3 Reasons why the 2018-19 Chicago Bulls are not fun after all

Last year, Chicago finally committed to a rebuild. Although it wasn't what Fred Hoiberg signed on for, the Bulls traded away Jimmy Butler for Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn and the draft's #7 pick, which became Lauri Markkanen.

Suddenly, Robin Lopez was the only veteran left on the team. And with LaVine rehabbing from an ACL tear, the Bulls promptly cratered to the bottom of the league at a neat 3-20 tanking record for one of the loaded 2019 draft's prized picks.

However, Nikola Mirotic, who had his face punched in by teammate Bobby Portis, recovered and went off on a red hot run, ripping seven straight wins to bring the Bulls to 10-20. It was a record that wasn't good, but significantly hurt their chances of getting a top three pick.

Chicago traded Mirotic in December and ended up 27-55, with the #7 pick. Imagine your team being so bad that they couldn't even lose the right way. That #7 pick became Wendell Carter Jr.

Here's why the Bulls are still pretty far away from success by any definition.

1) The weird timing of Fred Hoiberg's dismissal

Everyone knew he had to go. But he was coaching a very young and injury-ravaged roster. He was under the impression that he'd have time to set plays around WCJ and Lauri, and got a total of 15 minutes of those two on the court overall.

Why? It wasn't like Chicago were playoff contenders. Why fire an offensive minded coach who finally had a chance to work with the right personnel?

The oft-vilified (and rightfully so) Bulls GM Gar Forman cited "lack of energy" as a reason. At 3-19? Lack of energy is probably the best thing for this team.

The last thing any Bulls fan wants is going on a winning streak and hurting their chances of seeing Zion Williamson or Barrett in Chicago red.

Hoiberg was in season 4 of his five-year contract, and will get paid into his fifth season as well. So why not give the man a chance to showcase his ideas once?

The league's worst front office saddled Hoiberg with non shooters in Butler, Rose and Pau Gasol in his first year, Wade and Rondo in his second year and a tanking commitment in his third year. The man had been through enough.

2) Front office concerns

The Bulls' vice president of operations John Paxson and General Manager Gar Forman have to be in the running for the league's worst front office award. They'd probably lose it to Ernie Grunsfeld, but their puzzling moves have had many fans and league executives scratching their heads.

They gave Jabari Parker a $20 million contract which decimated their cap space for a season, when instead that could've been spent on taking bloated contracts for draft picks. They fired Hoiberg at a very weird time, and they promoted Boylen, an assistant for multiple teams (and who apparently thinks he's a Popovich clone) to the job without any hesitation.

That is not a good sign. An even worse sign is that the Bulls have cycled through six coaches in their tenure, and #FireGarPax is usually trending after Bulls games.

Forman, in particular, receives a lot of justified criticism. After all, he did draw up a couple of plays for the team that "looked out straight out of some high school sh*t".

Instead of constant coaching changes, Jerry Reinsdorf may want to clean house this offseason if the Bulls are to covet any free agents in the market. I heard David Griffin had LeBron's seal of approval. Just saying.

3) Boylen's coaching style

New Bulls coach Jim Boylen interacting with Justin Holiday and Zach LaVine

Jim Boylen, a first time NBA coach who spent time under Popovich in San Antonio - as we've heard from him repeatedly - seems to have a few things mixed up.

- This Bulls squad is not the Spurs. There's no Duncan, Ginobili or Parker here.

- He is not Popovich. Pop has five rings, an established reputation and ranks fourth all time with 1210 career wins. Boylen has one win and three losses to date.

- No hardass style of coaching can ever be implemented in 2018. The NBA is a players' league now.

- Robin Lopez is not David Robinson.

- Public insult is no way to push people, especially in 2018.

- No one and absolutely no one holds training sessions after back to back games.

Boylen seems to think he's coaching a high school team in some inspiring sports movie. His job this season shouldn't be winning. It should be about player development and getting Zion rights for next season. (In fairness, having a franchise-worst 56 point loss on home court isn't the best thing for his third game, either).

Boylen is tough, aggressive and exactly not what this squad needs. He called them out to the press and held a bunch of training camp style practices that involved marathon prep style running and military push-ups in a rigorous NBA schedule.

He benched his starting unit twice in the 56-point loss to the Celtics and damn near lost control of his locker room inside a week. The Athletic reported that Boylen nearly faced a full blown mutiny in his first week in charge.

There won't be many weeks in the future if he doesn't change his stance.

The Bulls sit at 6-22 with roughly 50 more games to play. If the trend gives us any direction, the boos recently heard in the United Center won't be the last ones heard in a while.

Strap in, Bulls nation. It'll be a long ride.