Chicago Bulls fire coach Jim Boylen, with 76ers assistant Ime Udoka the favorite to replace him
Jim Boylen has been relieved of his duties as coach of the Chicago Bulls.
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The first NBA coaching domino of the offseason has fallen – it won't be the last – as the Chicago Bulls have fired coach Jim Boylen, he of the 39-84 record in two seasons with the team. Boylen's .317 win percentage is the second lowest to Tim Floyd (.205) in Bulls history for a coach with a minimum of 100 games. This doesn't come as much of a surprise considering Chicago already had overhauled its front office as the Bulls' offseason started with the mid-March NBA shutdown. They were one of eight teams not "invited" to the Orlando bubble.
Several Bulls players had taken public shots at Boylen in his tenure, but perhaps the most shocking one came last month when Daniel Gafford said of his coach when asked if he liked him: "He aight. I don't like him a lot, but he OK. Got some things he can work on, got some things he can get better at as a person and as a coach."
When a second-round rookie who averaged 5.1 points per game rips the coach, that's a sign of discord on a team. Ownership liked Boylen but gave new VP of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas the green light to make any change. Karnisovas' first major hire was Marc Eversley to be the team's general manager.
Eversley was most recently a senior vice president of player personnel with the 76ers, and that's why it's been widely rumored the Bulls will hire Philadelphia assistant coach Ime Udoka to replace Boylen. Udoka was a bit player in the NBA from 2003-2011 with the Spurs, Lakers, Knicks, Blazers and Kings. He's from the Gregg Popovich coaching tree as he was one of Pop's assistants with San Antonio from 2012-2019 and currently assists Brett Brown with the Sixers, mainly focusing on defense.
Udoka received some interest from the New York Knicks, but they hired former Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau. If the Brooklyn Nets don't give interim head coach Jacque Vaughn the full-time job, they reportedly could have interest in Udoka.
The Bulls would have to wait until the 76ers are eliminated from the NBA playoffs until officially hiring Udoka. Philly is the sixth seed in the East and plays No. 3 Boston in Game 1 of the first round Monday with the Celtics as solid favorites on the NBA odds for the game and series. There has been talk that the 76ers will fire Brown if they are one-and-done. Perhaps they would look at Udoka.
Other potential Bulls candidates are Kenny Atkinson (former Nets coach), Wes Unseld Jr., Adrian Griffin and Darvin Ham. Friday is the final day of the NBA regular season in the bubble.
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