Chicago Bulls: 3 early takeways from Jim Boylen era

After firing Fred Hoiberg, the Chicago Bulls have produced just one win in four tries under their new head coach. Here’s a look at the some of the notable takeaways from the early stages of the Jim Boylen era.

The Chicago Bulls didn’t fare too well during the first year of the team’s rebuild last season. In fact, their 27-55 mark was their worst win-loss total in 15 years.

On the heels of an active offseason in which they signed Zach LaVine to a four-year deal, acquired Jabari Parker via free agency and added a couple of decent draft picks, Chicago was hoping to put itself in position to contend for a postseason berth.

Unfortunately, that hasn’t come close to happening, and if you thought last year’s 3-20 start was bad, well, things haven’t been much better this season either. For starters, Lauri Markkanen, Kris Dunn, Bobby Portis and Denzel Valentine all went down with injuries early, which contributed to the team’s 5-19 start. Let’s also remember that Valentine will forego this third NBA season due to reconstructive ankle surgery.

Talk about bad luck.

Of course, something had to change and Fred Hoiberg became a casualty of that change. The front office parted ways with the former collegiate coach, despite having close to two years remaining on his contract.

According to the front office, the decision had more to do with a lack of tenacity more so than the wins and losses.

"‘‘What we’re lacking is kind of an energy and a spirit about our team, and we need to get that back,’’ John Paxson told the Chicago Sun-Times. ‘‘It’s not as simple as saying we would have gotten that with healthy players, with Lauri coming back, Kris Dunn coming back, Bobby coming back. It wasn’t going to be that simple; it was more than that. We need to find a spirit to our group that’s been missing and missing for quite some time.’’"

As a result, associate head coach Jim Boylen was picked to replace Hoiberg through the end of next season. But for those who thought this was going to bring about a positive change, that hasn’t been the case. Here’s a look at a few early takeaways from the Jim Boylen era.