Arturas Karnisovas is out. Marc Eversley is out. After six years, they’d both failed to make any headway in making the Chicago Bulls a contender. It feels like a breath of fresh air for fans, with one exception. Billy Donovan remains in place as head coach. One would think a team that appears headed for a semi-rebuild may want to wipe the slate clean. If they want to land a top executive, it makes sense to offer him the freedom to pick his own coach. However, the Reinsdorfs seem determined to keep Donovan in Chicago.
Almost abnormally so.
So what’s going on? Part of it is that they simply like the guy. Donovan is a steady, reliable presence in the locker room and has the respect of everyone in the building. His record since taking over the Bulls isn’t great, but some may argue he’s done the best he can with subpar personnel. That debate aside, Michael Reinsdorf made it crystal clear the team fully intends to keep him. Why the urgency? Well, Jake Fischer of The Stein Line offered some information on that. Part of it stems from sensing that other teams are eager to land him.
The Bulls don’t just want Donovan to stay as their coach. I’m told he could well be granted some level of influence in Chicago’s decision on its next lead basketball executive.
Yet I’m also told that Donovan — who landed a contract extension last summer after the Bulls denied the Knicks permission to speak to him after Tom Thibodeau’s dismissal — is expected to draw interest from other NBA teams this spring that could try to test Chicago’s resolve in terms of keeping him.
This Billy Donovan reaction could be some Thibodeau regret.
One lesson that many teams fail to learn is that if you’re sure you have a good coach, it might be best to keep him. This is something the Reinsdorfs didn’t appreciate, even after moving on from Phil Jackson after 1998. They did it again after 2015 when they fired Tom Thibodeau. They felt they could find another coach who could elevate what was still a good team at the time. Instead, they hired Fred Hoiberg, and the Bulls immediately regressed to a middle-of-the-road team and haven’t escaped that label for the past decade. Meanwhile, Thibodeau went on to continued success in both Minnesota and New York.
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This could be a case where ownership feels like they have a good enough coach. They haven’t had good enough players. In truth, that would be an accurate assessment. Throughout his tenure as the Bulls’ head coach, Billy Donovan has never had anyone who could be called a star on the roster. Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vucevic were good players. None were remotely close to stars. The organization probably hopes it can change that with its amassed resources, giving the coach a fair shot at building a winner.
The ball is in Donovan’s court.
Every report to this point has said he will not make a decision about his future until the season is over. That was why North Carolina felt the need to hire Michael Malone rather than wait for him. His integrity and respect for the Bulls’ players are part of what makes him loved in league circles. What nobody knows for sure is whether he will actually stay. The Reinsdorfs seem intent on providing a setup that would be plenty enticing. That includes giving him far more say in personnel decisions, even though the next VP of Basketball Operations hasn’t been hired yet.
Still, this decision is Donovan’s. He will think it over. The belief is he’d like to stay in the NBA, hoping to become just the second coach in history to win an NCAA championship and an NBA championship. The question is whether he thinks it can be done in Chicago. He’s 60 years old. The clock is ticking. Maybe another team offers him a better opportunity. If he chooses to leave, it would simplify the process for the Bulls, but also put them in a position they haven’t been great at over the years.
