The Chicago Bulls are in a good spot by most indications at this point of the offseason, which should mean no rush on the next head coaching hire.
The patient process for recently hired Chicago Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas was apparent throughout the entirety of the offseason so far in terms of where he will look to find the next head coaching hire. Karnisovas and the Bulls parted ways with now former head coach Jim Boylen back on Aug. 14, and thus one of the more high-profile jobs that could exist for a big market team in the NBA opened up.
The Bulls head coaching job also needs to be taken care of with more caution and awareness this time around than the past two searches. The hiring of former Iowa State Cyclones head coach Fred Hoiberg (now with the Nebraska Cornhuskers basketball program) wasn’t as bad as giving Boylen a three-year contract extension last offseason.
But neither the hiring of Hoiberg, nor Boylen, worked out too well over the long haul for the Bulls. Hoiberg finished up his tenure as the Bulls head coach with a record of 115-155 (42.6 winning percentage). Boylen was even worse, as he posted a record of 39-84 (31.7 winning percentage) in his two seasons with the Bulls as head coach.
The next head coaching hire for the Bulls also looks to be one that will take a while. According to a report from Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times on Aug. 22, the plan is to not rush anything with the next head coaching hire. Karnisovas already took his time on the firing of Boylen. And it’s not the worst move for him to do the same with this coaching search too.
Here’s a brief bit of what Karnisovas had to say on this matter regarding the timeline of the next head coaching hire.
"“Timeline, I said we’re not going to have a timeline,’’ Karnisovas said, when asked about the early stages of the coaching search. “We started already the search but we haven’t interviewed anybody. So that’s where we’re at.’’Expect that to start changing, however."
The Bulls have a few head coaching candidates that seem to be in mind, including former Brooklyn Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson, Philadelphia 76ers lead assistant Ime Udoka, and Toronto Raptors assistant Adrian Griffin.
With the Bulls finishing up the 2019-20 season with a record of 22-43, and landing the fourth overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft Lottery, there should theoretically be nowhere to go but up from here.