Näköjään joku toimittaja sentään oli saanut Boylenin edes pikkasen avaamaan Bullsin pelifilosofiaa ja taktiikkaa. Ei pysty linkittämään juttua joten pakko kopioida tähän.
SAN FRANCISCO — In the wake of a disappointing start in which his team has lost 12 of its first 18 games, Bulls coach Jim Boylen began a critical three-game West Coast road trip defiantly defending his highly criticized schemes and strategies.
“We’re going to keep playing this way,” Boylen said. “We’re going to keep defending this way. And we’re going to keep getting better.”
Boylen was aware of the Sun-Times report this week that said team chairman Jerry Reinsdorf “is livid about the team’s 6-12 start.” But as he sat courtside at Chase Center following preparations for Wednesday night’s game against the Golden State Warriors, Boylen seemed unconcerned with the drama surrounding the team.
“Guys have been very focused, very diligent, very respectful to what we need to do,” Boylen said hours before the Bulls would lose 104-90, giving the injury-wracked Warriors their fourth win of the season. “Those are the things I have to monitor. Are we working hard? I feel we’re working on the right things. I think we’ve had some terrific individual performances. I think we’ve had some inconsistent moments.”
It was just last week Boylen said he’s never felt more support from management and ownership. And he has never sounded more resolute in sticking with what, so far, hasn’t worked.
Boylen made it clear the Bulls need to play better, acknowledging the responsibility ultimately falls on him, but he grew agitated at questions surrounding the team’s style of play.
“I’ll always evaluate myself first,” Boylen said before the Bulls scored a combined 34 points in the first and fourth quarters Wednesday night. “I tell the team that. I’m not one of these guys that buries my head in the sand. I’m not one of these guys that has a blaming mindset. I don’t do that. I’m going to coach this team the best I can. I’m direct. I’m honest. And I go back to, we’ve played some really good basketball. We want to play more consistent basketball. I think we are still developing within our system. This is a new way of playing for these guys.
“We run well. We defend well. We haven’t shot the ball as well as I think we can. We haven’t finished as well as I think we can. I’m encouraged by our shot profile. No team has underperformed their shot profile for the entire season. We’ve obviously underperformed. I have to evaluate that appropriately. I try to. And I’d like us to be a real solid defensive team. I love the way we’ve improved defensively since the start of the season. I’m encouraged by that.”
New Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony had little problem with Lauri Markkanen and the Bulls defense on Monday night. (David Banks / USA Today)
Boylen also has no plans on changing anything anytime soon.
The Bulls entered Wednesday’s games ranked 15th in defensive rating, a spot Boylen pinpointed as a sign of progress because the Bulls finished 25th in defensive rating last season. But offensively, the Bulls ranked 29th last season and are just 28th this season.
Defensively, the Bulls’ aggressive strategy defending the pick-and-roll has become one of the loudest criticisms of Boylen and his coaching staff.
Offensively, the Bulls’ multi ball-handler system has generated open shots, but the Bulls are the seventh-worst 3-point shooting team, and sharp ball movement has largely been overtaken by periods of prolonged ball-watching.
Boylen defended both styles Wednesday.
“What are our options?” Boylen asked when questioned about the defensive scheme. “We can drop our center and not impact the ball, right? So, that would be criticized. We’re (15th) in defense. Do you think that’s a good defensive number for this group of guys? Do you think we’re playing hard defensively? I do. Every defense has holes or situations. We’re No. 1 in the league in forcing turnovers. We’ve forced the most turnovers by a Bulls team in a long time. The turnovers allow us to get out and run. I think it’s important for us to score in the first six seconds of the clock. The defense that we use gets us out in transition because we’re knocking balls loose and we’re playing a hard style of half-court defense. It fits with how I want to play.”
Boylen sarcastically cited three of the team’s wins when asked if there comes a point when the scheme should be scrapped should poor results continue.
“We change coverages in games,” he said. “How was our base coverage against Detroit? How was it against Atlanta? You asked me if we’re playing the right defense, we are.”
The Bulls have taken the eighth-most 3-pointers at 35.5 per game. Despite numerous nights in which they’re not hitting them, the Bulls continue to have the green light. Boylen took exception to the characterization of the Bulls running a five-out offense and pointed back to the team’s shot profile as proof the team is doing the right things.
“It’s not a five-out offense,” he said. “We want to play in space. We want to take our open shots. I think we’ve had a lot of open shots and a lot of plays at the rim. We’re going to keep playing this way. We’re going to keep defending this way. And we’re going to keep getting better.”
When asked why he thinks the misses are mounting, Boylen said, “I don’t know. Ask them.”
Them being the players missing the shots.
“We’re missing shots I think we can make,” he said. “That’s just basketball. As I said, nobody’s underperformed their shot profile for an entire season. So we’ll see. We’ll see what happens. You think after 18 games we’re going to abandon what we do? Is that what you’re saying? I’m not doing that.”
The biggest issue with the Bulls is a simple one in Boylen’s eyes.
“I’ve said it 1,000 times,” he said. “Consistency. We’ve played some really good moments of basketball and some moments where I think we can do better. That’s what it is, consistency. And I have to take responsibility for that. And I do. And we’re going to keep working at what we do and try to be more consistent"
