Bulls lose assistant coach Griffin
Adrian Griffin bid farewell to the Bulls on Monday after five seasons as an assistant coach. He's leaving to become lead assistant under Scott Skiles with the Orlando Magic.
In a tweet sent Monday morning, Griffin wrote, "The Chicago Bulls have been nothing but good to me. I will miss my family. Thanks you for all your support throughout the years."
Before joining the Bulls' staff in 2010, Griffin worked for Skiles in Milwaukee. Griffin also played for Skiles with the Bulls for 2 ½ seasons.
Griffin essentially became the Bulls' lead assistant when the team refused to renew the contract of Ron Adams in 2013. Adams is now working on Steve Kerr's staff with the Golden State Warriors, who are one win away from winning the NBA title.
New Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg has never coached in the NBA, so he needed a veteran assistant and is expected to name Jim Boylen associate head coach. Boylen has spent 18 years as an NBA assistant, most recently with San Antonio, but the majority of his experience came with the Houston Rockets under head coach Rudy Tomjanovich.
One of Griffin's greatest strengths is working with young players, and he was vital to Jimmy Butler's development over the past four seasons. It remains to be seen if Griffin's departure will affect Butler next season.
Griffin will be able to do plenty of mentoring in Orlando, with players like Victor Oladipo, Aaron Gordon and Elfrid Payton. It's probably just a matter of time before Griffin, 41, lands a head coaching job in the NBA.
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