A coach and a front office that get along? Yes, it’s rare air for the Bulls

LAS VEGAS — Coach Jim Boylen admitted Saturday that what the Bulls managed to do this offseason was somewhat unprecedented.

Boylen wanted tougher-minded players on the roster. He got them.

He wanted competition at point guard. He got it.

He wanted more raw power around the rim. Meet Daniel Gafford.

It’s safe to say the Bulls’ front office and coach haven’t always been in sync in terms of building a roster, going back to the Tom Thibodeau era and the cold war the last few seasons of that turned into.

‘‘I don’t know how to say it any clearer than we have open communication,’’ Boylen said of his relationship with the front office. ‘‘They allowed me to present to them on the 24th of April my vision of the team and our staff and who I thought we could be and where I thought we needed to go.

‘‘You guys have heard about my board notes. I take board notes, and I take a picture of it. I had 120 pages of board notes of what I thought we needed to do or what I thought we could be or how I thought we could get there. When the season ended, I compiled those notes. I did a presentation to [chief operating officer] Michael and [chairman] Jerry [Reinsdorf] and [vice president] John [Paxson] and [general manager] Gar [Forman] of my vision of this team. I guess it resonated with them.’’

While Boylen and the rest of the Bulls’ brass in Las Vegas for the Summer League weren’t talking about the specifics of their free-agent signings until everything was official, landing Thaddeus Young for the frontcourt was likely on more than a few of Boylen’s ‘‘board notes.’’ And drafting guard Coby White with the seventh overall pick and executing a sign-and-trade for Tomas Satoransky will give the backcourt a new look.

Boylen runs a tight ship in his practices and in how he prepares his players, and there’s a growing collection of a no-nonsense types on the roster.

‘‘That’s been a big tenet of ours, to get this right,’’ Boylen said. ‘‘Get the right people on the bus in the right spots. [Consultant Doug] Collins, that’s one of his big things with me: Get the right coaches on the bus in the right spots. Get the right players [in terms of] role definition, shot selection, coachable guys, guys who care about the city. And we’ve done that.

‘‘In reality, we’ve done nothing yet but do our work, which is what we’re paid to do. Now we have to become a team.’’

It also helps that Boylen and Paxson have built a good relationship, especially with Paxson’s track record with his last three coaches. There’s a reason Boylen got a three-year contract extension so soon after the season ended.

‘‘He’s a tough guy,’’ Boylen said of Paxson. ‘‘He’s been to the mountaintop. I lean on him as much as I can. I don’t want to have this misperception that this is all hunky-dory, either. There are times he has gotten into me about things that he wants me to do. And I’ve told him some things that I’m upset about that I need some help with. And we just work it out.

‘‘I almost feel like it’s big brother, little brother. Your big brother grabs you and puts you in a headlock sometimes and says, ‘Hey, you’ve got to do this.’ Sometimes you talk to him, whatever it is. It’s been awesome.’’