Boylen's road to first head coaching role has plenty in common with Thibodeau
New Chicago Bulls head coach Jim Boylen has something in common with Tom Thibodeau.
Both toiled as NBA assistant coaches for 20 years before finally ascending to a head-coaching job. Boylen got his chance Monday after the Bulls fired Fred Hoiberg 24 games into his fourth season on the job.
Boylen, 53, and Thibodeau also had just one previous head-coaching job on their resume, at the college level. Boylen's college job at Utah from 2007-11 was a little more high profile than Thibodeau's run at Division III Salem State in Massachusetts.
Asked what this meant to him personally, Boylen hesitated and couldn't give much of an answer.
"Well, you know, I'm not there yet," he said Monday at the Advocate Center. "There's a numbness to this and there's a task-at-hand to this. We had a question, 'What are you going to do in your first 100 days?' I'm just trying to get through this press conference."
A native of East Grand Rapids. Michigan, Boylen played college basketball at Maine. According to his bio, he was runner-up for North Atlantic Conference player of the year in 1987 to Northeastern's Reggie Lewis, the late Boston Celtics star.
Like Hoiberg, Boylen was a high school quarterback. His father, Fred, who died in 2006, played football at Michigan State and later owned a restaurant.
Boylen's first entry into coaching was as a graduate assistant at Michigan State under Jud Heathcote. He played against and then coached Denzel Valentine's father, Carlton.
In the NBA, Boylen won three championships as an assistant coach, with Houston in 1994-95 and San Antonio in 2014. His longest run as an assistant was 11 years with Rudy Tomjanovich and the Rockets. He worked under the Spurs' Gregg Popovich for two years before joining the Bulls in 2015.
He also worked with Eric Musselman at Golden State, Terry Porter at Milwaukee and Frank Vogel at Indiana, and shouldn't be confused with former Bulls interim coach Jim Boylan.
"He has a passion and an energy to him that I think our players will respond to," said John Paxson, Bulls president of basketball operations. "I think he'll be able to take his personality and get these guys to buy in to what he's doing.
"I also think he's a teacher of the game and when you have a young basketball team, you need a coach and a staff that can drill down to the fundamentals."
Boylen announced his first coaching move would be to start Markkanen on Tuesday at Indiana, and return Jabari Parker to a bench role. Markkanen made his season debut Saturday against Houston after recovering from a right-elbow sprain.
Boylen plans to add Windy City Bulls assistant Dean Cooper to his staff and said he'd meet with each player individually Monday night at the team hotel in Indianapolis.
Asked where he thinks the Bulls can improve, Boylen rattled off a list of issues.
"Well, we're 27th in rebounding (percentage)," he said. "We have been in a number of games in the last possession where we haven't gotten the ball that we needed to get. So that's a point of emphasis that we're working on.
"So that's one. Transition defense is two. And then offensive execution. The items within the play we need to improve at - screening, passing, cutting.
"Fred emphasized that, too, but we have to grow. Our physicality needs to improve. Our attention to detail needs to improve."
Boylen and Paxson had plenty of praise for Hoiberg, who exits with a 115-155 record with the Bulls. There were early reports Hoiberg would prefer to stay in the NBA rather than seek another college job.
Boylen said he was told the news by phone Sunday night, while Hoiberg reportedly found out when he arrived at the Advocate Center on Monday morning to prepare for practice.
"I don't feel (the players tuned out Hoiberg)," Boylen said. "Fred was loved by these guys. Fred is a wonderful person and they knew that he cared about them. So I didn't see it like that.
"Fred - we talked this morning - Fred said he's disappointed, but 'I'm happy for you.' That's the kind of guy he is."
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