The Chicago Bulls conducted a thorough and detailed search for their next head coach after Billy Donovan stepped down. VP of Basketball Operations Bryson Graham knew what he wanted. He sought a younger coach with player development prowess, perfectly suited to the team’s looming rebuild. After coming up short on a pursuit of San Antonio’s Sean Sweeney, they seemed to pivot toward Portland Trail Blazers interim coach Tiago Splitter. This was a surprise, since many felt he was almost a lock to get that job permanently.
However, things took a turn. Portland ownership was keen on cutting costs and unwilling to pay Splitter a sizable contract, despite his taking the team to the playoffs for the first time in five years. The Bulls seemed to sense an opportunity and put on a full-court press to meet with the 41-year-old. It appears that the meeting went really well. A few days later, a deal was struck. Splitter will be the next head coach of the Bulls, making him the first foreign-born person to hold that position.
Tiago Splitter is an inspired choice by the Bulls.
If you look at franchise history under the Reinsdorfs, you won’t usually find the team being aggressive in their pursuit of top candidates. They usually settle for less notable names or in-house candidates that won’t cost as much. That philosophy seems to have shifted under Michael Reinsdorf, who promised Graham full financial backing to get any coach he wants. Splitter was easily one of the top candidates available. It is a credit to all parties inside the organization that they got this deal done.
So why is this such a strong choice? For one, Splitter played under some excellent head coaches during his NBA career. It started under the legendary Gregg Popovich in San Antonio, where they won a championship together in 2014. Next was Mike Budenholzer in Atlanta from 2015 to 2017, the same man who later won a championship with the Milwaukee Bucks. That doesn’t include Dusko Ivanovic, who developed Splitter in Europe and won several championships across the continent, including three in Spain’s prestigious Liga ACB.
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If that weren’t enough, just look at his qualifications.
After retiring, he became an assistant coach for Brooklyn and Houston from 2018 through 2023. In 2024, he took over Paris Basketball in France and proceeded to win both the LNB Elite championship and the French Cup that season. That landed him the assistant job in Portland, where Chauncey Billups, the team’s original head coach, was suspended over gambling accusations. Thrust into the spotlight, Tiago Splitter overcame a tough first half of the season to rally the Blazers to the 7th seed in the West.
Despite only coaching for two years, the man already has two championships and a playoff run to his name. Young players like Deni Avdija (25) and Shaedon Sharpe (22) both had career years under his watch. The evidence is hard to deny. Splitter can coach. Now he has a chance to craft a team in his image. This is a strong choice by the Bulls. Whether it ultimately works out is impossible to know for sure. Nobody can argue that they made a poor evaluation of their options.
