Chicago Bulls interested in pursuing former Thunder HC Billy Donovan

A new candidate emerged that could be interesting for the Chicago Bulls for a potential next head coaching hire, former OKC HC Billy Donovan.

The head coaching search continues to heat up for the Chicago Bulls as another interesting name appeared on the open market this week. After the Bulls parted ways with now former head coach Jim Boylen back on Aug. 14, they’ve taken to a slow candidate search that appears to be a process that will last for a while this offseason.

But that aforementioned new candidate that appeared on the Bulls radar, among a few other teams with head coach vacancies at the moment, is the now former Oklahoma City Thunder and Florida Gators head coach Billy Donovan. The Thunder officially parted ways with Donovan after five seasons with the franchise earlier this week.

The move to part ways with Donovan seemingly came after the Thunder fell short, as the five-seed, in the first round of the playoffs in a thrilling seven-game series at the hands of the four-seed Houston Rockets. Nonetheless, Donovan still did one of the better head coaching jobs of any around the NBA this season.

Entering the 2019-20 season, the Thunder were not commonly predicted as a team to make the playoffs in the Western Conference. But largely thanks to the efforts of Donovan and veteran star point guard Chris Paul, the Thunder were one of the surprise teams in the West and made the playoffs as a five-seed.

With Donovan now on the open market, it would make a lot of sense for the Bulls to see what he could bring to the table for them as their next head coaching hire. According to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, the Bulls are interested in looking into what Donovan has to offer them. And it looks like other teams are going to be interested in pursuing his candidacy as head coach too.

Here’s more on what Cowley had to say on the matter in this piece from the Sun-Times.

"The search for a Bulls head coach took on some intrigue late Tuesday night, when Oklahoma City announced they were parting ways with Donovan after five seasons.Multiple reports indicated that the Bulls would have interest in Donovan, and a source on Wednesday confirmed that they indeed do.The good news? Donovan would be the most successful candidate in the pool with NBA head coaching experience. The bad news? Since when does Bulls ownership put the stamp of approval on the obvious, especially when it comes to head coaching hires.What Bulls fans can rest easier with, however, is this offseason has definitely been a Michael Reinsdorf production, and that means the COO putting his trust in the executive vice president of basketball operations that he hired months ago."

There are clear positives and negatives to the Bulls pursuing Donovan to be their next head coach. Donovan didn’t get the Thunder past the first round of the playoffs beyond the 2015-16 season. And there’s going to be a lot of competition in all likelihood to hire him over teams with other head coach job openings.

Donovan finished up his five season run with the Thunder with a record of 243-157 (.608 winning percentage) in the regular season, and 18-23 (.439 winning percentage) in the playoffs. He pushed the Thunder to a solid record of 44-28 this season.

The Bulls finished the 2019-20 season with a record of 22-43, and finished in 11th place in the Eastern Conference standings. Boylen finished up two season run as the Bulls head coach with a record of 39-84.