Coach Jim Boylen continues showing why he has staying power with the Bulls

Just in case there was still some lingering outside skepticism on Jim Boylen’s staying power as Bulls head coach, it continued to be squelched on Friday night.

During the 128-121 loss to the Clippers in Los Angeles, Boylen was more than unhappy with what he felt was a second unnecessary hard screen, and he made those feelings known. Not only to the officials and Los Angeles players, but to future Hall of Fame coach Doc Rivers.

Both coaches were quickly ejected. Maybe the best ejection Boylen could have asked for.

“What Jim did, I personally respect that a lot,’’ Bulls guard Zach LaVine said to reporters afterward. “He really cares about us and he’s going to fight for us. That shows his true character the way he feels about us.’’

Huge words from LaVine, who now finally sounds like he’s all in on Boylen moving forward.

An evolution that didn’t come over night.

Boylen took over from fired coach Fred Hoiberg on Dec. 3, and let’s just say it wasn’t the smoothest of transitions. At least not in LaVine’s world.

While LaVine is yet to publicly come out and raise his hand to admit, “Yeah, it was me,’’ sources told several media outlets – including the Sun-Times – that LaVine was the face of the small mutiny that was attempted in that first week under Boylen.

A mutiny that was quickly put to rest by cooler heads, but still took on a life of its own with the national media.

Then in late December and into January, it was LaVine who was still the most resistant to the Boylen style of coaching, obviously frustrated with the direction of the offense at the time.

Slowly, however, LaVine was buying in, and once Jabari Parker was traded – a player many in the front office felt was poisoning the water – LaVine continued to invest in his new coach.

“He’s the coach and he’s going to do what he thinks is best,’’ LaVine said of the transition. “I think we’re the players and we’ve got to adjust to it. I don’t think it was something to where we were like, ‘I wish it was different.’ It was just we had to deal with it. I think we did that and we’re in a better spot now.’’

So is Boylen.

His current contract has always run through next season, but he was given a salary bump from assistant to head coach.
What that means for the Bulls front office is Boylen is still in a “show us what you can do’’ phase.

The fact that the locker room is now fully vested is huge, but now comes the part where the core has to continue showing development, while playing the game the right way with the culture Boylen has been trying to institute.

If that is demonstrated in the first half of next season, that’s when the Bulls and Boylen would likely talk contract extension.

What’s been a huge help throughout the entire early storm, however, is Boylen continues to get more endorsements from within the NBA family.

Philadelphia coach Brett Brown was just the latest.

“He’s been around forever,’’ Brown said last week of Boylen. “He’s seen winning basketball.

“I think you go back to his Rudy [Tomjanovich] days or you go back to him being head coach in Utah or him spending that time with Pop [Spurs coach Gregg Popovich], that history cannot be dismissed, and I think you put that under the environment of how competitive he is and there’s a good demanding side of him. Young programs need that.’’