The preseason will be important for Jim Boylen for more than just figuring out his starting lineup and rotation.
The Bulls coach will also need to strategize how he’ll use his new coach’s challenge each night.
The coach’s challenge rule had been used in the G-League each of the last two seasons, and the league also tested it out during the Las Vegas Summer League in July. The rule allows head coaches one challenge per game – whether they’re successful of not – to be used on a specific set of calls: a personal foul call, an out-of-bounds violation or a goaltending/basket interference call.
Boylen said he watched every challenge that coaches have called for in the first few games of the NBA’s preseason, and that he has a set of specific instances in which he’s willing to use his. Among them include an opponent’s potential third foul in the first half or fifth foul late in the action. Obviously late-game calls will be important, meaning he'll have to learn whether to burn the challenge early in the game or wait until crunch time.
In order to use the challenge, coaches must first call a timeout. There's no set time limit on how long a coach has to decide when to use his challenge - Boylen estimated it at around "30 seconds" - but Boylen joked that he'll need to quit arguing with refs about a poor call and instead make the quick decision on whether to challenge a controversial call.
“I’m learning if it’s a play that you think maybe isn’t right and it’s close to where you would take a timeout or maybe you need a timeout, does that skew it? Is it dangerous to lose one in the first half or is it what happened in Boston and Charlotte two nights ago, they both used one in the last minute, which was really interesting?”
Boylen didn't use his challenge on Monday night in the Bulls' loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. But expect him to do at some point during the Bulls' final four preseason games, if for no other reason than it gives him some experience for when the games start counting.
NBA
“So I’m learning. We’ll work our way through it. I’d like to use it. I’d like to get some experience at it. You’re always concerned about the timeout. You’d better be sure. Your angles better be good. It’s gonna be interesting.”