Chicago Bulls head coach Jim Boylen took a lot of heat for really slowing down the pace after he took over for Fred Hoiberg this past season. But now with speedster Coby White on board as the point guard of the future, Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations John Paxson says Boylen “wants to play faster.”
Paxson made this claim while speaking to the media after Chicago selected White with the No. 7 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft on Thursday. Paxson also suggested there were players on the roster who weren't committed to playing fast in 2018-19, per K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune:
“Jim wants to play faster,” executive vice president John Paxson said Thursday night. “Jim has a philosophy (that) the multiple-ballhandler system is something that lends itself to playing faster because you can grab the ball off the board hopefully and guys can push it themselves.
“But you need a commitment to running. And I don’t think we’ve always had guys committed to running. And that will be something from training camp and hopefully this summer (that) I know Jim wants to emphasize.”
It's not clear who Paxson was actually referring to with these comments. Boylen actually admitted on several occasions that he was looking to slow the pace down to help the Bulls master fundamentals first before opening up the offense a bit more.
With White now on the roster along with the super-athletic Zach LaVine, Boylen should be looking to unleash these guys in transition. Paxson insists it will happen, but we'll have to wait and see if it actually goes down this way.
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