason. However, the de facto general manager, John Paxson, will not be going anywhere despite his atrocious track record, because he is highly respected and valued by the Reinsdorf family. In as much as he figures to continue to play a prominent role in the organization, it appears he will try to continue to exert influence over the process of selecting Forman’s replacement.

According to K.C. Johnson’s piece, Bulls management (I purposely refrained from using the phrase “brain trust”) will reportedly ask general manager candidates to keep an open mind on the future of Jim Boylen and consider the possibility of retaining him.

While the piece makes clear that any insistence to the contrary by a candidate would not be a deal-breaker, the mere fact that they would ask tells you all you need to know about the state of this franchise. It should also eliminate any shred of hope you may have had that real change was coming this offseason.

If you thought the front office might have seen the light and realized just how badly they’ve botched this whole situation, think again. Not only are they themselves open to the idea of Boylen returning, but are looking for a new general manager who shares the same failed vision they do. And what in the world has Boylen done, other than embarrassing himself night after night, to earn him another year coaching this team? Is management dead-set on alienating not only all potential free agents but current players as well? What is the end-game here?

It was already going to be a tough sell getting a quality general manager to come to Chicago with Paxson lurking overhead and having just as much influence as he currently does. But with the news that they are looking for someone to potentially retain Boylen, the task of finding one might now be impossible.